Jamie O’Hara has pinpointed where Tottenham Hotspur have gone wrong with their recruitment over recent years and has advised his club to change one aspect of their transfer policy if they want to compete near the top end of the Premier League again.
Under Ange Postecoglou and Johan Lange, Spurs have prioritised signing young, up-and-coming talent rather than finished products.
While it is hard to argue that the policy has not worked, given the progress that the likes of Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert have made, the lack of experience in their squad has come back to haunt the Lilywhites at times this season, especially when they were missing key players due to injury.
Tottenham may not be able to finalise their transfer plans just yet as we still do not know who will be the Spurs head coach in the summer, but O’Hara believes that one aspect of the club’s recruitment strategy has to change, no matter who is in charge.
Jamie O’Hara urges Tottenham to follow Aston Villa’s example
O’Hara pointed out that even when Tottenham spend big on certain players, they do not do so on ones with experience of playing at the highest level and winning trophies.
The pundit suggested that Spurs should be doing more of their shopping from top European sides rather than from the likes of Bournemouth if they are to turn things around next season.
O’Hara told Grosvenor Sport: “When was the last time Tottenham signed someone from a top club? Spurs are signing players from Burnley, Everton and Bournemouth. I mean no disrespect, but these clubs aren’t usually associated with challenging for European football. I know Bournemouth are doing well this season, but they finished in the bottom half last year.
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“It’s no surprise that Spurs are near the bottom of the Premier League when they’ve signed players from teams that compete in the lower end of the table. They need to sign players from clubs in the Champions League; sign players like Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, which is what Aston Villa have done.”
“You might be the best player at Bournemouth, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be the best player at Tottenham. They’ve had players in the past like Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane – this calibre of player isn’t found at Spurs anymore.”
Spurs squad is crying out for experience
There is no doubt that this Spurs squad has a lot of world-class young talent, and they could achieve some big things with a little sprinkling of experienced heads.
O’Hara is right in identifying the lack of experienced winners as an issue, but you do not always need to sign players from big clubs to solve that issue. In fact, O’Hara names Berbatov, who Spurs signed from Bayer Leverkusen and Robbie Keane, who they got from Leeds.