Time for evolution at Tottenham – two problems and three requirements

Mauricio Pochettino has performed minor miracles in his time at Tottenham Hotspur, with the weakest squad and the least finances available to him.

The Spurs boss has constantly improved existing squad players and developed youth team players to become regular members of the first team.

As it stands, with the season reaching its finale Pochettino’s braves lie in third after Tottenham’s 4-0 win over Huddersfield on Saturday.

With three of the last five games at the new White Hart Lane, even with Harry Kane’s injury, you would think Spurs have enough to cement a top four place.

They are well placed to pull off a major shock by beating the impressive Manchester City, to progress to the Champions Leagues semi-finals.

Bearing all that in mind, this summer for the first time major surgery will be required and whilst wholesale changes are not required, the evolution of this Tottenham squad must begin this summer.

There is little doubt that over the last few seasons Manchester City and Liverpool have created a distance between themselves with their ability to attract the players they needed.

For Tottenham to reduce that gap and keep his team competitive at the very top of the Premier League, some very difficult decisions will need to be made this summer.

It has been very difficult for the chairman Daniel Levy to operate in an inflated transfer market whilst building a new stadium, this summer will be just in tough for other reasons.

To begin with, it is more than likely Toby Alderweireld’s release clause will be met and he will leave, whilst Christian Eriksen has more than a few admirers and will only have one year of his contract left.

If the club receives a huge bid close to £100million, I think they will accept it, although this will obviously create a big gap in creativity.

The club will also be looking to increase the homegrown numbers as the balance of the current squad is weighted too heavily with non-homegrown players, this will be helped when Michele Vorm’s and Fernando Llorente’s contracts expire in the summer.

There are also question marks of the futures of Hugo Lloris, Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose, Serge Aurier, Erik Lamela, Vincent Jansen, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou and Victor Wanyama for various different reasons.

I expect we will see at least four of those move on if the clubs valuations are met.

The club will also need to need to decide on whether to keep or move on the like of Josh Onomah, Marcus Edwards, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Kyle Walker-Peters.

These are all dependent on the club’s ability to attract the kind of players they want, which youngsters from the academy are close to breaking through to the first team and if they can get the right balance of home-grown and non-home-grown players.

I am sure that Pochettino will see that the areas that need the most concentration is to bring in fast attacking full-backs, a replacement for the much-missed Mousa Dembele as well as back up to Harry Kane, though this does not need to be a like for like understudy.

I am sure the board and the transfer committee are already working hard in order to begin the ball rolling but it promises to be a long and interesting summer ahead for Tottenham and the fans.