News emerged earlier in the week that Jose Mourinho would have to sell to fund any summer transfer activity, after a masterplan was formed by Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy.
The move may not be popular with the Portuguese boss as he tends to like to work with an open cheque book, but these are unprecedented times which call for different measures to the norm.
At some point in the future, Spurs will need to rebuild if they are to get among the elite, not just in English football, but on the European scene too, however for now they are going to have to join the pack that will have to wheel and deal their way through the global economic crisis.
Mourinho was said to have had his eye on bringing the likes of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Thomas Meunier to White Hart Lane, however unless he can offload some of his senior stars, those targets will quickly become a pipedream.
Tottenham are believed to have borrowed £175 million from the Bank of England in order to navigate their way through this period of financial difficulty, which highlights further that without departures any new signings will be from the loan market or on free transfers.
Were the Spurs boss to heed the warning then the likes of Serge Aurier, Erik Lamela, Jan Vertonghen and Danny Rose could be used as bait to produce funds for some big spending during the summer, however with the likes of Ryan Fraser, Thiago Silva and Edinson Cavani all likely to be available as free agents, the Londoners should be able to better their squad without parting with huge transfer fees.
Tottenham fans have often grown frustrated with the tight hold Levy usually has on the purse strings, however the present time calls for exactly that, and having recognised that early, when the world returns to normal, last season’s Champions League finalists have given themselves the best chance of being in good shape to go forward.