Jamie Carragher has called on Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy to be more decisive in the transfer market to take his club to the next level.
The Sky Sports pundit praised Levy for helping transform Spurs over the last decade from underachievers to Champions League regulars but claimed Levy’s negotiating skills mean so many quality and affordable players slip through the net.
He called for a change of policy from the Spurs chief if Tottenham are to develop into title challengers under Mauricio Pochettino.
“They have signed good players to improve the squad, but there have been no deals to make their rivals think ‘wow’,” Carragher told the Daily Telegraph. “Certainly not when you compare what Liverpool did when they recruited Virgil Van Dijk and Alisson.
“Players they could have signed by spending more – like Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum, Harry Maguire and Jack Grealish – did not arrive. This was not because they were overpriced or Spurs could not afford them.
“Levy relishes his reputation as the Premier League’s toughest negotiator, which is sometimes enhanced by pulling out of deals as much as completing them.”
OPINION
Spurs were certainly strongly linked with Mane and Wijnaldum before they joined Liverpool in the summer of 2016, Maguire before he headed to Leicester City ahead the start of last season and Grealish inthe most recent window. Would all four have improved Spurs’ squad? Definitely. A regular excuse made for Tottenham’s lack of significant transfer activity is that potential targets would not be an improvement on those already at Mauricio Pochettino’s disposal. Well, that’s not true. None of Mane, Wijnaldum, Maguire and Grealish cost more than £40million and three of the four would certainly be regulars in the Tottenham starting XI. Grealish would be a brilliant asset to have on the substitute’s bench, at the very least, and bring on to terrorise tiring defenders. Carragher’s point chimes with that regularly made by Spurs fans, who appreciate Levy’s brinkmanship and desire to get the club the best possible deal. Every time. But there is a strong sense that the Londoners are moving on to a new level, where ambition and decisiveness is needed.