Tottenham Hotspur defender Kieran Trippier will be like a new signing for the club, feels former midfielder Jermaine Jenas.
Tottenham Hotspur failed to sign a single player in the summer transfer window, meaning Mauricio Pochettino will go with the same squad as he had last season.
Failure to bring in fresh reinforcements saw Pochettino and Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy come under heavy criticism as our club became the first top-flight outfit since 2003 to not sign anyone during the off-season.
That being said, Spurs, however, have managed to retain the core players, with Harry Kane and Pochettino signing new contracts. Additionally, Kieran Trippier has come into the Spurs team following a fantastic World Cup campaign with England, and Jenas reckons that the right-back has returned to Tottenham as a “completely different” prospect.
“What signings do, when they come into the dressing room, is you look at each other and think ‘we’ve got one here’ it creates excitement and you raise your game a little bit,” Jenas told 90Min Football.
“They haven’t had that, but what they do have, is what I would consider a completely different Kieran Trippier, a different version of Kieran Trippier, a Kieran Trippier who was a very good player, whereas now you’ve got Kieran Trippier walking in the room, being talked about with Real Madrid and Barcelona, confident.
“It’s no different to being able to keep hold of Mauricio [Pochettino], Harry [Kane] signing a new deal, there were a lot more wins in keeping the squad of players together, I honestly think that’s what got them through that first game. If they’d had a lot of changes, they probably would have drew or got beaten.”
Tripper has really risen to prominence over the past few years, having joined Tottenham from Burnley in the summer of 2015. He was a force going forward for England in the World Cup and has returned as a much-proved player.
Read more: Jersey number taken away: Tottenham set to offload £25,000-a-week striker before European deadline
Trippier’s goal against Fulham yesterday is an example of how important he is at Tottenham. He is set to turn 28 in September, however, so Trippier will be entering the peak years of his career.
Spurs have a history of selling our players at peak value but we should simply avoid doing so from now.