All eyes were on Daniel Levy to see whether the Tottenham chairman would improve Antonio Conte's prospects for the second half of the season during the January transfer window. The answer was just about, while leaving everyone wanting that little bit more.
football.london reported back in December that Spurs' priorities for the January transfer window were a new right wing-back and an attacking player. Both of those were delivered in the club's top target Pedro Porro and also Arnaut Danjuma.
The problem though lies with the different interpretations of what those priorities should have been. For most people looking in from the outside, including the Spurs fans, they have seen a team ship 21 goals in 10 games yet score the third highest amount of goals in the Premier League at the other end. So the addition of an attacking wing-back, when they signed a third one in the summer, and a new forward appeared to be less important than bringing in an upgrade at centre-back.
READ MORE: Bryan Gil explains exactly why he left Tottenham to join Sevilla on loan
Conte no doubt would point to four clean sheets in the past six games as proof the defensive work is improving, although two of those matches have come against lower league opposition.
Tottenham's two signings could well end up having the same transformative effect that both Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur did last season.
Getting the perfect fit of a right wing-back to make Conte's system click into gear was an important step and Porro could potentially become world class in the role if he continues to develop at the rapid pace he has in recent seasons.
That he was Spurs' top target for months yet was announced 10 minutes before the 11pm transfer deadline shows what a protracted and complicated transfer it was. There's a certain irony that for a deal that would go a long way to deciding the level of vitriol aimed towards Levy, he would end up having to negotiate with a club that did so in a similarly difficult way to him.
Sporting had no real desire to sell Porro and that was made clear for weeks. There is also the question of a release clause that, depending on who you speak to, was only active for the first two weeks of the window; or had a notice period that had to be triggered; or according to some was only active in the summer.
Then when Spurs thought they were getting somewhere, Sporting dragged out negotiations and problems arose on Sunday, causing a scheduled Monday medical to be cancelled, a very unhappy player who wanted the move, and left the whole deal hanging in the balance.
Amid plenty of posturing and brinkmanship, the two clubs returned to talks on Monday and eventually differences were overcome. A deal was thrashed out that would help Sporting get around various financial commitments they had in allowing them to register the sale in the next financial year through a loan with an obligation to buy with a total sum of around €45million (£39.5million) which will see the player's registration transferred on July 1.
There are also some suggestions that Sporting would have had to pay Manchester City a bigger sell-on fee had they sold Porro within a quicker timeframe and this being a loan move prevents that. Reports in Portugal also claim that Tottenham have scaled their sell-on clause for Marcus Edwards down to 30% from what was around 45% after it was transferred during his move from Vitoria, having originally been 50%.
For Spurs the deal for Porro is being seen as a permanent move in all but name as it's little different financially to such a move with the instalment process now simply including the loan fee as the first of those payments. In the end they got their man, Porro will wear the No.23 shirt and he will be a big weapon in this Conte team, having grabbed 11 assists and three goals for Sporting in the first half of their season.
To make room for him, Tottenham pretty much took a wrecking ball to the rest of the right wing-back department.
Djed Spence only signed for Spurs six months ago but after being labelled a 'club signing' by Conte and handed only 41 minutes of football, he has already exited to Rennes on loan, joining up with Tottenham team-mate Joe Rodon. Neither Spence nor the north London club wanted an option or obligation to buy inserted in any deal and turned down such offers, including one from Brentford with an obligation.
Instead the 22-year-old had the choice of five clubs from across Europe and he rejected the likes of Atletico Madrid and Sassuolo in favour of week in, week out football at the French club. It was a clever move armed with the knowledge that Rennes had just lost captain Hamari Traore to an injury lay-off that could be two months or more after other injuries in that position, meaning Spence has a free run at games galore to develop himself in top flight football.
Then there is the curious case of Matt Doherty. Early on in January, few people believed the Irishman would be leaving the club in the January window, not least the player nor his close friends Harry Kane and Eric Dier.
Yet as the weeks wore on and Emerson Royal was proving more and more difficult to shift, it became clear that Doherty might have to move on for minutes if an exit route opened up.
