Friday, March 29, 2024

N’Koudou illustrates Tottenham’s problems in recruiting players

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According to Sky Sports, Tottenham’s young French winger Georges-Kevin N’Koudou is set to join Premier League rivals Burnley on loan for the rest of the season.

It seems like a sensible move for the 22-year-old, who has struggled to break into the Spurs starting eleven since arriving from Marseille in the summer of 2016. The youngster has made just one start this season in a 3-0 Champions League win over APOEL.

Hopefully, N’Koudou has a successful spell with the Clarets and returns to Spurs a better player. The deal seems to suit everybody involved at the minute.

Tottenham in a catch 22

Unfortunately, for Spurs N’Koudou’s situation illustrates their problems recruiting players. In the short cameos for Tottenham since his arrival, the winger has looked out of his depth, but shown flashes of raw ability.

However, he is nowhere near good enough to play for Tottenham on a regular basis. He will not get in the team ahead of Dele Alli, Christian Eriksson or Heung-Min Son. Even Moussa Sissoko is ahead of the Frenchman in the pecking order.

Tottenham have a very good first eleven and even 15 very good squad players. Some would argue that Tottenham’s starting eleven when all fit would give any team a game in European football. The perfect example of that were Spurs performances against European champions Real Madrid in the Champions League.

It is difficult for Spurs to add depth to their squad though, as players that may be good enough to get into the team are wary of joining the club because they may not get a game.

Spurs have to try to recruit younger players and players from the next group. However, they struggle to get into the starting eleven because they are not good enough and end up leaving the club. Prime examples of this are Kevin Wimmer, Clinton N’Jie and Vincent Janssen.

Tottenham will buy the best players

Tottenham have long been a very shrewd football club when it comes to transfer deals. They are not a club that will spend major money on players and certainly will not compete with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City or Manchester United when it comes to signing players.

They have tried to challenge for the Premier League title in recent seasons on a small budget compared to most of their rivals. However, they have fallen short. Quite simply Tottenham have hit the glass ceiling.

Even with the highly rated Mauricio Pochettino at the helm, Tottenham are not likely title contenders. A lack of strength-in-depth has hampered their previous title challenges, which goes back to their difficult at recruiting players.

Until Tottenham decide to take the shackles off the cash, they will struggle to take on the elite at the top table of English football on a regular basis. Unfortunately, for fans of the north London club, I cannot see their policies changing anything soon.

In a major fight for a top-four spot this season

Tottenham have been mainstays in the Premier League top-four for the last few seasons. However, Spurs face a major fight for a top-four finish this season and are outsiders at odds of 5/4 to clinch a Champions League spot.

The north London club have to finish above Liverpool and arch-rivals Arsenal to take a top-four spot, as the current top-three are unlikely to let a Champions League place slip out of their grasp.

Tottenham will never progress beyond their current level, because of their major catch 22 situation. They play some excellent football, but until the club gives boss Pochettino funds to sign top players, they will remain at their current level.

Should the Tottenham hierarchy back Pochettino with bigger funds?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent


David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The experienced writer has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

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