When Gareth Bale was sold to Real Madrid for a world-record fee of £85 million (Dh451.8m) in the summer of 2013, it was anticipated Tottenham Hotspur would use the proceeds to build a team capable of qualifying for the Uefa Champions League on a regular basis.
Things did not quite go to plan. While it was later claimed that Tottenham made a mistake in signing seven newcomers instead of using the funds to bring in one or two elite-level players, the failure of the endeavour lied in its execution rather than its conception.
Splitting the funds to strengthen multiple areas of the team was a sensible idea, but by the time Mauricio Pochettino had taken the reins at White Hart Lane in May 2014, most of the previous year’s acquisitions were considered expensive flops.
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When Tottenham kicked off this season's campaign against Manchester United back in August, three members of the septet – Paulinho, Etienne Capoue and Vlad Chiriches – were no longer present and another, Roberto Soldado, was on his way to Villarreal.
Christian Eriksen and Nacer Chadli had impressed Pochettino enough to remain, but the speculation linking Erik Lamela with a move away continued right up until the final hours of the summer transfer window.
In the end, the Argentine stayed put despite reported interest from Marseille, Inter Milan and former club Roma.
Although he had shown flashes of quality in his first couple of years in north London, it is safe to say that the majority of Tottenham supporters would not have been at all distraught had a deal gone through, with Marseille president Vincent Labrune claiming that the Premier League side pulled the plug on a transfer at the last minute after failing to secure the signature of a replacement in time.
Six and a half months on and it would be a tough task finding a Spurs fan who does not appreciate Lamela’s value to their team’s title tilt.
In many ways, the previously feeble and fragile winger has become the embodiment of Pochettino’s hard-running, high-energy and physically robust championship-chasing outfit.
Lamela may not be producing quite as many moments of magic as he did in his final 15-goal season at Roma – although Eriksen is the only Tottenham player to have created more chances in the Premier League – but he can no longer be accused of going missing in matches or allowing the speed of the English game to pass him by.
In fact, it is often he who sets the tempo for his side, hassling and harrying opponents when he does not have the ball and combining neatly with his attacking colleagues when he does.
“I think I need a bit of time,” Lamela replied when asked in October 2013 why he had struggled to hit the ground running in his first few months at Tottenham.
“I need training, a bit of rhythm, some games. English football is very different from the game in Italy – much more physical, whereas Serie A is more tactical.
“It’s not necessarily more difficult, but it’s just different. This is a style of football I like very much, though, and I think, with the way I play, it will be very suited to my game.”
It can be easy to forget that moving to a new competition in a different country is far from straightforward for footballers in their early 20s, who are often weighed down by a price tag they had no say in setting.
It has taken the Argentina international a couple of years to fully find his feet in the Premier League, but Tottenham’s patience is now paying off.
Young, energetic and with a strong appreciation of the collective, there is no-one who epitomises what Pochettino’s Tottenham stand for more than Lamela.
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