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#3 Spurs paying price for frugality
Tottenham deserves immense credit for the progress they’ve made in recent years, transcending from Premier League outsiders to genuine contenders.
The club shunned the path towed by other clubs such as Man City and PSG who bought their way to greatness, instead following a template of bringing through players and developing them, and in this regard, Mauricio Pochetino deserves colossal praise for transforming hitherto unknown players such as Eric Dier, Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Heung-Min Son into genuine world beaters and seasoned internationals.
Tottenham have very much become established among the bigger teams in Europe, however, there is a limit to which this model can take you, with Arsenal serving as a good example, and have gotten so far on so little, Tottenham seem to have reached that limit.
Football is a big business right now, and to remain competitive, you must spend. This is a maxim that hitherto non-spending clubs like Atletico and Liverpool have realized, and acted accordingly, but Tottenham have surprisingly failed to adapt.
The club was the only one of the 32 Champions League participants not to make a signing in the summer, as well as the first Premier League team since 2003 not to bring in any new players during the transfer window.
Having gotten a taste of regular Champions League football, the club is determined to make it into the latter stages but is in real danger of falling out at the first hurdle.
They began their campaign with two defeats to Inter and Barcelona, and also faltered in the match against the perceived weakest team in the group, throwing away a lead at the Phillips Stadium in Eindhoven to draw 2-2.
Tottenham is one a solitary point after three matches, and in the likely event that they fail to make it out of the Champions League group stage, they would only have themselves to blame for failing to augment their squad.
