Tottenham have been encouraged by the performances of Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall in the pre-season

Tottenham Hotspur have been planning a mass clearout in the summer transfer window and replacing the fringe stars with fresh blood in the squad.

The north London club released Ryan Sessegnon and Tanguy Ndombele earlier this summer while Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Emerson Royal have been sold to Marseille and AC Milan, respectively. There are also high chances of Giovani Lo Celso leaving the club before the transfer window amid interest from Aston Villa and Real Betis.

Spurs are now set to offload another midfielder to free up space in the squad. They have accepted a fee of £20m plus £5m in add-ons for Oliver Skipp from newly promoted Leicester City. He has passed his medical exams, and Tottenham and Leicester City are currently exchanging all documents to complete the deal for Skipp.

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The decision to move on Skipp may not have gone down well among certain sections of the fanbase, considering he is an academy product and this season could have been the one where he finally explodes in the first team. Plus, his exit further reduces the homegrown options in Ange Postecoglou’s squad.

However, there appears to be a concrete reason behind Spurs making that tough decision. According to a report from The Standard, Tottenham have taken the decision to sell Skipp to the Foxes partly due to the promising signs shown by summer signings Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall in the pre-season tour.

Lucas Bergvall officially joined the north London club earlier this summer after agreeing on a five-year contract from Allsvenskan club Djurgarden in February, with Archie Gray arriving from Championship side Leeds United at the start of July.

Bergvall and Gray, both 18, have done enough in the pre-season tour to convince Ange Postecoglou that the club doesn’t need to spend on a new No.6 to replace Skipp. As a result, the aforementioned report claims that the Lilywhites are now not considering the No.6 position as a priority in the last 10 days of the transfer window.

With Yves Bissouma suspended for the season-opener against Leicester City over the laughing gas incident, Postecoglou could hand Gray his competitive debut for Spurs on Monday. It looks like Postecoglou and his coaching staff have immense faith in the talented duo that has seen the club seemingly abandon signing a replacement for Skipp.

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Both Gray and Bergvall are very young players but perhaps have shown enough promise to suggest that they are ready to be integral members of the Tottenham side coached by Postecoglou. While we will miss Skipp, fans are excited to see the two teenagers grow and become key pieces in Postecoglou’s XI. However, we must not have lofty expectations from them in their debut seasons in north London.