Mauricio Pochettino will be thankful that the revolving doors at Tottenham have scarcely come into use this summer.
Spurs may be the only Premier League club yet to make a signing, but they have kept their squad intact at the same time.
The Telegraph report that Kyle Walker is on the verge of joining Manchester City, with the two clubs having agreed a fee in the region of £50million – but it’s a move that’s been on the cards for a while.
Kieran Trippier replaced him at right-back for most of the crucial games towards the end of last season and like Walker, the former Burnley man has come on hugely under Pochettino.
Given the Spurs boss’ reputation for developing full-backs, Trippier will be confident of continuing that trend, especially having recently received his first England call-up.
Besides, as a back-up, Kyle Walker-Peters looks ready to enter the picture having impressed at the under-20 World Cup and at youth level last term.
The major disappointment for Spurs is that the board have chosen to sell City, as it means strengthening a rival. The other accusation that could be levelled is that it shows a lack of ambition, but that isn’t necessarily true.
If Walker did indeed want to move back up north and had his heart set on leaving, then it’s surely better for the Spurs camp as a whole that he’s allowed his wish.
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c b waters
Jul 14, 2017 at 8:02 pm
We should have waited another year. Walker could have been promised his move, but would have needed to play his socks off for us in what will be a tough Wembley based season in order to keep up the demand for his services next summer, and (of course) keep up the fee for Spurs. Any top northern club would have still wanted him a year on. It would also have given us time to find, develop and/or seek out a top replacement to support Trippier in the 2018/19 season. But look what we’re left with. Whereas Walker and Trippier could have alternated (in theory approx 30 games each) in a possibly 60+ game season ..2 England full backs competing with and complementing each other ..we are now left with one top full back who just might get injured or exhausted playing too many games! We’ve strengthened our rivals and weakened ourselves. And no doubt, we’ll panic as we did with Sissoko last year and buy a useless Walker replacement for £25 or £30m!!! Crazy …we have our best squad ever, and we go and send out a message that it can be broken up!!!