At the end of last season, Mauricio Pochettino came out in the press and said that it was time for Tottenham Hotspur to be brave and to take risks in the transfer market.
This was a clear call for Daniel Levy and the Spurs hierarchy to spend the required money to bring quality into the squad in an attempt to springboard the club towards a concerted challenge for silverware this season.
Fast forward a couple of months and Tottenham have not signed anyone this summer, with just over a week of the transfer window remaining and the Premier League season starting next weekend.
One of the names most-commonly touted with a switch to Spurs has been Aston Villa talent Jack Grealish, with plenty of reputable sources indicated a genuine interest from Pochettino and the scouting network in North London.
However, Tottenham’s predictable slow progress on a potential deal for the attacking midfielder is as frustrating as it is grimly predictable.
Despite the cost of building a new stadium, Spurs are a wealthy club that will play in the Champions League next season.
The fact that we can’t wrap up a deal to bring a Championship player to the club is embarrassing.
Levy has employed his usual tactics of leaving Tottenham’s transfer business to the last minute, in search of a deadline-day, cut-price deal.
However, in the case of Grealish, this was never going to work.
Regardless of Villa’s ownership situation, all English clubs are toiling with the early cut-off date for this summer’s window.
To leave it to the last minute will mean that Steve Bruce’s men won’t have time to find a replacement if Grealish is sold to Tottenham and won’t be able to spend the transfer fee they receive.
As such, surely Villa will only hike up the price for Grealish at the last minute, given the afore-mentioned inconveniences – negating Levy’s search for a bargain price.
While hindsight is a wonderful thing, if Tottenham had moved quickly to land Grealish this summer, he would now be a Spurs player as the Birmingham club’s ownership change would not have had happened – and they would have been forced to sell him under Tony Xia.
Pochettino must be frustrated at the lack of transfers given the proximity of the window closing – I know I am.