Which areas should Tottenham Hotspur strengthen over the January transfer window? Mauricio Pochettino has kept his cards close to his chest, playing down any major re-structuring. Pochettino is absolutely right to keep the changes to a minimum, but what could these minor changes include?
Harry Kane needs some support and, by bringing in a striker, Spurs could be making a shrewd investment indeed. Last season, Kane did a fantastic job, yet his start to the new season wasn’t as promising and cried out for a striker to support him. Son Heung-Min took the role before he was struck by injury after promising to be a good alternative to Kane. It’s important not to take away any game time for the current Spurs strikers, yet it’s important that the club has three quality strikers to rely upon. Indeed, there has been a lack of depth in the striking department for the last few seasons, but now Spurs need some options more than ever in their realistic aim of reaching the Champions League.
Who should be targeted? One suggestion could be Odion Ighalo, who has created 15 goals for Watford to date and would undoubtedly score more amongst the likes of Christian Eriksen and Mousa Dembélé. The downfall of this transfer may be in the price tag, though; Watford would likely inflate his fee because he is a very important player for them. Ironically, Leandro Damião is now available as a free agent, but Spurs will need to look for greater quality than that. Any in-form striker that Spurs want to bring in is going to come with a hefty price tag, which is why Daniel Levy is unlikely to purchase a new striker in the transfer window.
@Wizward another striker – Ighalo would be perfect ? Townsend + Fazio out. Promote Onomah, bring in a senior CB for cover
— Alex O’Neill (@Oneillerz84) December 13, 2015
January is the month for Spurs to clear out some of the deadwood. Federico Fazio has been kicking his heels; his only appearances seem to be at Hotspur Way. It would make sense to offload him so that Spurs can add some funds to Levy’s padlocked wallet – an extra few million helping to pursue that all-elusive striker. What about Andros Townsend? The academy graduate has completely fallen down the pecking order, so much so that he now faces departure. It would be a sad end to a hard-working professional’s term at Spurs, who is unlikely to go out on loan for the ninth time and who will perform well at a lower ranked Premier League team. Does either of these players need to be replaced? Kevin Wimmer has already replaced Fazio, yet without Fazio, Spurs would only have three centre-backs and Eric Dier. This does allow for likes of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Christian Maghoma to push into the first team when they are ready, which is very important.
How else can Pochettino’s Tottenham strengthen? Strength is founded on stability and, therefore, Pochettino must continue to promote youth players as he has been doing. Joshua Onomah made his first start against Monaco in the Europa League and looked powerful and quite promising. It’s counterintuitive to just throw him into the Premier League headfirst; instead, slowly integrating him with continued substitute appearances will be invaluable to his development. If Spurs are to have another player to call their own, there cannot be too much investment in January as there simply will not be enough game time for them. A case point is Chelsea’s policy of buying up loads of talent youth players, before having a second squad out on loan, which is both greedy and wasteful of the players’ potentials. Tottenham invest and nurture their youth players and this must continue.
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