Ange Postecoglou stands by decisions made by Tottenham during the summer transfer window as the team struggles for depth and sufficient rotation.
The line being repeated about Tottenham is that their transfers are ‘for now and for the future‘. This has been encapsulated by Spurs spending approximately €85m last summer on players under the age of 20.
Tottenham have the third youngest average squad age in the Premier League, which is a stance that is often lauded. Purchasing and developing talent early is considered a shrewd football business approach.
However, as Spurs have hit a rough patch of form, the lack of senior experience, exacerbated by a burgeoning injury crisis has brought scrutiny over whether their signings are too favoured for the future, ahead of the now.
Ange Postecoglou has restated his belief that Tottenham made the correct decisions in the transfer window.
When asked about spending on teenagers over senior players, he said (FootballLondon): “It is still the right decision and I own them [transfers] because I believe they are the right decisions for this club. I have said numerous times, I make these decisions with the kind of background that I’m going to be here for a while to see this through.
“To be honest, if I was worried about my own existence I would have fought tooth and nail to block Harry Kane leaving but it wasn’t the right decision for the club because he was in the last year of his contract. That is not what drives me. The decisions we made around signing young players are the right decisions for this club for where we are at right now and they will bear fruit.
“Yeah we have [lost experience] but we needed to do that. We needed to do that because it was a team that was coming towards the end of its cycle and we were rebuilding not just the squad but the playing style and you couldn’t replace experience with experience because that is not a rebuild. That is kind of topping up because you feel you are close to something and we weren’t close to anything.”
There is a tendency to compare clubs going through transitional periods, but Tottenham’s situation must be still appreciated as unique.
Ange Postecoglou has had three transfer windows to shape the squad, during which he has lost the club’s best player and reshaped the team hierarchy. They have made some senior additions in James Maddison, Guglielmo Vicario, Brennan Johnson and Dominic Solanke.
There was no error in stacking the squad with some of Europe’s most exciting talents. However, they still need to improve the team with some key profiles and squad depth which will lessen the strains of injuries hitting the team, while additionally giving these youth players the chance to develop.
This is an ongoing process and will likely take another 2 or 3 windows until it comes together. There will be mistakes along the way, but there is little value in retrospectively judging the past transfer window based on the injuries that have disrupted that squad since.
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