Report: Spurs shifting transfer focus to selling unwanted players

With the arrival of Djed Spence from Middlesbrough, Tottenham have now made six additions to the first team, and it’s still only the middle of July. The transfer window doesn’t close until September 1 at 11:00 p.m. in the UK.

But that doesn’t mean Spurs’ window is over. Far from it. As of today, Tottenham have only had two players leave the club — Cameron Carter-Vickers, who made a £6m + escalators move to Celtic in early June, and Steven Bergwijn, who moved to Ajax for an initial fee of €30m on July 8. Head coach Antonio Conte has made it clear which first team players are in his plans for this season and which are available to be sold, or sent out on loan.

According to the Evening Standard, Spence’s arrival means focus is now shifting from bringing in new people to getting some players already on Spurs’ payroll out the door. Dan Kilpatrick writes that Managing Director of Football Fabio Paratici is currently in Italy working on a few of those deals.

There’s been a lot of smoke concerning Japhet Tanganta moving to AC Milan either on loan or permanently, and that appears to be high on Paratici’s radar. Kilpatrick also notes that Paratici is also planning to meet with officials from Sampdoria regarding Bryan Gil, though again it’s not known whether that would hypothetically be a permanent deal or a loan.

Tottenham currently have three right backs on its roster, and the implication is that one of Emerson Royal or Matt Doherty will be moved on this summer. Giovani Lo Celso, Tanguy Ndombele, Harry Winks, and Sergio Reguilon were all left behind by Conte when Spurs departed for their preseason tour to Korea, strongly suggesting that they will also be sold or loaned as opportunities arrive. Out of that group, Lo Celso seems to have the closest ties to another club, with Villarreal making their interest obvious after Lo Celso had a successful loan there last spring.

That’s a lot of players to move and it would be difficult to successfully pull all of them off for anything close to Tottenham’s valuations. It could be that Paratici will need much of the remaining window to shift some of those players out the door. It also doesn’t rule out the possibility of another incoming player this window — there have been muted (and not always credible) reports of interest for players such as James Maddison, Memphis Depay, and Lucas Paqueta among others.

But for the first time in a while, Spurs don’t appear to be close to a new signing. That feels weird, even for this extremely uncharacteristic summer.