Tottenham Hotspur’s ambitious summer spending spree has seen the club target a variety of different types of players.They have signed experienced free agents in Andy Robertson, 32, Martin Dubravka, 37, and Marco Senesi, 29; expensive but talented youngsters in 22-year-olds Mateus Fernandes and Savio; and a coveted star in his prime in Sandro Tonali – the club’s first £100million player at age 26.Spurs have looked down the footballing food chain to sign Fernandes from West Ham United and Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton & Hove Albion, and up it to land Manchester City’s Savio and potentially his City team-mate, Omar Marmoush, too.But the one thing that all of these new and proposed signings have in common is that they are coming from other Premier League clubs.Tottenham are the only top-flight side yet to make a signing from outside their own division this summer, with experience in the English top flight seemingly the one prerequisite for additions in the current window.Sandro Tonali became Tottenham’s first £100m signing this summer (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)Spurs have added a combined 960 Premier League appearances to coach Roberto De Zerbi’s squad via these deals, and that will increase to nearly four figures if they land Marmoush (37 games), as expected. No other club comes close.There is a huge upside to this approach. Conventional wisdom dictates that signings from another league must adapt to English football. That could take 10 games, an entire season or might never happen at all.In signing Premier League players, De Zerbi and the club are aiming to minimise risk and ensure the team hits the ground running for the 2026-27 campaign after consecutive 17th-place finishes. You wonder if the approach is a consequence of handing so much power to their Italian head coach.While clubs can afford to think long-term, given the choice, most managers and coaches would rather make ‘oven-ready’ signings, particularly when there is so little patience afforded to their profession in the modern game and they will be the one whose job is on the line if the team struggle.There is little incentive for De Zerbi, who has never stayed at a club for more than three seasons in a 13-year managerial career, to take a longer-term view – hence Spurs effectively swapping Van Hecke (106 Premier League appearances) for Luka Vuskovic, who went the other way to Brighton having never made an appearance in English football.Luka Vuskovic was among the players sold to help fund Tottenham’s summer splurge (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)Buying from within the Premier League literally comes at an eye-watering price, however, which is reflected in the fees Spurs have been paying over the past few months.Van Hecke cost £52million, despite having just a year remaining on his contract – leading ex-chairman Daniel Levy to allegedly tell talkSPORT radio broadcaster Simon Jordan that his former club had “their pants pulled down” by the Sussex club.