It ended up being Atletico yet again who raised their hand, having clearly become fascinated by Spurs full-backs after signing Kieran Trippier, then Sergio Reguilon and trying to buy Emerson and Spence. Now they turned their attention to Doherty.
That's when it all got a bit messy. On Tuesday morning Doherty was all set to leave on a loan deal without an option or obligation to buy and he was in Madrid to complete the final details of the move.
However, at some point during the process somebody within Spurs must have realised that with Spence heading out on loan, the club had now reached the limit imposed in recently-changed FIFA rules that dictate you must have only eight players out on international loans at any one time.
Spurs already had Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, Reguilon, Bryan Gil, Harry Winks, Rodon, Spence and Destiny Udogie out on loan. From that alone it's worth noting that the club's transfer policies have been so poor and their ability to sell players so bad that they have seven signings that cost them around £215million sitting out on loan at other clubs.
What it also meant was that Doherty could not, by FIFA rules, go out on loan and a compromise had to be found - one that nobody was expecting. The decision was taken to mutually terminate the Republic of Ireland international's contract and he joined Atletico on a short six-month deal.
Spurs had mutually terminated Serge Aurier's contract in 2021 but the Ivorian's deal only had a year remaining, while Doherty had a full 18 months to go. The Irishman would have needed assurances that he would be financially recompensed in case Atletico did not choose to keep him on beyond the summer.
It meant that the Tottenham squad lost a popular, senior player who was doing a job for Conte in the role asked of him. The club also lost any potential fee they might have got for him in the summer, however small, and meant that in essence the decision to bring in Porro was even more expensive than first thought.
football.london understands that Doherty's Spurs team-mates were shocked when they suddenly found out the news on Tuesday that he was leaving permanently.
Doherty's exit also means that only Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg remains in a Tottenham shirt this season from the summer transfer window of 2020 under Jose Mourinho. Gareth Bale, Joe Hart, Doherty and Carlos Vinicius have since departed permanently, while Reguilon and Rodon are away on loan. Just two and a half years on and a near entire transfer window of work has already been deemed not good enough for Spurs, a damning indictment of the efforts in the market.
The other changes this January came up front. After exploring the possibility of signing Leandro Trossard, Spurs moved for Arnaut Danjuma, snatched from under the noses of Everton after he was all about announced by the Liverpool-based club. The Netherlands international, who turned 26 on transfer deadline day, arrived on loan from Villarreal but with a €24million (£21.2million) option to buy.
The Lagos-born attacker will be a important asset for Conte with his strength and ability to run at opponents and his versatility to play down the left and has already got off the mark with his debut goal in the FA Cup tie at Preston.
Danjuma will replace Bryan Gil, who has returned to Sevilla in a loan move that means in selling Gil to Spurs back in 2021, the Spanish club got £21million, Erik Lamela and Bryan Gil. A fine deal if you can get it.
For all of the little Spaniard's obvious potential and talent, Conte will prefer Danjuma as the more ready-made player who fits the physical profile he looks for in all of his players.
It's no coincidence that Spence and Gil have both gone out on loan without options to buy, for with Conte's future still unclear, there will be a line of thought that he may not be there when they return and who knows what a manager who relishes working with young players could do with them?
The only other arrival in the window was one for the academy as a deal to sign young Chelsea forward Jude Soonsup-Bell was done, seeing off competitors in Manchester City and other clubs across Europe.
Spurs swooped for Soonsup-Bell after contract talks between the Blues and the striker, who turned 19 this month, stalled. The forward is highly regarded at Chelsea but is understood to have wanted a clearer path to first team football and with his contract running into its final six months the Blues had to let him go.
The teenager moves across London on a free transfer but with Chelsea holding a sell-on clause. The move will initially bolster Spurs' academy but with the prospect of a summer loan for Soonsup-Bell, who made his Chelsea debut under Thomas Tuchel in the Carabao Cup last season.
Tottenham also showed interest in Southampton's 18-year-old defender Thierry Small early in the window but did not follow up on that as the weeks wore on and on deadline day the pacey left-back moved on loan to Scottish outfit St Mirren for the remainder of the season.
