Perhaps, within the space of a day, Tottenham’s transfer window went from being one of the worst to among the best. Maybe at least Daniel Levy spared himself the rage of Antonio Conte, a manager whose frustrations tend to become public very quickly. Certainly Tottenham could view Arsenal’s inability to recruit and contrast it with their two high-calibre recruits, in the bought Rodrigo Bentancur and the borrowed Dejan Kulusevski.
Perhaps Conte was as pleased by the departures. Unsubtle as ever, he signalled his feelings with the teamsheet for Tottenham’s trip to Chelsea. The bench did not contain Dele Alli, Tanguy Ndombele or Giovani Lo Celso. If Conte had quickly tired of enigmas and underachievers, now each is gone, along with Bryan Gil.
In its own way, that represents an indictment: Ndombele and Lo Celso are the two most expensive signings in Spurs’ history and have been loaned out. While Lyon have an option to buy Ndombele for €65 million, in reality no one will pay that much for him. Nor are Villarreal likely to allow Tottenham to recoup their investment in Lo Celso. Gil feels a swift failure, a seemingly auspicious arrival who only got 86 minutes of Premier League football.
Alli’s case may be the saddest, given the heights he touched in his first two seasons at White Hart Lane. A permanent transfer to Everton is a definitive break, confirmation he cannot return to those levels in a Spurs shirt.
That he left for no initial fee indicates how his star has waned and how Spurs should have sold him sooner. But it also forms part of a broader issue, the breakdown of Tottenham’s midfield as an attacking unit. The Conte clearout has taken in three players who rarely provided the X-factor under him, Nuno Espirito Santo, Jose Mourinho and, Alli apart, Mauricio Pochettino.
In contrast, it is notable he kept his quick wingers, in Lucas Moura and the Ajax target Steven Bergwijn. Reshaping the squad still gives him the choice of both 3-4-3 and 3-5-2. Nevertheless, it is also revealing that the two newcomers are very different from the duo they had initially targeted.
Their window looked a chastening failure when Adama Traore chose Barcelona and Luis Diaz Liverpool instead. Bentancur and Kulusevski are scarcely like-for-like alternatives. There is no attack-minded right wing-back, meaning the limited Emerson Royal will presumably continue there.
Nor is there a prolific scorer to ease the burden on Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. Perhaps neither has the possibility to be as transformative as Diaz. Kulusevski can operate in the front three and was one of Serie A’s most inventive players in 2019-20 but lacks the Colombian’s prolific return.
But they do offer an injection of craft and creativity, along with a combination of pedigree and potential. Conte may see Bentancur as a classier passer than Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Oliver Skipp, though it could appear that he is collecting defensive midfielders. The Uruguayan is 24, the Swede, who Tottenham have an option to buy, 21. Each is experienced for his years.
That Tottenham have employed the former Juventus CFO Fabio Paratici as managing director of football always offered the chance they could raid the Italian market; Paratici seems to have returned to his homeland to strike two fine deals.
While Conte can appear a hardliner, he has a track record of moulding midfields and midfielders, with very different players, in imaginative ways, providing they are willing to buy into his work ethic and follow his instructions. He can be brutally decisive and was quick to give up on Ndombele, followed by Lo Celso and Alli, but the club have been quick to dispose of the unwanted. Now Conte’s Tottenham is taking shape.
In pictures: 90 notable January transfers
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Dele Alli - Tottenham to Everton (No initial fee but up to £30m in potential add-ons). PA -
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - Arsenal to Barcelona (free). PA -
Donny van de Beek - Manchester United to Everton (loan). PA -
Jony - Lazio to Sporting Gijon (loan). Getty Images -
Kevin Paredes - DC United to Wolfsburg (£5.2 million). Reuters -
Billal Brahimi - Angers to Nice (£5.8 million). AFP -
Neco Williams - Liverpool to Fulham (loan). Reuters -
Jeff Hendrick - Newcastle United to QPR (loan). Getty Images -
Mamadou Sylla - Alaves to Rayo Vallecano (loan). Getty Images -
Ibrahima Kone - Sarpsborg to Lorient (£3.3 million). AFP -
Dan Burn - Brighton & Hove Albion's to Newcastle United (£12.5 million). PA -
Lucas Perez - Elche to Cadiz (undisclosed fee). Getty Images -
Islam Slimani - Lyon to Sporting (free). Getty -
