The North London team have come on leaps and bounds in recent years and have reacted to losing star-player Gareth Bale in a positive fashion...
The dust is beginning to settle from the major shake up which saw three of the top four clubs change managers for the first time in the Premier League era, and Tottenham Hotspur are emerging more and more as genuine title contenders as the new look league begins to take form.
Tottenham have been living in the shadows of local rivals Arsenal since the inception of the Premier League, but this summer, Spurs spent in excess of £110 million in the wake of Gareth Bale’s departure– a staggering amount of money, which really states the club’s intentions at the highest level. It is the sort of summer spending spree that we have come to associate more with the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea, who by the way, both went on the win the league after major squad overhauls.
If Tottenham had a quality striker last season, instead of the anaemic Emmanuel Adebayor and the inconsistent Jermaine Defoe, the chances are they wouldn’t be playing in the Europa League on Thursday evenings this year. They would have in all likeliness, secured fourth spot long before the agony-ridden final day of the season. And what’s more, they would have pipped fierce rivals Arsenal to the much-coveted fourth Champions League spot. But, as we know, that’s not how it happened.
Not only have they bought a quality striker in Robert Soldado, but they have also added considerable quality in Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Paulinho. Spurs were a force to be reckoned with last season, and only missed out on a Champions League place because of Arsenal’s prolific late season form and their own dip in form.
All Spurs’ new signings seem to have settled well; Soldado earned Spurs six points in his first two outings for the club whilst Paulinho has two goals in his last two games; including a vital last-gasp winner last weekend, which took Spurs back into the top three.
Spurs’ shortcomings in recent seasons have included the failure to get consistent results against top teams and loosing concentration towards the end. They have already narrowly lost to Arsenal this season but they must put that behind them when Chelsea make the journey to North London on Saturday lunch-time; what better way to declare your title ambitions and show how your club is becoming a major force in the Premier League than Andre Villas-Boas beating his old master from Porto who is now managing his old team? Not many I should imagine.
Saturday also represents a chance for Spurs to go top of the league, albeit only for a short while in all likeliness, but it still represents massive progress for a club who finished in the bottom half of the table in the 2007-2008 season.
André Villas-Boas’ dealings in the transfer window have shown Spurs’ ambitions in the forth coming season; not only do they want to qualify for the Champions League, but they are also going strong enough to challenge for the title.
The early season front-runners, Liverpool and Arsenal, don’t have the strength in depth that is required to see out a 38 game season; however, Spurs, Manchester City and Chelsea do. Manchester United don’t appear to have the strength in depth, but that didn’t stop them last season.
They also have the mentality of champions imprinted on them by Sir Alex Ferguson. A rejuvenated Wayne Rooney, together with new signing Marouane Fellaini, look to be pushing United in the right direction, and, as always, they will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. Chelsea are having an early season wobble, and City look beatable.
The departure of Gareth Bale left Spurs in a financial position that allowed them to better their squad, which is exactly what they have done. Arguably, they have the best midfield – along with Chelsea and possibly Arsenal after the arrival of Mesut Özil – and a decent strike force, which makes them genuine title contenders. They were unlucky to lose 1-0 to Arsenal a couple of weeks ago, but then again they have lost that fixture 5-2 in two consecutive years prior to that.
The Spurs squad has benefited greatly from the sale of Gareth Bale thanks to Villas-Boas’ business in the transfer season; the silver lining, in this case, looks to have been bigger than the cloud.