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Johan Lange has moved to address the growing frustration around Tottenham Hotspur’s January transfer window, offering supporters an insight into the club’s thinking once deadline day had passed.
A lot has been said about Tottenham Hotspur’s winter transfer window, which left many Spurs fans deeply dissatisfied.
The consensus is that the Tottenham board once again failed to deliver at a crucial point, given the injury crisis the club is dealing with and the poor form in the Premier League that has left Spurs in 14th place.
Club captain Cristian Romero has since voiced his own concerns about Spurs’ approach to squad building during the winter window, while supporters have rated the overall business very poorly.
With deadline day now behind the club, Johan Lange has opened up on the January window, breaking down Tottenham’s strategy and decision-making when speaking to the club’s official channels.
Johan Lange explains Tottenham January transfer strategy
Speaking to Tottenham’s in-house media team, Lange began by outlining why January was always expected to be a challenging window across European football, before offering his assessment of Spurs’ own activity.
He said: “Yes, firstly, this is always an issue I enjoy doing because I think this gives me and us a great opportunity to communicate directly with the fans around the transfer periods.
“I saw this window here as one of the quieter January windows across not only the Premier League, but across football in general. I think there were, including free transfers, 33 transfers across the Premier League. That is a result of especially the new format in Europe.
“Now we have clubs competing in either Champions League or Europa League during December and of course during the last part of January as well – 48 teams progressing further in the European competitions after the window.
“I think we saw that a little bit last year and I think we saw even more this year that have changed the dynamic a little bit of the January transfer window, with just less business being done.
“Of course, a knock-on effect of the increased fixture schedule is also that not only us, but a number of clubs would say that they have too many injuries. That meant that there were simply not many available players across the whole marketplace during January.”
He was then asked how Tottenham’s mounting injury list altered planning during the window and whether it forced a rethink behind the scenes.
Lange explained: “Yeah, of course, when we go into January, we did not anticipate that we would have seven injuries during the month of January.
“So, that of course changes things during the course of the window. It is very important, even though that is highly frustrating with all the injuries, to remain disciplined because, A, the players are coming back and, B, if you then go in and make a stress purchase of any football players, then yes, the immediate feeling it gives you is nice, but there is no point in signing players that have not helped us in the short term, in the medium term, or even in the long term.
“So, even though that is highly frustrating with all the injuries, the majority of the players will return this season, hopefully a few very soon. It is important as a club to remain disciplined and make sure we do our best, to our ability, to sign players that can genuinely help the team now or in the future.”
Johan Lange on long-term squad building at Spurs
The discussion then turned towards Tottenham’s wider recruitment discipline, particularly in the context of squad limits, financial regulations and expectations around ownership backing.
Speaking on those, the technical director said: “Again, it is for a number of reasons. First, a lot of our injured players will return in this season, hopefully a number of them quite shortly.
“There are also some limitations to how many players you can have in a squad to register them, but even though our financial situation under the rules is better than most clubs, and we have owners who are very willing to invest, it is important that we are under those rules.
“So, it is important that we sign the right players. I think also Thomas has been quite clear on two players we wanted to bring in, but it was not a lack of willingness from the club to make the investment to support the team.”
Finally, Lange addressed whether the lack of additions came down to availability or a deliberate focus on long-term squad building.
He added: “It is a bit of both, because we were very clear before the window that if there were players available that we were able to sign in this window that could help the team now, but of course also in the future, then we were ready to go.
“But when during the window you can see that some doors remain open, like, for instance, with Conor, some other doors close, then it is very important that you do not force yourself into making stress purchases, because that normally does not end well for anyone.”
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