Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Michael Brown has been left fuming at Spurs’ transfer strategy after reports the north London side have agreed a deal for Wigan Athletic youngster Alfie Devine.
It has been claimed that Spurs have agreed to pay £500,000 to bring Devine to north London in the summer after Wigan suffered their financial troubles, leaving the Latics in no position to retain their sought-after rising star.
But Brown does not feel Tottenham needed to bolster their youth ranks, and instead believes his former side should have been focusing their efforts on adding proven talents to Jose Mourinho’s ranks ahead of next season.
“They’ve got a certain model, they develop players and sell them on – that won’t change at Spurs,” Brown told Football Insider.
“I just think the bracket was always that £10-20million player, now maybe up to £30million, that they’re happy to go and buy with future sell-on and future development.
“I said when they took on [Tanguy] Ndombele – which hasn’t worked out fully – they need more true and tested players and they just haven’t been able to recruit many of those, although they’ve tried.”
Who would you rather sign for the DM role next season?
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg
Geoffrey Kondogbia
Absolutely anyone else
Spurs are in a final day fight for European football with Mourinho’s men travelling to Crystal Palace knowing that anything but a win may resign them to a season without Europa League action, having already missed out on a Champions League place.
Failing to qualify for the Europa League may raise issues in the transfer market for Daniel Levy in any pursuit of ‘proven’ talents Brown would back signing, but suggesting Spurs have not done so in the past is wrong.
Tottenham have a proven talent in former Real Betis man Giovani Lo Celso and had a player who thrived in France with Olympique Lyonnais in Ndombele, but where Spurs let themselves down in the market was spending big on players like Ryan Sessegnon who have struggled to earn regular game time.
Spurs spent £25million to bring Sessegnon in from Fulham following their relegation, but the England U21 international has only featured in 11 games, of which seven have been starts, over what has been an injury disrupted campaign.