Tottenham's intriguing £102m summer transfer window - according to bold prediction

We won’t really have to wait all that long to find out what Tottenham Hotspur will do this summer, but that isn’t going to prevent us (or anybody else) from speculating. How far will they back Ange Postecoglou in the transfer market? Which members of the current squad will depart? Short of a functioning crystal ball, we’ve turned to the next best thing – a game of Football Manager.

Of course, FM has a mixed record when it comes to realism. In this alternate reality, we’ve spun ahead to the end of the summer to find that Spurs have made a few deals which seem thoroughly plausible, based on the real-life rumour mill, and have snagged a few which seem a little more ambitious.

To stick a fork in our plans to get an accurate insight into Spurs’ immediate future right from the beginning, we regret to inform you that Postecoglou was in fact sacked after just 14 games, seven of which ended in defeat. With the Australian gone, Spurs fans were subjected to two full months of Ryan Mason before Hansi Flick came aboard to see them through the remainder of a turbulent 2023/24 season – but how will he have them lined up going into the new year? Let’s peer into the digital future, and see if we believe a word of it…

Goalkeeper & Defence

As you’d expect, there is absolutely no change between the sticks, with Guglielmo Vicario still number one and still playing well. They have, curiously, declined to find a proper back-up, with Alfie Whiteman now the designated number two, but as long as Vicario stays fit things will be fine.

Ahead of him, there has only been one big change for the 2024/25 season – Spurs have somehow snagged the signature of Manchester City’s Rico Lewis for a laughably low fee of £17.5m. He’s started the season at right-back, largely because Pedro Porro is injured. They’ve also signed Trevoh Chalobah for £17m from Chelsea, which may well not be so wild with the West London club keen to sell. He seems to be a back-up for Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven for now.

Spurs have been rather less successful in moving unwanted defenders on. Ryan Sessegnon, Emerson Royal, Djed Spence, Joe Rodon and Sergio Reguilón are all still at the club, all transfer listed, all unable to escape. For what it’s worth, Football Manager tends to drastically downplay the number of transfers that happen in any given window, and we suspect that Spurs would have more joy in getting rid of unwanted defenders in real life.

Spurs goalkeeping and defensive options: Guglielmo Vicario, Alfie Whiteman, Trevoh Chalobah, Radu Drăgușin, Rico Lewis, Pedro Porro, Sergio Reguilón, Joe Rodon, Cristian Romero, Emerson Royal, Ryan Sessegnon, Djed Spence, Destiny Udogie, Micky Van de Ven.

Midfield

Postecoglou may not have made these decisions – I mean, nor did Flick, it’s an AI – but he got one of his spiritual wishes anyway, with Pierre-Emile Højbjerg leaving on a free transfer to join RC Strasbourg, where he was joined almost immediately by Giovani Lo Celso. Spurs didn’t make a penny off of either of them, but did at least get a couple of million from Southampton from Tanguy Ndombele. Yes, he’s still on the books at Spurs in real life. Bryan Gil and Oliver Skipp are stuck on the transfer list.

As for incomings, Spurs went for one signing that they’ve been heavily linked with in the real world – Genoa’s Albert Guðmundsson was snapped up for a cool £29m. Curious how the attacking midfielder would get on at Spurs, we spun forward a little way to see that he’d only managed two goals in his first six months and spent most of his time bench-warming behind James Maddison. A warning against making a real move here, perhaps.

Otherwise, Spurs went young. Lucas Bergvall, in real life an extremely highly-rated teenage midfielder from Sweden, was snapped up for £8.5m from Djurgårdens, which would probably be an absolutely outstanding deal if it cam true. They’ve also signed up Vicente Pizarro from Colo Colo for £3.6m and Junior Kroupi from Lorient for a fee starting at £4.4m but packed with nearly £10m of add-ons. In truth, we’ve heard of neither of them, but they do look pretty promising in the game at least. Kroupi was promptly farmed off to Blackburn Rovers on loan, where he’s now team-mates with Eric Dier. Why not?

Spurs midfield options: Rodrigo Bentancur, Lucas Bergvall, Yves Bissouma, Bryan Gil, Albert Guðmundsson, James Maddison, Vicente Pizarro, Pape Matar Sarr, Oliver Skipp.

Forwards

One thing we know for sure about this summer is that Spurs badly need a striker and have made finding a centre-forward a major priority as they look to belatedly replace Harry Kane. Their solution? Well, they went young once again.

In real life, Francesco Pio Esposito is a highly-rated teenager who has spent the season on loan at Spezia from Inter Milan. Many think the 18-year-old will go a long way, and in Football Manager that has manifested itself as a loan move to Tottenham’s reserve squad, with a future fee of up to £12.5m agreed.

Has he started a senior game? No. Scored a goal? Obviously not. Son Heung-Min is still ploughing that furrow up front, Spurs are sixth halfway through the season, and for what it’s worth, England crashed out of Euro 2024 at the group stage after a humiliating late defeat to Bosnia & Herzegovina. Who said this game wasn’t realistic?

Spurs attacking options: Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison, Manor Solomon, Son Heung-Min.