It is as if everyone at Tottenham Hotspur has suffered a collective bout of amnesia of late.
Some of it has been justified. When you have just watched two full Premier League campaigns of non-stop suffering and nearly been relegated, why wouldn’t fans be excited about making signings for £100m?
And supporters should be hopeful. They live to enjoy because they never know when they will have to live to merely endure again. That shouldn’t be the moxy with which the operators of a football club do their business, however.
On Monday evening, Tottenham announced they had tied Micky van de Ven to a new contract which will run until 2031. It was reported in his native Netherlands that he will earn €75m (£64m) across the length of that deal, roughly translating to £240,000 a week. This brings him in line with the club’s newest set of top earners, alongside Sandro Tonali, Conor Gallagher and Xavi Simons, all of whom were signed within the last 12 months.
It’s a clear pivot in strategy from Spurs to up their wage bill in order to beat rivals to key targets – Arsenal and Manchester City were keen on Tonali, Aston Villa thought they had Gallagher and Chelsea were interested in Simons.
