Now worth £21m less: Spurs must regret making “ridiculous” 2020 signing..
As with all clubs, Tottenham Hotspur have made their fair share of ill-thought-out and expensive signings over the years.
The likes of Richarlison, Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso, while not necessarily bad players, are all examples of transfers that proved to be a massive waste of funds.
However, aside from the Brazilian, at least most of the club’s poor investments have been taken off the books in recent seasons.
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That said, there is a player who joined the club in 2020 for a sizable fee and has since seen his valuation crater, so when he does eventually leave N17, it will be for an enormous loss.
Spurs’ 2020 signings
While it would be fair to describe Tottenham’s signings in 2020 as mixed, that would imply there were at least a couple of successes in there, and the loaning in of Gareth Bale was certainly one of those.
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The Welsh icon returned to North London for the 20/21 season, and while he wasn’t the same player who left, he was still a great addition to the squad.
For example, in 34 appearances, totalling just 1680 minutes, the Cardiff-born star racked up an impressive tally of 16 goals and three assists.
That means he averaged a goal involvement every 1.78 games or every 88.42 minutes.
A far less successful signing that summer was Matt Doherty, who joined the North Londoners from Wolverhampton Wanderers in a £14.7m deal that August.
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Unfortunately for the Irish international, he would make 71 appearances for the first team across the next two and a half seasons, only to have his contract terminated by mutual agreement in January 2023, after which he joined Atlético Madrid for an even more unsuccessful six-month stint.
However, while Doherty’s time with Spurs was ultimately a failure, at least the club was able to cut their losses early and move on, which cannot be said about another player signed that summer.
