Pochettino: I ALREADY need new signings so January is crucial for Tottenham

When the transfer windows arrive, Tottenham fans generally know what to expect – a quiet January and then a summer where many of the deals are left until the final days.

Spurs have not signed any senior players in the winters of 2016 or 2017. And, during the latest close season, they waited until the very last week of August – after the campaign had begun – to bring in their five new men.

That seemed to be part of a pre-arranged transfer policy. In July, when Spurs were the only Premier League club not to have signed anyone, Pochettino told supporters: “We have a plan.”

It appeared that Tottenham, unable to compete with the financial power of their top-six rivals, had decided to wait until their foes had secured their primary targets before moving themselves, rather than getting into expensive and probably fruitless bidding wars.

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When they landed highly-rated Ajax centre-back Davinson Sanchez, followed by Serge Aurier and then Fernando Llorente, it seemed their waiting game had paid off.

However, Pochettino is now painting a different picture. Indeed, it is clear that the delay in Spurs’ recruitment spree caused him frustration and has continued to give him problems ever since.

While Sanchez quickly became a first-team regular, Aurier and Llorente have taken rather longer to find their feet in north London – and Spurs’ manager largely puts that down to their late arrivals.

He has now revealed the club initially planned to move quickly in the summer market, only to be foiled.

Pochettino is now hoping for prompter action in 2018, particularly since it is a World Cup year.

And, while he sees little value in bringing in new faces this January, the Argentinian does see the upcoming window as an opportunity to secure the signatures of players who could boost his squad next term – just like when Tottenham snapped up Dele Alli at the start of 2015 and loaned him back to MK Dons for the rest of the season.

“It’s so difficult to find the right profile to add in this moment, in January, that can help you to achieve what you want,” said Pochettino.

“I think to be more realistic, it’s so important today to identify your targets for next season, for summer – because if not, if we wait until May when the season finishes, and we sell before signing, it’s so difficult to bring players that can help.

“This season I think was a very good example. We signed good players but it was so late, with no pre-season, and then you pay, because you need maybe six or seven months for the players to be fit, to adapt themselves in the team and dynamic, and that is always against us.

“The most important thing, and we’ve been talking a little bit, is to identify our targets and then on July 3 when we start pre-season they are here, because if not it’s so difficult for them to affect the team and help the team, and then during the season you are going to pay for that situation.

“[What Manchester City did in the summer] is a good example. Of course we cannot compare with City. But yes, maybe with a different approach and strategy, we need to do similar, to have similar ideas.

“Maybe we need to sign players in January and bring [them later], [to sign them] six months before, because if not, if we are going to compete in the same period with City, United, Liverpool or Chelsea, we are going to struggle to bring the players that we want.

“Dele Alli is a very good example, that you need to anticipate – and today we are a club that needs to anticipate. We cannot be reactive, because if we are we are going to lose.”

Pochettino continued: “We tried to [move quickly] last season, the same. We could not, for different reasons. But now we are going to try again to do it early.

“I think you know, like me, the pre-season is so important. It’s also true that next summer is so difficult because it’s the World Cup. When it’s a World Cup, you cannot wait because you need to do some business before.

“It’s an earlier deadline, and you need to be clever. Sometimes if you want to do business when the World Cup is finished, some players that were maybe down here, after a good World Cup they are up here, and then you say (waving goodbye) ‘forget it’.”

A third successive top-four finish may help Spurs lure players to north London next year, but ultimately money talks in the Premier League and the Lilywhites are not at the top of the pecking order – something Pochettino is acutely aware of.

Asked whether it is important for Tottenham to be able to offer Champions League football, he said: “You have the very good example. Last season, how did we finish? Second. And we attracted?” He paused for an answer. “We attracted?”

When a reporter answered “Davison Sanchez”, Pochettino responded: “We attract a 21-year-old.”

Targets

Tottenham are also having to consider the nationality of their targets these days.

Spurs can only register 17 foreigners (or non-‘locally trained’ players) in their Champions League squad. And, because Eric Dier and Ben Davies came through academies in Portugal and Wales, they take up two of those spots.

As a result, Pochettino had to leave both Erik Lamela and Vincent Janssen off the list of players registered for the group stage. Janssen has since gone on loan to Fenerbahce but, as it stands, one foreigner will still have to be omitted from the squad for the knockout stages.

It means homegrown recruits are more attractive than overseas signings for Spurs.

“Yes of course, we are restricted,” said Pochettino. “Now we are so focused on trying to bring more English players through the academy, or if we don’t have this profile, trying in the English market to take advantage and try to add more English players here.”

Pochettino can recall Josh Onomah from his loan spell at Aston Villa – food for thought given Victor Wanyama has been out of action with a knee injury since August and does not yet have a return date.

“Yes, we can bring him back, but we don’t decide anything,” said Pochettino. “We have the possibility to bring again Cameron [Carter-Vickers] from Sheffield United, and Josh.”

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