Spurs reshape their roster as they cash in on youth academy investments, bring in heavy artillery for a Champions League run
Scott McTominay's injury in the Champions League Final a few months ago was a big what-if for Spurs fan as they fell short of winning a proper European Treble.
Three months later, McTominay might not even be part of Spurs' top eleven.
The acquisition of Eduardo Camavinga, and to a lesser extent Hugo Larssen, has completely revamped Spurs' midfield situation and they've done a like-for-life swap at left back with Valentin Barco's move to Real Madrid, another example of their youth movement under Kwamele Owusu paying off, paving the way for the purchase of Piero Hincapie.
Spurs sold €255.36 million worth of players this summer to offset the €347.72 million they spent on transfer fees. While Barco makes up a big chunk of that, they were able to off-load players such as Kevin Danso (€24.9m) to United, Alex Scott (€39.5m) to Dortmund and Pape Matar Sarr (€30.5m) to Brentford. Players that were key pieces of the last two league title runs but with Spurs looking to aim for Champions League hardware instead of domestic cups, which they've won them all, it was time to elevate the roster.
We also saw the sale of twelve former academy graduates who broke through the first team under Owusu. A few such as Frankie Stevenson (Leicester), Andy Lawrence (Swansea), Obafemi Nkrumah (Hull City), Kennedy Ojukwu (Coventry City), Abraham Moyo (Portsmouth), Tyler Matthews (Wrexham) and Ryan Howe (Stoke City) remain within English football and while none of the twelve were sold for big figures, they added up for €43.2 million between them.
Beyond all of those numbers, however, this year will be about completing the Owusu project that started four years ago. They've gone from bottom of the league, to a top six side, to champions of England and are now knocking on the door of being champions of Europe.
Goalkeepers No. 1 • Konstantinos Tzolakis • Age 25 • 87 OVR No. 12 • Jack Clark • Age 19 • 73 OVR No. 31 • Ewan Jeffery • Age 18 • 69 OVR Loan • Kai Butcher • Age 19 • 70 OVR