There were young players who headed out of Spurs. Harvey White will finally get some game time at Derby on loan after two seasons spent making up the numbers at Tottenham, although the 21-year-old was rewarded with his Premier League debut this month in the 4-0 win at Crystal Palace.
Eighteen-year-old goalkeeper Adam Hayton left permanently for Barnsley, just six months after signing his first professional contract with Spurs.
In terms of potential first team deals, there were some that did not go through. Spurs would have been happy for both Lucas Moura, with six months left on his contract, and Davinson Sanchez, who has 18 months left on his, to leave the club in the window but neither move materialised despite the club's attempts to find them deals, including in the final days.
football.london understands that Lucas in particular, after an injury-ravaged season, had offers from Premier League clubs and a lucrative one from Qatar, but nothing caught the eye of a player who will have a wider selection of options as a free agent this summer.
Oliver Skipp was open to a loan move to get his match sharpness back, having fallen down the pecking order below Pape Matar Sarr, who has missed recent matches with a small hip injury. Crystal Palace, Fulham, Leeds and Bournemouth were among the clubs keen to take Skipp, but Conte is believed to have rejected any prospect of a loan move as he rates Skipp highly and was wary of leaving himself short on numbers in central midfield.
So Tottenham find themselves with a squad that has been upgraded in Conte's eyes in a couple of key positions, Porro a potential game-changer on the right and Danjuma a more battle-ready attacking option for the Italian to change matches with and competition to push Son and Richarlison to the performances they are capable of.
Yet centre-back still feels like an area of missed opportunity, although Tottenham will say that there is little point in signing players for the sake of it when their top targets are not available until the summer.
In that football.london report from December on the priorities for the January transfer window, it was also stated that Spurs' summer plan was two sign two centre-backs, one for the left and the other for the centre/right, as well as securing the long-term goalkeeper successor to Hugo Lloris.
Spurs' top centre-back targets in the past year have included RB Leipzig's Josko Gvardiol and Inter's Alessandro Bastoni, while they also made an enquiry about Bayer Leverkusen's Piero Hincapie this month. They are also big admirers of Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi. None of those four players were available in the January window, and it's unlikely Gvardiol will fall within Spurs' range next summer either due to the elite competition for his services.
One defender who Tottenham had scouted extensively and really liked was Illya Zabarnyi. However, on Tuesday they watched on as the highly-rated 20-year-old put pen to paper for Bournemouth on deadline day in a £20million deal.
Perhaps Spurs thought signing another young prospect for Conte was pointless compared to what they already had and maybe they thought that with Bournemouth in the relegation zone, the young centre-back could be back on the market in the summer anyway? They will hope they have not missed a trick though on a player many expect to become a star.
It has been a strange transfer window at the club, particularly with the shock waves caused by the 30-month ban dished out to managing director of football Fabio Paratici by the Italian football federation, with Spurs bracing themselves for it to be extended globally.
Some agents have spoken of their surprise at finding the Italian in meetings with them and leading discussions, or dealing with them over the phone with everything seemingly 'business as normal' in the wake of the verdict in Italy.
Conte will deliver his public verdict on Tottenham's transfer window in his press conference on Friday afternoon. While this time he has not been numerically disadvantaged by the January transfer window as he was a year ago, he will no doubt once again make clear the difference in spending between Spurs and their rivals.
Chelsea have spent a eye-watering £340million this month on nine players while Arsenal splashed out around £60million across three new recruits and had been willing to spend more than that amount alone on Brighton's Moises Caicedo but the Seagulls were not letting go of the midfielder.
This is where Spurs will be judged by their fans, in relation to their London rivals, and even more so once they finally release their long-ready most recent financial results this month.
Tottenham will no doubt point to their other rivals in the upper reaches with Manchester United completing three loan deals, Newcastle spending roughly similar to Spurs if we're to see Porro as the permanent deal it really is, while Manchester City paid only £8m and Liverpool £35.4m, both on one player. Yet if those financial results show huge profits then the Tottenham fans will only take one opinion away from them - the club could have done more.
This transfer window was one of progress and as Conte himself has said, the club's transformation will be made across multiple transfer windows, but we'll find out on the pitch over the next four months whether it's happening fast enough for the likes of Conte, Kane, Levy and ultimately Tottenham.
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