Ange Postecoglou has admitted that Tottenham Hotspur “need to reinforce” their squad in the January transfer window.
Spurs have been hit by an injury crisis with seven players unavailable including first-choice centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero as well as goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
It is a situation which forced Postecoglou to name five teenagers and Brandon Austin on the bench for their 5-0 victory over Southampton on December 15. Austin, 25, came through the club’s academy but the back-up goalkeeper has never made a senior appearance for them.
Spurs have won two of their last six Premier League games and since the start of December rank bottom for goals conceded (12), shots faced (85), shots on target faced (37), expected goals against (14) and big chances against (25). Postecoglou was asked about potential transfer plans before their game against Nottingham Forest on December 26.
“We’ve been planning (and) a lot of it was going to be around where we’re at around this time,” he said. “We’re still a little bit short in a couple of areas and we need to reinforce.
“But January’s trickier in terms of what sort of players you can bring in. You want to bring in people who are going to make you stronger. I think the fact that we’re still in the Carabao Cup semi-final, still got (Europa League), FA Cup, we’re in all the competitions, it’s not like our schedule’s going to ease up at any stage. So I think it makes sense. We will try and reinforce where and what number we’ll have to wait and see.”
Spurs were one of the busiest clubs in the last January transfer window as they bought Radu Dragusin from Genoa for £25million, signed Timo Werner on loan and agreed a deal with Swedish side Djurgarden for Lucas Bergvall who officially joined them in July.
Ben Davies is due to return from injury before the end of the year while Van de Ven and Romero could be back at the beginning of January. Postecoglou spoke about the “balancing act” of bringing players in as quickly as possible but making sure they are the right players.
He said: “You don’t just want to panic and bring in anybody that you don’t think will help our cause in the back half of the year, but I think we’ve already shown we are pretty methodical and prudent about our work. We’ll make sure we’ll bring somebody in who is going to help us.”
After Spurs face Forest on Thursday they host Wolverhampton Wanderers on December 29 and start 2025 with a clash against Newcastle United.
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