Tottenham’s Mateus Fernandes coup is a big-club move. At last, they are serious
It is time, at last, for Tottenham to be serious.
The club will have broken their transfer record if they go on to complete the signing of Mateus Fernandes from West Ham United. The Portuguese midfielder has a progressive profile that Spurs have been lacking for several seasons and so Fernandes’ arrival, for a fee of £85million ($112.7m), would hopefully cure a range of technical problems and make Roberto De Zerbi’s side more potent, more dangerous and — ultimately — more equipped to compete in the Premier League.
But the abstract worth of this moment is more valuable.
The club’s fans have been here before, refreshing social media and begging for updates about a transfer saga that, deep down, they knew would swing in someone else’s direction. Think of Sadio Mane before he joined Liverpool. Eden Hazard before he left Lille and moved to Chelsea. Or, more recently, Eberechi Eze and Antoine Semenyo last summer. They eventually became Arsenal and Manchester City players.
Those situations were not all the same. But if there is a commonality, then it was in knowing — or at least suspecting — that during the hours that mattered most, when it was time pay up and mean business, Spurs would come up short.
They would always have a good reason for doing so. It could be rationalised as deference to the wage structure or another club’s financial advantage, but the result would be the same: no player, no improvement, no steps forward.
Well, not quite no player. One of Tottenham’s worst tendencies over the past few decades was to identify a player, be outmuscled in their attempt to sign him, and then settle for someone cheaper and worse. Less aiming for the moon and landing in the stars, more wanting Mateo Musacchio and instead signing Federico Fazio.
Or nearly signing Joao Moutinho, but actually buying Lewis Holtby six months later.
It was always fine, OK, better than nothing — acceptable because others had it much, much worse.
Deep down, though, those moments were accompanied by the knowledge that it was a corner cut and that, because modern football teams are so good at finding and exploiting each other’s weaknesses, it would come at a cost within one of those games that decides a season.
A botched clearance. A missed header. A pass not seen or a chance not taken.
The point is not to denigrate the players from Tottenham’s past, but to express frustration with the habit with which they are associated — of wanting to be seen as a big club, but without having to actually behave and spend like one. But this is a big-club move. At least in terms of being a deal proportionate to the grandeur of the stadium Tottenham call home and the prices they charge for admission. Those sums matter and on this occasion they add up.
And it’s still June. Spurs have long had the reputation of dalliers. They have always wanted the best deal and if that has come at the cost of a few weeks or even a month, then they were willing to accept that inconvenience. If it meant losing the player altogether then, at times, they would suffer that too.
There’s merit to such prudence and to sensible moves within an industry that does not always behave logically. But that mindset needs to incorporate the realities of Premier League football. It starts in August, not after the first international break in September. New signings always, always benefit from spending pre-season with their new team-mates. And, most importantly, the game is played on the pitch, where the good teams are those that take what they want, when they want it.
Sometimes the price is just the price. It’s not always possible to get the player and to win the deal. Spurs appear to understand that now.
This summer, they have already spent over £50m on Jan Paul van Hecke, who had one year left on his Brighton contract. They have probably overspent. But what is that perception of value actually worth? Is it more precious than an excellent centre-back?
No signing is ever a guaranteed success and Fernandes, like Van Hecke and anyone else moving this summer, will be subject to all sorts of variables that nobody can foresee.
But it is the trying that matters most here — the intent. Supporters are often accused of just wanting success. It’s not true. What they really want is the opportunity to feel as if they are on a journey towards something. That’s why people keep going back, buying tickets or getting up at stupid times in the morning to watch games. All they require in return is evidence that the club want that better tomorrow in the same way.
Tottenham have not always done that and they are not necessarily doing that now. Last season was very nearly an historic catastrophe and the arrival of a single midfielder does not guarantee a long-term change of thinking. But this is different enough to be welcome, and it’s a new way to feel at the end of a story which, with Manchester United lurking, seemed horribly familiar.
