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The January transfer window is now over, and after what felt like a non-stop carousel of rumours surrounding the comings and goings at Tottenham Hotspur, we finally know what Jose Mourinho’s squad will look like through the rest of the 2019-20 season.
Overall the window was a mixed bag for Spurs, with the club making a total of 5 permanent deals and 11 loan ones, with 2 new players arriving and plenty more leaving. Will Mourinho have been happy with the moves that the club have made? He claims he is, but the truth may be somewhere in the middle.
Here is a recap – in the form of some pros and cons – of Tottenham’s winter transfer dealings.
Pro: Gedson and Bergwijn join the club
Two new players arrived in North London during the January window; Portuguese midfielder Gedson Fernandes joined from Benfica on an 18-month loan with an option to buy, while Dutch forward Steven Bergwijn was signed from PSV Eindhoven for a fee of £27m.
Both signings feel like smart ones for Tottenham; both men have both international and Champions League experience, and yet Gedson is just 21 years old while Bergwijn is 22. That means that while both men clearly have the ability to add something to Spurs’ first XI immediately, they are also young enough to be moulded into the kind of players that Jose Mourinho can make use of for years to come.
Bergwijn has already made a huge impact, scoring on his debut in Spurs’ 2-0 win over Manchester City this weekend, and while Gedson has only made appearances from the bench thus far, the skills he possesses could make him a long-term replacement for the ageing – and currently injured – Moussa Sissoko.
Given the relatively low price of Bergwijn and the fact that the Gedson deal is a try-before-you-buy one, both signings represent good business for Spurs.
Con: No new striker was signed
Right until the end of deadline day, Tottenham were looking to sign a striker in order to cover for the injured Harry Kane – and then provide a backup for the England captain when he returns. Unfortunately, no deals were able to be done, leaving Mourinho painfully short for the remainder of 2019-20.
Spurs were apparently interested in Krzysztof Piatek of AC Milan, Willian Jose of Real Sociedad and Olivier Giroud of Chelsea, and in all honesty, any of the three would’ve sufficed.
But Piatek ended up at Hertha Berlin due to Spurs’ unwillingness to look for a permanent deal rather than a loan one; they wouldn’t pony up enough money for Willian Jose, and Chelsea were unable to find their own replacement for Giroud – despite barely using the Frenchman.
Mourinho likely dodged a bullet when a last-minute attempt to sign the goal-shy Odion Ighalo fell through, but his club’s failure to provide him with a new target-man must irk him. Quite why Daniel Levy wasn’t willing to throw a few more million onto the table to get Willian Jose – who was definitely willing and available – will remain a mystery for some time.
Pro: Eriksen and Rose finally depart
It feels strange to suggest that any club would be celebrating the departure of two players who have been key members of their starting XI for the best part of a decade, but that was the case at Tottenham this winter as Christian Eriksen and Danny Rose left for pastures new.
Eriksen made a permanent move to Inter Milan for a fee of around £17m, while Rose made a loan move to Newcastle United, and although reports suggest the deal doesn’t include an option to buy, there are plenty of people who believe the England international has played his last game in a Tottenham shirt.
So why would Spurs be happy with these moves? Essentially, because both men have proven to be somewhat disruptive to the squad balance; Mourinho has stated that Eriksen remained professional prior to the move, but it can’t have been good for the rest of the side to have a want-away player amongst their ranks, given the Dane has been stating his desire to leave for some time.
Rose meanwhile has seemingly been unhappy at the club for some time, and there were plenty of rumours that he was the player who leaked an apparently false story to the press about the squad being unhappy with Mourinho.
Do Spurs have enough to cover both men’s departures? It’s debatable, but the truth is that the side will probably be better in their absence.
Con: Kyle Walker-Peters’ loan to Southampton
A move that flew under the radar somewhat was the loan deal that will take young full-back Kyle Walker-Peters to Southampton for the rest of the season. It’s hard to work out what to make of this move because there are pros and cons for it on either side, but I think losing him – even temporarily – will do more harm than good for Spurs in 2019-20.
Firstly, while it’s true that Walker-Peters is somewhat unproven at Premier League level – making just 12 league appearances thus far in his career – he hasn’t actually performed badly at all when he has played, memorably registering a trio of assists in a 5-0 win over Bournemouth in 2018-19, and only slipped out of the first team this season due to injury.
And secondly, while the versatile Japhet Tanganga can play at right-back, without Walker-Peters, the only specialist Spurs have in the position is the erratic Serge Aurier. If the Ivorian loses form entirely, or picks up an injury, it may be hard to cover him – especially as Davinson Sanchez and Moussa Sissoko both struggled in the position earlier in the season.
Overall the move will be good for Walker-Peters to gain experience, and it’s not like Spurs have lost him altogether, but it’s hard to shake off the feeling that he could’ve been useful to Mourinho.
Pro: Lo Celso signs permanently
When Spurs signed Giovani Lo Celso in the summer, the Argentine arrived on an odd loan deal from Real Betis; Tottenham would pay a small loan fee initially, with an option to buy the player in January for £27m, or wait until the summer and sign him for £34m, with the move becoming an obligation if the club were to qualify for the Champions League.
Initially, Lo Celso made little impact in the Spurs first team, but this was largely through no fault of his own; the Argentine took time to settle in and then picked up an injury which waylaid him, but since he broke into Mourinho’s plans in December, he’s arguably been the club’s best player.
Lo Celso appears to be far more than a luxury playmaker – he has the passing range and creativity to make him a valid replacement for Eriksen, but he’s also much more of a Mourinho midfielder, willing to charge back and throw himself into tackles in the defensive third.
At just 23 years old there’s still room for him to grow, and his burgeoning midfield partnership with Harry Winks could definitely be something worth watching. Overall, it was a must that Spurs inked him permanently, and doing so in January made perfect sense.
