Tottenham’s agreement with an outside London-based company might net Daniel Levy millions.
It’s difficult to criticize Tottenham Hotspur’s recent transfer dealings.
Ange Postecoglou’s summer recruitment effort has so far proven to be a masterclass in how to maneuver the transfer market. However, the spectacular work had begun in North London prior to the arrival of the Aussie from Celtic.
Spurs finished outside of the European spots in the Premier League last season, but agreements for Yves Bissouma (£25 million), Destiny Udogie (£15 million), and Cristian Romero (£42.5 million) suddenly look inspired, owing to the guidance of a manager who knows how to get a team ticking.
Add to that, in the summer just gone, Spurs welcomed Guglielmo Vicario (£17.2million), Micky van de Ven (£43million), Brennan Johnson (£47million) and James Maddison (40million) while Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro made their loan spells permanent for fees of £29.2million and £37.3million respectively.
According to Sky Sports, Spurs spent £212.3 million in the summer, but nearly half of that was offset by Harry Kane’s £100 million move to Bayern Munich.
Spurs’ net spending during Postecoglou’s first summer was believed to be £102.3 million.
Based on the club’s form this season and their current position in the Premier League, it was money well spent and totally worth it considering the disaster that happened in 2022/23.
The London Evening Standard claimed on Wednesday (22 November) that Tottenham’s recruitment is now being driven by statistics.
According to the newspaper’s website, Spurs have an arrangement with a “external London-based company” to help with their transfer deals, which is why such good recruits appear to have been brought in for bargain prices.
Pape Sarr is showing his value now after a £14.6million move from Metz in 2021 while Italian aces Vicario and Udogie were also brought in for less than £20million each.
The Evening Standard reports that the company Tottenham are working with “specialises in sports intelligence” but they also have “in-house” experts who put together shortlists of potential transfer targets for Postecoglou and the Spurs recruitment team to work with.
For anyone who’s seen the film Moneyball, it’s essentially a football version of that where Spurs are signing players not necessarily because they are big names costing big bucks. But players who are standing out in the world of numbers, algorithms and xG.
Brighton have become the envy of the Premier League for the way they have worked in the transfer window in recent seasons.
Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister and Kaoru Mitoma cost them a combined £15million and while Mitoma is still playing at the AMEX, Caicedo and Mac Allister have brought in a whopping ten times that amount (£150million) between them.
Daniel Levy will no doubt be licking his lips at this prospect.
Spurs are outsourcing a good deal of transfer ‘groundwork’ to an outside company and one mega-money deal like those two Brighton deals would no doubt pay them for their services for decades to come.
So far, it’s so good for Tottenham working with this model but it’s not just down to unearthing unheard-of players from Empoli, Metz and Wolfsburg. The right manager has to be at the helm to guide them in the right direction, get them to gel together and instil a money-can’t-buy spirit into their souls.
Postecoglou is currently doing that and he’ll worth way more to Tottenham than Caicedo did to Chelsea if he’s able to reproduce a deal just like that one for the North Londoners.
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