Money. The reason this transfer window is potentially the best for a while is because we've finally spent some money. AND we've done it before the season even starts.
Anyone who claims that this IS the best transfer window is jumping the gun. Transfer windows are not judged at the time, but a year or two down the line. Out of all our signings Soldado is the one to be excited about as he is proven in a major league, but due to his age we need to be making the most of him now. All of the others, including Paulinho, are risks. A lot of high profile big money signings flop (not just at Spurs) and dare I say that players that don't live up their billing exceed those that do. If all of our signings come off this year it will be simply amazing, but highly unlikely. Just look at last season. Lloris is superb, Vertonghen looks good but defensively he isn't brilliant, Holtby underwhelmed, Dempsey has already gone, Sigurdsson disappointed and despite some love for him on this forum I just don't get the fuss about Dembele and expect him to lose regular first team status over the next couple of seasons. Bar Bale our best player last year ended up being Dawson, who didn't (still doesn't probably, just that we are having to make do) feature in the "project" plan anyway and has been at the club for years. Out of all of the signings for last season Lloris is the one who was inspired and I expect the others to fade away pretty quickly. I expect a similar thing will happen after this window. One will be great, the others will fade away.
My other fear is that if we lose Bale, this is all too little too late. People crow about our points total last year, but last year wasn't good enough because comparative to our peers we dropped from 4th to 5th and it's the league position that dictates how good you are, not a points total. A good transfer window last season would have seen us get 4th again.
Looking at the state of the lower and mid-table teams this year I wouldn't be shocked if the 6th place team this season gets more points than we did last season. There's a real gap opening up in the Premiership between the top six/seven clubs. The rest are all relegation fodder. For all our wheeling and dealing if we fail to get top four this season then this transfer window cannot be regarded as a successful one.
Lastly it is sad that the English heart of the club is being ripped out. Foreign fans (or even English fans with few family connections to London) won't give a fudge but, no disrespect to them, they don't truly understand the meaning of being a Spurs fan. Growing up watching true local hero's playing for the club. Speaking to people who played with them at school, or who knows their parents etc. A few years ago every Spurs fan I spoke with was disgusted at Arsenal's lack of English core and that was one of the reasons that no matter how successful Arsenal were it meant fudge all because they weren't even an English club anymore. Now we're the same. I don't expect Dawson to last much longer, sadly none of the youngsters I can see making it. Walker will be flying the lone English flag in a couple of seasons with kids making up the necessary legal quota of other English players. The days we start consistently fielding XI foreigners in successive games is the day I stop following my beloved Spurs and football in general.
I know that after Chelsea AVB has little regard for English players, and probably wants to get them out of our club ASAP, but I do hope we win something that I can enjoy before he gets his way. An FA Cup win this season would be perfect, especially if our team had at least three English players (which in itself is so pathetic) in it when we did it.
