Following on from last night’s disappointing penalty defeat to Chelsea in the EFL Cup semi-final, Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has stated that the club are working on potential January captures, but again stated we wouldn’t be ‘forced’ into completing transfers given the injury situation at the club.
Although we have welcomed a couple of players back from injury, our major losses are obviously Harry Kane and Dele Alli and with us not adding a fresh face over the summer, Pochettino told Sky Sports that whilst the club are working on new captures, he maintains his faith in our youth setup and the first team squad we have, so if somebody doesn’t tick all of the right boxes, we won’t be adding them for the sake of it.
“I always say I am more than open to add players to the squad. That is so clear. A different thing is if we can find the right player that is going to help us improve. We are working on a few options. We will see if we are able to deliver. We have one space now Mousa Dembele has gone. There’s two different things. One thing is to try to improve our squad with the right profile. Another thing is if you have some problems with players who are injured, and you try to replace them. We are going to sign if we identify the player that can improve us. We are not going to sign because we have some injuries. We have enough players to cover injuries. Of course, if you win, OK. But if you don’t win, maybe you need a different way to operate.”
In fairness, I’m not sure there’s anything new in Poch’s words really. It’s the same line he’s always trotted out when not having a little bit of fun with the press, and most fans will have assumed that letting Mousa Dembele move on means we already have a couple of options in terms of a replacement, so even if we don’t ‘add’ to the group, a Dembele replacement is the least most expect.
Whether that replacement arrives this month or next summer is open to debate though.