Tottenham’s winless run continued after their recent 1-0 loss against Bayer Leverkusen. Mauricio Pochettino is struggling for answers as the crisis at Spurs deepens, but Rio Ferdinand seems to have found a reason for the crisis. The former Manchester United defender says that the club are paying the price for the lack of any headline-making signings in the summer.
After a third place finish in the league last season, Spurs spent £70 million in the summer on players like Vincent Janssen, Victor Wanyama, Moussa Sissoko, and Georges-Kevin N’Koudou. This was despite being linked with high-profile names like Alexandre Lacazette. Ferdinand feels that Spurs should have gone out and made a statement in the summer rather than sign players who could essentially the viewed as squad members. On his London Evening Standard column, he said:
“Tottenham are not winning enough games this season and one of the reasons why is the signings they made in the summer.
“The club spent £68m on Victor Wanyama, Moussa Sissoko, Vincent Janssen and Georges-Kevin N’Koudou.
“It is still early in their careers at Spurs and they obviously have talent. But if I was at a rival club, none of those buys would have scared me.”
Ferdinand won several titles with Manchester United while playing for one of the greatest managers, Sir Alex Ferguson. The Scot made it a habit of signing top players just after the win big. This tactic was likely to keep the squad on their toes even after the major victory. After having learned from the best in the business, Ferdinand says that Spurs should have capitalized on the excellent campaign and brought in a headline name just to make the squad fear for their positions and to put fear into the opposition.
One of the reasons for Spurs being pragmatic in the transfer window may be the brand-new stadium, which is expected to cost in the region of £600-£700 million. It is a massive investment, and Arsenal struggled with a similar sort of investment a decade ago. The heavy interest payments meant that the gunners were unable to compete for the best in the transfer window. The benefits of the massive 60,000 seater stadium are only being felt by Arsenal in recent seasons.
Spurs may even have struggled to spend the £70 million had it not been for the new television deal. As of now, all of the club’s summer signings have struggled to make much of an impact apart from Victor Wanyama.
Despite being winless in the last four league matches, Spurs can take comfort from the fact that their rivals have also been dropping points of late. The club remains only three points behind table leaders Manchester City, but the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea remain in contention for the title. Even with this poor run, Spurs have been able to put a breathing distance between them and Manchester United, who were seen as a competitor for the top four spots even though their difficult run.
