OPINION
Tottenham would be pushing Manchester City all the way if they had pushed through deals for four big-name players they tried to sign over the last two years.
Jamie Carragher claimed in his Daily Telegraph column today that the north Londoners worked on transfers for Sadio Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum, Harry Maguire and Jack Grealish but were unable to push them over the finish line.
Even Pep Guardiola would be sweating in the title race had Spurs managed to beat Liverpool to the captures of speed machine Mane and midfield controller Wijnaldum in the summer of 2016, not to mention World Cup centre-back star Maguire a year later and then Aston Villa sensation Grealish in the most recent window.
All four would add new dimensions to the Spurs squad that has remained so stable, and static, in recent seasons.
Mane would walk into the starting XI, Maguire and Wijnaldum would be regular starters, while Grealish would be a brilliant option able to create mayhem as a weapon from the substitute’s bench.
Expert pundit Carragher blames a lack of ambition and decisiveness from the Tottenham board, led by chairman Daniel Levy, for the failure to rejuvenate the squad to a title-challenging level in the last two years.
“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.”
A fair point from Carragher.
Certainly, Spurs fans will be concerned that their club are raking in big profits every year and failing to invest in the transfer market, with a fallow summer window providing an unwanted Premier League record.
Had the team been strengthened as it might, they would surely be breathing down City’s neck all the way through to next May rather than limiting themselves to a top-four finish.