Users who appreciate crap classic cinema will recognize the thumbnail for this blog as the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Jingle All the Way - the story of a father's madcap dash around town on Christmas Eve, trying to get his son the gift that he really wants to prevent tears and tantrums come Christmas morning. This farcical situation mirrors Tottenham's own plight in this year's summer transfer window far too closely. The bottom line is that last-minute shopping rarely leaves you with what you really want and you inevitably end up paying more for an inferior product.

This has certainly been the case for Spurs when they have done business late in the transfer window as the 3 examples below clearly demonstrate.

Federico Fazio

A wonderful example of Spurs signing a decent enough player who simply didn't fit into the manager's system. Spurs desire to play a highline and compress the play in midfield didn't suit a man who had the turning speed of the Titanic. Of course in such circumstances individual errors tend to creep in which further damages a players confidence and only leads to more problems, it's a vicious circle. Fazio looked a little bit like Lurch from the Adams Family and he soon reverted to type by being big, strong but ultimately useless.

Not many defenders can stamp on 2 players ankles at the same time!

Original fee paid: £9million (26th August 2014)

Games played for Spurs: 32

Transfer out: £2.88million (17th July 2017)

Clinton N'Jie

My greatest fear as we head into the final week of the transfer window is that we end up with a 2nd rate player, from a 2nd rate league who adds absolutely nothing to the squad let alone the first 11. This is what happened when we signed Clinton N'Jie from Lyon in 2015. Is he a striker, is he a winger, is he an overpriced paperweight? Given he only made 14 appearances for Spurs in 2 years, most of which came in the dying minutes of games, it's difficult to tell what he was but it sure as hell wasn't a player who was going to take us to the next level

Enjoy the view Clinton because this is as close to the first team as you're going to get

Original fee paid: £12.69million (15th August 2015)

Games played for Spurs: 14

Transfer out: £6.3million (1st July 2017)

Georges-Kevin N'Koudou

Every club makes the odd bad signing but the issue that Spurs have beyond just bringing in the wrong players year-on-year is that it seems to take us an absolute age to get rid of them. After it was revealed that Spurs brand new stadium had heated chairs making N'Koudou's position as the club's official bench warmer redundant, he was told this summer to go and find a new team to steal a living from. Surprise surprise there aren't many takers because he simply isn't very good! Pochettino has squeezed every last drop of talent from his under-resourced squad but even he realizes that at 24-years-old N'Koudou isn't ever going to make the grade for a side that wants to consider itself as Champions League regulars but signs players who would struggle to make an impact for a team in the lower half of the EPL.

Nkoudo resembles a lost and frightened child and he plays like one too .........

Original fee paid: £9.9million (31st August 2016)

Games played for Spurs: 26

Transfer out: Current Market Value £4.5million

In all 3 examples Spurs were linked with and negotiating for better options earlier in the window but instead of signing the more suitable player at a higher cost and ensuring that they got a full pre-season under their belt with Pochettino, Levy's penny-pinching attitude towards the transfer market saw us sign 3 compromise players. The advantages of buying better quality aren't that difficult to comprehend. If I'm in the market for a vacuum cleaner then I know full well that buying the latest Dyson product is going to cost me but its performance is preferable to me purchasing a tube, duck taping it to mouth and trying to suck the dust from my carpet.

Levy Time has failed to deliver any advantage to Spurs. It has lost us 10s of millions of pounds and won the club diddly squat. Compare that to the way that sides like City and Liverpool have conducted their business in the last few seasons and you will see that they acquire the targets that their manager identifies for them and the manager in turn goes out and wins trophies! I can't tell you much about players like Lo Celso beyond what I've watched on youtube but if the manager thinks that this is the player that we need then shouldn't we back him to bring him even if it means paying slightly over the odds? Surely it's better than the paying too much for an inferior product that delivers nothing on the pitch......