Jean-Philippe Mateta - Mainz to Crystal Palace (£10 million). PA -
Aaron Ramsey - Juventus to Rangers (loan). PA -
Deniz Undav - Union St-Gilloise to Brighton (£6 million). Getty Images -
Goran Pandev - Genoa to Parma (undisclosed fee). Getty Images -
Giovani Lo Celso - Tottenham to Villarreal (loan). PA -
Matt Targett - Aston Villa to Newcastle (loan). PA -
Bryan Gil - Tottenham to Valencia (loan). PA -
Rodrigo Bentancur - Juventus to Tottenham (£15.9 million). AFP -
Dejan Kulusevski - Juventus to Tottenham (loan). AFP -
Nat Phillips - Liverpool to Bournemouth (loan). Getty Images -
Denis Zakaria - Borussia Moenchengladbach to Juventus (£4.2 million). Getty Images -
Tanguy Ndombele - Tottenham to Lyon (loan). PA -
Christian Eriksen - Brentford (free agent). PA -
Julián Álvarez - River Plate to Manchester City (£14 million; loaned back to River Plate). Getty Images -
Wout Weghorst - Wolfsburg to Burnley (£12 million). Getty Images -
Martín Cáceres - Cagliari to Levante (free). Getty Images -
Max Kruse - Union Berlin to Wolfsburg (undisclosed fee). Getty Images -
Bruno Guimaraes - Lyon to Newcastle (£33.3 million). Getty Images -
Luis Diaz - Porto to Liverpool (£33.3 million). Getty Images -
Adama Traore - Wolverhampton Wanderers to Barcelona (loan). Getty Images -
Felipe Caicedo - Genoa to Inter Milan (loan). Getty Images -
Federico Fazio - Roma to Salernitana (free). Getty -
Dusan Vlahovic - Fiorentina to Juventus (£62.5 million). AP -
Ilaix Moriba - RB Leipzig to Valencia (loan). AFP -
Daniel Wass - Valencia to Atletico Madrid (£2.1 million). EPA -
Calum Chambers - Arsenal to Aston Villa (undisclosed fee). PA -
Robin Gosens - Atalanta to Inter Milan (loan). Reuters -
Amad Diallo - Manchester United to Rangers (loan). PA -
Samuel Kalu - Bordeaux to Watford (£3 million). AFP -
Anthony Martial - Manchester United to Sevilla (loan). EPA -
Hatem Ben Arfa - joins Lille as a free agent. AFP -
Jeremie Boga - Sassuolo to Atalanta (£18.5 million). AP -
Dario Benedetto - Marseille to Boca Junior (£3 million). Getty Images -
Wilson Isidor - Monaco to Lokomotiv Moscow (£2.5 million). AP Photo -
Ivan Saponjic - Atletico Madrid to Slovan Bratislava (free). EPA -
Patrick Roberts - Manchester City to Sunderland (undisclosed fee). Getty Images -
Sardar Azmoun - Zenit to Bayer Leverkusen (free). EPA -
Eliaquim Mangala - joins Saint-Etienne as a free agent. AP Photo -
Oussama Idrissi Sevilla to Cadiz (loan). Getty Images -
Sergio Rico - PSG to Real Mallorca (loan). Getty Images -
Leonardo Campana - Wolves to Inter Miami (loan). AFP -
Pablo Mari - Arsenal to Udinese (loan). PA -
Tommy Doyle - Manchester City to Cardiff City (loan). PA -
Sead Kolasinac - Arsenal to Marseille (free). Reuters -
Nani - Orlando City to Venezia (free). Getty Images -
Jordan Lukaku - Lazio to Vicenza (loan). PA -
Sergio Oliveira - Porto to Roma (loan). Getty Images -
Diego Godin - Cagliari to Atlético Mineiro (released). Getty Images -
Borja Mayoral - Roma to Getafe (loan). EPA -
Anwar El Ghazi - Aston Villa to Everton (loan). AFP -
Luke Matheson - Wolves to Scunthorpe United (loan). Reuters -
Jesus Manuel Corona - Porto to Sevilla (£2.9 million). Getty Images -
Cristiano Piccini - Valencia to Red Star (free). EPA -
Edon Zhegrova - Basel to Lille (£5.8 million). AP Photo -
Patrik Gunnarsson - Brentford to Viking FK (undisclosed fee). AP photo -
Chiquinho - Estoril to Wolves (£2.9 million). AFP -
Robin Olsen - Roma to Aston Villa (loan). Reuters -
Philippe Coutinho - Barcelona to Aston Villa (loan). AFP -
Chris Wood - Burnley to Newcastle United (£25 million). AFP -
Lucas Digne - Everton to Aston Villa (£25 million). EPA -
Folarin Balogun - Arsenal to Middlesbrough (loan). PA -
Jan Zamburek - Brentford to Viborg (undisclosed fee). PA -
Taylor Harwood-Bellis - Manchester City to Stoke City (loan). Getty Images -
Andrea Conti - AC Milan to Sampdoria (undisclosed fee). Getty Images -
Krzysztof Piatek - Hertha Berlin to Fiorentina (loan). EPA -
Axel Tuanzebe - Manchester United to Napoli (loan). AP Photo -
Kieran Trippier - Atletico Madrid to Newcastle United (£12 million). PA -
Ainsley Maitland-Niles - Arsenal to Roma (loan). Reuters -
Jurgen Locadia - Brighton & Hove Albion to Bochum (released). PA -
Samir - Udinese to Watford (undisclosed fee). AP -
Nathan Patterson - Rangers to Everton (£12 million). PA -
Teden Mengi - Manchester United to Birmingham City (loan). AP Photo -
Hassane Kamara - Nice to Watford (£4 million). Reuters -
Ferran Torres - Manchester City to Barcelona (£46.3 million). Getty Images -
Aaron Connolly - Brighton & Hove Albion to Middlesbrough (loan). PA -
Vitaliy Mykolenko - Dynamo Kiev to Everton (£17.6 million). Reuters -
Rafinha - PSG to Real Sociedad (loan). AFP
