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.Lewis Holtby was not Joao Moutinho (Nigel French – PA Images via Getty Images)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.