Tottenham Hotspur have signed some players.
I’m going to leave that sentence up there on its own so that I can savour it in the same way that I imagine a man who has been shipwrecked on a desert island for 18 months must savour his first chance of using a fully functioning toilet post-rescue. After all, that is how long it has been since Spurs last decided to make an addition to their squad, a decision that has once again seen us squander excellent opportunities for silverware.
The first confirmed signing this morning was Leeds youngster Jack Clarke a player who is hardly likely to be pulling up trees in the Premier League anytime soon having played just a handful of games in the Championship last year. Indeed, his CV is so stunted that even the obligatory highlights clip I watched of him last week on youtube (you know the ones that make every player look good!) appears to include games played for Leeds youth team in a park somewhere in Yorkshire.
That being said the lad obviously has some potential and it’s encouraging that he is coming from Leeds, a team coached by Pochettino’s mentor and close friend Marcelo Bielsa. I’ve previously read articles where Poch talks about how he judge’s player potential based on a lot of the same factors that Bielsa does so let’s hope that this is genuinely a transfer that will eventually lead to an improvement in the playing staff at Spurs and is not just another addition to the balance book as so many young English players appear to be for Premier League teams at the moment.
I say eventually because the 18-year-old will initially go back on loan to Leeds for the 2019/20 season. It’s a tactic that has worked reasonably well for Spurs in the past given that they did the same with Kyle Walker when he was signed from Sheffield United and Delle Alli after his transfer from MK Dons and whatever you may think of those 2 players they did at least manage to secure first-team places when they eventually joined up with the squad.
The other breaking news is that Tanguy Ndombele is heading to Tottenham from Lyon for around 60million Euros. There had been mounting speculation in the media for some weeks now about the midfielder's future but I always take what I read online at this time of year with a hearty pinch of salt. However, as time passed, the ducks began to line-up with Lyon signing a replacement for the lad and sources stating he underwent a medical at Spurs on Monday before putting pen to paper this afternoon.
Personally, I see this as a pretty exciting signing and while we’ve been burned in the past by getting players from inferior European leagues, it is a big plus that this guy played and performed very well for Lyon in the Champions League last year on top of his game time in Ligue 1. He is exactly the type of player that we have needed since the demise and eventual departure of Moussa Dembele - a midfielder who can break-up play and help us quickly transistion from defence to attack.
These 2 signings are a least by Tottenham standards very prompt pieces of business from a club and chairman who generally like to take brinkmanship to whole other level. Therefore, the hope is that Pochettino’s continual leaks to the media over the last few months that amount to a "back me or lose me" type plea are finally having an effect on Levy.
Rumours continue to surface about Christian Eriksen being offered to Real Madrid and that the Dane has been spotted house hunting in the Spanish capital. My feeling is that Madrid are probably focused on trying to get Pogba from United at this point and might only consider Eriksen if a deal can't be closed for the Frenchman. As such, I would be surprised to see any other big signings heading into Spurs until we've sold anyone which means that Levy will be back to his old tricks of leaving it until the last minute. I am more than happy to be proved wrong ..........
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