Pochettino should plan for 2015 summer transfer window

Mauricio Pochettino has arrived at Spurs and needs to mould the squad to his tactics and as such needs to reshape it. He, Daniel Levy and Franco Baldini should plan ahead for the 2015 summer transfer window now.

Pochettino should plan for 2015


For many fans their seems to be the belief that Spurs should simply go out and buy players and sell papers with no regard whether a player actually wants to come to Tottenham or a player wants to leave for a club we want to sell them to. Complaints abound that we never do business early, that we always leave it late, blaming Daniel Levy and totally ignoring the fact a player wants to keep their options open to get the best deal possible at the biggest club.

Daniel Levy is no doubt not innocent, but he attempts to get the best deals for the club, which has to be applauded. He could untie his hands a little though.

There are many factors to take into account when transfer business time comes around. There are home grown players and non-home grown players, we can't just have a squad full of overseas players, it's not allowed. It is surrounding this rule that Spurs have got themselves in somewhat of a pickle that prevents the club doing many early deals.

A little bit of future planning now for the 2015 summer transfer window would go a long way to being able to secure those early deals fans crave.

We currently have 18 non-home grown players, 1 of which is never in the Premier League squad and is always loaned out (Bongani Khumalo).

That leaves 17 and we are allowed to name and play 17 (aged over 21) in a season.

Anyone under 21 does not have to be named but can still play.

Here is the non-home grown player list as it stands at the moment.

Spurs Non-Home Grown Players
1   Younès Kaboul (2nd vice-captain)
2   Jan Vertonghen
3   Vlad Chiricheș
4   Paulinho
5   Roberto Soldado
6   Emmanuel Adebayor
7   Érik Lamela
8   Lewis Holtby
9   Étienne Capoue
10 Mousa Dembélé
11 Nacer Chadli
12 Christian Eriksen
13 Brad Friedel
14 Hugo Lloris
15 Sandro
16 Benoît Assou-Ekotto
17 Michel Vorm
----------------------
18 Bongani Khumalo

If we have all our spots filled, then we need to ensure for every purchase there is a sale lined up, a bit like buying a house, there is a chain. The club can not risk buying an additional non-home grown player and not being able to move an existing non-home grown player on, otherwise we would have to pay 18 wages and play only 17, no club should do that.

It's the sell before you buy or buy before you sell scenario.

The obvious answer is forward planning, plan now for next summer. We have players that need to be shifted. Younès Kaboul and Benoît Assou-Ekotto both only have a year left on their contracts so this window is the last one we will get any transfer fee for them, both thus need to be moved on.

We are looking at buying a young but experienced centre-back (non-home grown) so we will need to move another centre-back on, we don't need 5 plus Fryers. The two candidates therefore are Dawson and Chiriches. Introducing another new player into the Premier League means we at least need to keep an experienced centre-half so for and and other reason Ciriches has to be the player to leave.

That's three non-home grown players off the list and we can discount Khumalo who is never included in a squad anyway. Therefore of the 18 listed, we are down to 14 plus a purchase 15.

Here is how the list should look at the end of this window.

Spurs Non-Home Grown Players
1  
2   Jan Vertonghen
3  
4   Paulinho
5   Roberto Soldado
6   Emmanuel Adebayor
7   Érik Lamela
8   Lewis Holtby
9   Étienne Capoue
10 Mousa Dembélé
11 Nacer Chadli
12 Christian Eriksen
13 Brad Friedel
14 Hugo Lloris
15 Sandro
16
17 Michel Vorm
----------------------
18 Bongani Khumalo

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Brad Friedel will also be retiring at the end of this season, surely! That would create another space and take us back down to 14, leaving 3 unfilled non-home grown spaces at the start of the 2015 summer transfer window.

That gives us the chance to secure early signings as we have 3 slots available. All it would take is a simple piece of forward planning. Then next summer Dawson could be sold as he would have just one year of his contract left and a new centre-half brought in, who could be Héctor Moreno.

Now the names could be different, Chadli could go to Southampton for instance but the theory is the same, plan ahead and give ourselves the opportunities we don't give ourselves now.

The sell before you buy or buy before you sell scenario is made a little simpler, it becomes solely about buying and selling a positional player rather then his home grown status as well.

I hope Pochettino, Levy and Baldini are planning ahead, it would be nice one window to be able to buy a player when we want and not when we can actually fit him in the squad.