Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou has hinted that his side will be active in the January transfer window and will try to get any mid-season business done as early as possible.
The Lilywhites' summer recruitment drive has proven to be a huge success so far, as James Maddison, Guglielmo Vicario and Micky van de Ven have all shone during their surge to the top of the Premier League table.
The captures of Manor Solomon, Brennan Johnson and Alejo Veliz have also bolstered Spurs' youthful talent in attack, while highly-rated defender Ashley Phillips also arrived on the cheap from Blackburn Rovers.
Despite their record-breaking start under Postecoglou, who has taken 26 points from his opening 10 games as a Premier League manager, the Lilywhites are still being tipped to add to their ranks midway through the campaign.
A new centre-back and striker will allegedly be targeted by the North London giants, who will soon welcome Rob Mackenzie and Johan Lange to their new roles as chief scout and technical director respectively.
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Ahead of the pair's arrivals, Postecoglou told the media on Friday that he would ideally like to welcome any new players to the club as early as possible in January, saying: "It is important they come in now. The January window, like for every club, is an important one.
"My view on the January one is that if you can get your business done early in the window it certainly is more helpful because you leave it until the end of January and sometimes what you train to gain you've missed that opportunity by waiting a whole month.
"That's sometimes out of your control so having Johan in is good. I'm sure we'll have a lot of discussions between now and then and I'm looking forward to working with him."
Over the past two years, Tottenham have struck January deals for Rodrigo Bentancur, Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro, the former two of whom were crucial to Spurs' top-four finish in the 2021-22 campaign.
Meanwhile, Porro has ousted Emerson Royal to become Spurs' first-choice right-back in Postecoglou's four-man backline and will be expected to keep his spot against Chelsea, whose lavish spending often dominated the headlines in the summer window.
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The Blues forked out a whopping £345.9m on new players ahead of the 2023-24 season, albeit while making plenty of big sales, but Postecoglou aimed a dig at Chelsea's spending ahead of Monday's derby, claiming that he would prefer a committed 24-man squad than a group of the world's best players.
"Just spending endless money to get the best players has been proven time and time again is not the answer," the Australian added when asked if he would like a similar transfer kitty to Chelsea.
"The answer is to get the right chemistry in your team, in your squad, to have 24 players committed to one cause. I don't think you can do that If you just get the 24 best players in the world. That's a headache I definitely don't want."
In terms of possible January targets, Tottenham are believed to be weighing up a move for Al-Ittihad attacker Jota, who has been frozen out of the Saudi Pro League side's squad due to the limit on foreign players.
Jota was a key cog in Postecoglou's treble-winning Celtic squad, but the Lilywhites would apparently only consider a loan in January given his recent lack of domestic action.
Ben Knapton
