Daniel Levy and Tottenham now need to step up their quest to strengthen at the heart of defence after making their first few moves in the summer transfer market. Having turned Dejan Kulusevski's 18-month loan deal from Juventus into a permanent transfer, Tuesday evening saw Guglielmo Vicario sign on the dotted line in N17 following a £16.3million switch from Empoli.
James Maddison was then announced as Tottenham's third signing of the summer 24 hours later after the Spurs chairman struck a £40million agreement with the Foxes for the highly-rated England international. Amid interest from Newcastle United in the attacking midfielder following their Champions League finish, the 26-year-old has instead opted to join Spurs despite the team having no European football on the calendar in 2023/24.
Defence is very much the priority for Tottenham this summer after their woes at the back last campaign and all will be hoping that Levy can bring in a new centre-back for head coach Ange Postecoglou. So far a number of names have been linked with a summer move to the Lilywhites, including Edmond Tapsoba, Micky van de Ven and Marc Guehi.
Tottenham like Tapsoba and the 24-year-old's pace and ability on the ball mark him out as a really good fit for Postecoglou's system. The Bayer Leverkusen man has made quite the impression during his time in Germany and a move away from the BayArena looks a real possibility in the not too distant future.
Linked with a move to Arsenal, the Burkina Faso international is valued at £26million by CIES Football Observatory. If it is indeed Tapsoba that Postecoglou and Levy lure to the club ahead of the new season, Tottenham need to keep one thing in mind when it comes to the player.
Already set to be without players such as Son Heung-min, Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr at the turn of the year with the Asian Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations set to get underway, Tapsoba will also be involved in the latter competition. Topping Group B in the qualification rounds, Burkina Faso will be looking to make their mark in the tournament when it kicks off in Ivory Coast on Saturday, January 13.
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The Africa Cup of Nations was due to be played this summer but it was instead pushed back to January in order to avoid Ivory Coast's rainy season. That in turn is going to hand Premier League managers a huge challenge as many will have players of either Asian or African descent who will now be departing to play for their country with two tournaments taking place at the same time.
Needing to bring in a top quality centre-back this summer to play alongside Cristian Romero, Spurs must be mindful that Tapsoba, providing of course that he is the defender they sign, could be missing for a period of time in January and potentially February depending on how Burkina Faso fare. Forward planning is going to be key for Postecoglou and Tottenham to ensure that they have sufficient cover at the back and the levels don't drop by some way if Tapsoba does sign and duly heads off in January.
If either Tapsoba, Bissouma or Sarr are to advance all the way in the Africa Cup of Nations, they could potentially miss seven Spurs games in total.
However, that will all depend on when exactly they depart for the tournament and how the Lilywhites do in both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. In January, the first and second legs of the Carabao Cup semi-final and fourth round of the FA Cup are on the agenda, as well as Tottenham's Premier League games against Manchester United and Brentford.
The beginning of February then sees the Lilywhites travel to Everton at the start of the month before then facing Brighton at home a week later. Set to be without some key faces early next year, Postecoglou and Tottenham are going to have to navigate it as best they possibly can until they all return to club football.
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