What Needs Have Spurs Addressed in the Summer Transfer Window?

Do we have the squad for this season's demands?

I don’t believe in transfer window ‘ratings,’ but I do think it’s a valuable exercise to check in on where we ended up in light of where I thought we’d need strengthening back in July. Here’s a quick summary of what I think have been our most pressing personnel needs:

• left-sided defender

• wider range of midfield passing profiles

And here are a few more needs that have arisen, in my view, since I wrote my last transfer-window check-in post in July:

• depth in the creative / attacking midfield role (since we’ve now lost both Maddison and Deki long-term to injury)

• goals and chance creation from wide forward roles (since we’ve lost Son to LAFC)

• depth at striker (since Solanke’s ankle injury appears to be more persistent than initially thought)

Defensive Needs

Although we’ve brought in two young center backs in Vuskokvic and Takai, we’ve loaned out the former while the latter has been injured. Dragusin remains out with a long-term knee injury, leaving Spurs looking worryingly light in defensive personnel.

Given Spence’s emergence and versatility, the fullback trio of Spence, Porro, and Udogie is a solid base depth-wise and one of the most exciting groups of fullbacks in the Premier League. Spurs could weather an injury to any one of these three players and still have outstanding fullback options, but what concerns me is the prospect of any two of our fullbacks getting injured. I’m reasonably comfortable with Gray deputizing as a right-sided fullback and Davies as a left-sided fullback for a short period, but not more.

Similarly, the center back trio of Romero, van de Ven, and Danso inspires confidence and, when fit, is also one of the league’s best core CB groups. But should any two of those three suffer simultaneous injury, we’re currently without any further CB cover. Davies might be OK as a left-sided CB in a back 3, though, as I wrote about extensively last season, I don’t think he’s either a true CB or up to the level Spurs require in a hyper-competitive Premier League and Champions League.

Last season, Spurs were among the best 5 defenses in the Premier League with their starting back line, and among the worst 5 with Gray, Davies, and Dragusin slotted in for long stretches of the season. I shouldn’t have to keep making this point, but losing our starting defenders for all but roughly 10 out of 60 games last season and replacing our CBs with non-CBs playing out of position is the reason we finished 17th last season.

It would extremely foolish—particularly as we’re in the Champions League now—to leave open the possibility of that happening again. Likewise, I would not bet on the manager change having any impact on how many injuries we sustain, especially as so far Spurs have already played a high line under Frank that has us sprinting back to chase balls played over the top.

In terms of defensive cover, then, I can understand why we haven’t brought in a left-sided defender, perhaps someone who could play as a CB and FB in a pinch, given that we have Takai and Dragusin on the roster, though injured. Should those two recover well and before we sustain any further injuries to our defensive players, we could be OK. But this is one area of the squad that still leaves me feeling nervous.

Midfield Needs

With Maddison likely out for most if not all of this season, and Deki also out long-term through autumn, Spurs were pretty desperate for an attacking midfielder who could create multiple ways, through passing as well as ball-carrying, 1v1 dribbling, and goal threat. Kudus can do some of that and could certainly function as a 10 as needed, but I think is strongest on the wing. For this reason, signing Simons was a major victory. It’s always tough to know how a player from Europe will adjust to the particular brand of pace and physicality in the Premier League, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some reservations about Simons’ tendency to agitate for a move rather quickly wherever he goes. But with his ability to dribble, pass, and finish, and his inventiveness and daring, I think he’ll be a phenomenal player for Spurs.

With the addition of Simons, then, Spurs are suddenly looking good in the advanced midfield role. Once Deki and eventually Maddison come back, Simons can also play on the left wing, so the possibilities are pretty tantalizing.

But Spurs still lack a bit of passing in the midfield squad, particularly long-range passing from deeper positions. The ball-carrying and dribbling profiles we’ve been stocking up on will help a bit with that issue—there’s more than one way to progress the ball, but especially if we part ways with Bissouma (who could still go to Galatasaray, with still more time left in the Turkish transfer window), our midfield looks a little flat in terms of ball progression. The upside is that Bergvall may just continue to improve and acclimate, and his ball-progression abilities are there to see.

Many have said that what Spurs really needed in the midfield was strong defensive cover. I didn’t see that as quite as high a priority as passing and ball-progression. The addition of Palhinha is certainly good for the former, though not so good for the latter (as we saw last weekend against Bournemouth). That said, Palhinha is among the best at the particular thing he does, and if doing that thing (ball-winning, breaking up play, aerial duels, being a menace) frees up Simons, Maddison, Deki, etc. to advance, that’s a good thing. I’m all for a well-rounded midfield squad with lots of options.

Forward Needs

As mentioned, the addition of Kudus is crucial and adds ball-retention, hold-up play, 1v1 dribbling, chance creation and—I hope—goal threat on an order we didn’t have before on the right side. And with Son departing for LA, Spurs will certainly need to recoup his 15-20 goal contributions (minimum) per season.

Accordingly, I hadn’t identified the left wing as an area of particular need when Son was still in the squad, but it’s a bit more pressing now. That’s not to say Odobert and Tel can’t step up, or that Johnson can’t be valuable on the left—indeed, this is a great opportunity for all of them—but if we don’t have consistent goal contributions and threat from the left wing by January, we should be looking for it then.

That leaves only the need for cover in the striker role, given that Richarlison—our only healthy out-and-out striker so far this season—has a rough track record of injuries, and that Solanke has been out injured all season so far. We know that Tel can play through the middle, though we lose crucial stickiness and hold-up play without Solanke and to a lesser extent Richarlison in the team. For this reason, and others, I’m very excited that Spurs have brought in Kolo Muani, who maybe suffers from a case of inflated expectations from earlier in his career, but who’s now prime age and can really do it all. He’s strong, physical, fast, technically gifted, great 1v1, and an excellent finisher (despite that one, er, high-profile miss).

Last season for Juventus, Kolo Muani played in 16 games, started 13, and scored 8 goals (with 1 assist). We could wax nostalgic about his world-beating performances at Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022-23 (26 goals in 50 appearances), but it’s worth pointing out that he’s scored 10 in 22 appearances for Juve most recently, about the same ratio as the season that made him PSG’s record signing at the time.

Conclusions

In terms of our attacking and midfield needs, this has been a very strong window. Spurs have continued to build on a good foundation in these two areas of the pitch, only to be throttled by serious injuries to two of our best players in Maddison and Deki and the loss of our talisman, Son, to LAFC. Still, bringing in the likes of Kudus and Simons is not only, as they say, excellent business, but will go a long way to giving Spurs the creative dynamism they need to stay competitive.

That said, the relative lack of depth in the back line—put more precisely, the level of drop-off after our best 3 CBs and FBs—risks a repeat of last season should any two CBs or FBs suffer simultaneous, long-term injury. Maybe we’ll be lucky this year—we certainly deserve it after last year—and it won’t be a problem. But for me that’s where we’ve fallen short in the summer window.