Tottenham’s belated squad overhaul has left Antonio Conte in a tough position with the January transfer window closing in a matter of hours.
Former boss Mauricio Pochettino continually called for the club’s hierarchy to revamp his squad during the closing stages of his tenure in charge.
For the most part, those calls were not heeded by Daniel Levy and the rest of his team, with the squad stagnating as a result, which led to a downturn in performances.
With Conte having pushed for an overhaul to take place since he was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s replacement as manager, Levy is finally listening.
Major progress has been made this month in giving the Spurs squad a much-needed facelift, though it has left Conte looking short on numbers.
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Dele Alli looks likely to be the fifth player to leave the club this month, with Everton closing in on completing a free transfer to Everton.
When Alli does complete that anticipated move to Goodison Park, it will leave only four players remaining from the 11 who started the 2019 Champions League final for Spurs.
Hugo Lloris, Harry Winks, Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son will be the final survivors from that team.
Following that game, which Liverpool won, Pochettino called for Levy to begin a ruthless rebuild to maintain the momentum at the club.
“When you talk about Tottenham, everyone says you have an amazing house but you need to put in the furniture,” Pochettino said after the defeat in Madrid.
“If you want to have a lovely house maybe you need better furniture, and it depends on your budget if you are going to spend money.
“We need to be respectful with teams like Manchester City or Liverpool who spend a lot of money. We are brave, we are clever, we are creative.
“Now it’s about creating another chapter and to have the clear idea of how we are going to build that new project. We need to rebuild. It's going to be painful.”
Pochettino’s prediction that it would be “painful” turned out to be accurate, but more for the length of time that it took them.
Kieran Trippier was an immediate casualty, joining Atletico Madrid for £20million in the summer of 2019.
But it took six months for the next player to depart, with Christien Eriksen complete a move to Inter Milan in January 2020.
Eriksen was followed by Jan Vertonghan, but his free transfer to Benfica took another six months to take place.
The rest of the clearout has come this season, with Toby Alderweireld moving to Qatar, while Danny Rose and Moussa Sissoko both joined Watford in the summer.
The length on time that it has taken for a rebuild to get underway has been excruitating and left Conte facing a difficult second half of the campaign.
Alli will soon join Jack Clarke, Tanguy Ndombele, Bryan Gil and Giovanni Lo Celso in leaving this month.
But there is little sign of a plan to replace them, with Spurs now left scrambling to replace the players they have allowed to depart.
With Spurs still in contention for a top four place, that is not the status that Conte will want his squad to be in heading into a crucial four months.
