So far, Tottenham Hotspur is the only club in the Premier League that hasn’t signed a player this summer. Despite manager Mauricio Pochettino’s claim that he doesn’t expect any new additions at Tottenham, reports in England suggest that Tottenham are the favorites to sign left-back Ben Davies from Swansea City.
The 21-year-old has been being tracked by Liverpool, but it is believed that the player has been swayed by a move to Spurs because of Pochettino’s playing style and the promise of first-team football.
Davies signed a one-year contract extension last season and has made 71 appearances with Swansea since 2012-13. The left-back also has 10 international caps for Wales.
Speculation in the British media is that Swansea are prepared to accept an offer of £8m ($13.7m) from Tottenham for the player.
Although this wouldn’t be considered a ‘big’ signing, Davies would fill a need at the club. Last season, centre-back Jan Vertonghen had to fill in at left-back for long stretches due to the injured Danny Rose.
Whether or not Tottenham sign Ben Davies, the club’s transfer activity this summer is bound to be impacted by what happened last August.
Last summer, Tottenham Hotspur shelled out roughly £100million ($170m) on seven players in an attempt to counteract the sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.
Unfortunately, the end results were Spurs firing Andre Villas-Boas before Christmas, replacing him with Tim Sherwood, the club finishing in sixth place in the Premier League (they finished fifth in Bale’s last season) and ultimately replacing Sherwood in May with Mauricio Pochettino.
The feeling around White Hart Lane is that a number of last summer’s signings didn’t pay off.
But Spur’s new boss believes that he has everything he needs in order to lead the club up the Premier League table.
When asked if the club was going to make any moves during the transfer window, the 42-year-old Argentinian manager said, “Not many.”
He went on to say: “We have a very good and big squad. Last summer the club made a big effort during the window and I believe in these players. We are always looking to improve but we don’t expect big change.”
Tottenham are preparing to play a pre-season match in Seattle on Saturday evening and the former Southampton manager stated that his first responsibility is to establish his philosophy at the North London club.
“It’s a different club to Southampton. Tottenham is a bigger club and we need to win, but not only win, we need to create a good philosophy. Our philosophy is exciting football, pressing attacking football.”
