They might not have been the most successful team over the last 15 years, but Tottenham Hotspur have been blessed with some ridiculously talented footballers.
For example, before his move to Bayern Munich, Harry Kane was undoubtedly the best striker in the Premier League and formed one of the best-attacking partnerships ever alongside Son Heung-min.
However, years before those two became the superstars they are, another Spurs attacker was the envy of the footballing world: Gareth Bale.
The Welsh legend was a force of nature for the Lilywhites and eventually netted the team a world record £85m, which was infamously spent on seven somewhat underwhelming signings, including one player who was supposedly more skilful than the Champions League winner, but is now struggling in the Greek Super League.
Spurs' not so magnificent seven
Yes, with the money made on Bale's sale, Daniel Levy and Co opted to splash the cash on seven new signings that summer, and while some of them panned out okay, most did not.
For example, while Roberto Soldado and Paulinho arrived with plenty of hype, the former due to his incredible goal record in Spain and the latter because of comparisons to Frank Lampard, neither one achieved much of anything at the club.
Likewise, while none of them were dreadful, Nacer Chadli, Etienne Capoue and Vlad Chiriches all left the North Londoners within three years, leaving little to no mark on the club whatsoever.
However, while five of the seven arrivals left arguably as flops, there were two who certainly had more of a positive impact.
The first is Christan Eriksen, who was undoubtedly the most successful of the seven and made 305 appearances for the Lilywhites, scoring 69 goals and providing 88 assists before leaving to join Inter Milan in January 2020.
The final member of the not-so-magnificent seven wasn't as successful as the Dane, but he remained in North London for longer and certainly made his mark, although comparisons to Bale in the early days look even more ridiculous now that he's struggling in the Greek Super League.
The former Spurs star struggling in Greece
So, with six of the seven players already covered, it should come as no surprise that the player we are talking about is Erik Lamela.
The Argentine ace joined the North Londoners for around £25.8m in late August 2013, and while he wasn't as game-changing as Eriksen was, he was significantly more impactful than the other five players signed that summer.
In fact, to his credit, the Carapachay-born dynamo was the last man standing from the magnificent seven and ended up making 257 appearances for the club before joining Sevilla as part of a swap deal in July 2021.
In those appearances, the 32-year-old scored 37 goals, provided 44 assists and occasionally showed real glimpses of quality, such as his Puskas-winning goal in the North London Derby.
While these moments helped justify the money spent on him, he could never quite live up to the expectations people had of him when he first arrived in N17, especially after club legend Ossie Ardiles proclaimed that he was "more skilled than Bale."
Such comments look even more outrageous today, as after three middling seasons at Sevilla, the 25-capped international joined Greek side AEK Athens, and while he's not been woeful, he hasn't been great either.
In 13 appearances across all competitions, the former Spurs star has failed to score a single goal and has just three assists to his name, which is not the sort of output you would expect from someone of his ability.
Ultimately, despite being a decent servant to the club, Lamela could never live up to the expectations people had of him at Spurs, and it looks like that may be happening to him again, only this time in Greece.