Tottenham have moved with uncharacteristic efficiency to plug the two biggest holes in their squad, signing Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen from Southampton and AZ Alkmaar respectively, barely a week into preseason.
Spurs hope to do more business in the next six weeks but their first summer signings are long overdue. The club tried unsuccessfully to recruit Wanyama and West Brom's Saido Berahino last summer but Mauricio Pochettino, a principled pragmatist, preferred to make do with one specialist holding midfielder in Eric Dier and one "proper striker" -- the manager's words -- in Harry Kane, despite his chairman's offers of alternatives.
Transfer complete: Vincent Janssen signs. Full story here - https://t.co/raDxvj1Lw4 pic.twitter.com/wcpzvVmBou
- Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) July 12, 2016
Pochettino's gamble paid off as Spurs qualified for the Champions League but at times last season both Dier and Kane resembled human endurance experiments. Kane started every league game, while Dier missed just one through suspension and played in nine out of 10 Europa League fixtures. With Spurs returning to Europe's premier competition and plotting another title challenge, the situation could not continue.
Wanyama, a holding midfielder, provides competition for Dier, which will allow the England man a rest and will free him up to deputise at centre-back when needed. Wanyama, who was brought to Southampton by Pochettino during his spell there, boasts Champions League experience with Celtic and also offers the manager the option to play two defensive-minded midfielders.
Kane was substituted seven times in the Premier League last season and just once before the 84th minute -- a remarkable feat for a player who routinely runs more than 12 kilometres per match. Janssen, the first striker Spurs have signed since Roberto Soldado in summer 2013, is a canny finisher with both feet. He will be a like-for-like alternative from the bench, something that may have turned Spurs' 13 league draws last season into crucial victories, and a possible partner for the 22-year-old England international.
"People can say what they want but I'm not afraid of anybody. He [Kane] is a great striker but we naturally see how it goes. We can complement each other and I think I can learn a lot from him," Janssen said last Friday.
Pochettino has stuck to one striker at Tottenham but this is a consequence of a lack of options, rather than tactical rigidity. In 2014-15, Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor offered next to no competition for Kane, while last season Son Heung-Min, Nacer Chadli and Clinton Njie were all used as auxiliary strikers with limited success.
Son's only impressive display up front came against Azerbaijani side Qarabag, and the South Korean and Chadli made no impact on Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League round of 16. Third-seeds Tottenham could face two or three teams in the Germans' class in the Champions League group stage and they cannot afford to continue relying on passengers.
Pochettino used Rickie Lambert and Dani Osvaldo in tandem at Southampton and Janssen offers him the intriguing option of playing with two centre-forwards.
"If you have two unbelievable strikers, then I am not stupid. Why not [play them together]? When you have good players, you can't put them on the bench. The good players always need to be on the pitch," Pochettino said in January.
Pochettino prefers to bed in new signings slowly, allowing them to adjust to his physical and tactical demands, but there is every chance both Wanyama and Janssen will start the season in his first XI. Mousa Dembele is suspended for the first three matches of the campaign, allowing Wanyama to immediately stake his claim, while there is no guarantee that Kane will be ready to face Everton on Aug. 13 after a second successive summer of international football.
With Dembele and Kane available and firing, however, it's unlikely Spurs new additions will be Premier League starters in the early months of the campaign but last season they fell short due to a lack of squad depth, rather than a weak first XI. Wanyama and Janssen go a long way to addressing that issue.