Late night talks, Radu Dragusin and the new man behind the scenes of Tottenham transfers
If Tottenham Hotspur thought they had experienced enough of German negotiating then they were in for a rude awakening on both sides of the coin this week.
The summer had been spent listening to Bayern's very public courting of Harry Kane and the Bundesliga giants have played their part in another key period of transfer activity in north London this week, along with their compatriots RB Leipzig as the theme continued with Spurs' first German to arrive from the country since Lewis Holtby, another January signing from 11 years ago.
Key to Tottenham's early moves in the winter window, almost unheard of in previous years at the London club, has been the planning that has gone into moving as swiftly as possible to redress the weaknesses that had been exposed in Ange Postecoglou's squad by the string of injuries and suspensions that had threatened to derail all of the Australian's good work.
Hamstring injuries come with the territory early in Postecoglou's tenure at clubs. He has previously admitted that they are a by-product of the first six months to a year with him in charge as players adapt to his high energy training sessions and match requirements. At Tottenham, the suspensions on top of that has led to the overuse of some players without much previous recent game time in their legs.
Even the recent FA Cup match brought injuries for Ben Davies and Giovani Lo Celso, the former believed to have been set a four to six week timescale for his hamstring injury. The Welshman is normally a fast healer and will be hoping to carve a week or two out of that.
So with all of that chaos on the pitch, Tottenham needed for once to be free from that — as much as possible — off the pitch, especially in such a key transfer window.
Levy, Spence,
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