Tottenham will be busy in the summer transfer window that is for sure. Daniel Levy has promised as much.
The Spurs chairman, who is notoriously frugal, runs the club with a strict financial plan in place. Transfers will often be long, drawn-out sagas as the Tottenham supremo tries to get the very best deal for the club, taking moves to the last knockings of deadline day regularly.
However, with constant questions over Antonio Conte's long-term future in N17, Levy has moved to allay any fears the Italian might leave. He has done that by promising him transfer funds to improve the squad.
READ MORE: Every word Antonio Conte said on Tottenham's win over Burnley
Levy said: "When we reported our June 2021 year-end financial results we set out our vision for the club and underlined that, whilst we had invested significantly in the squad, we needed to improve our recruitment and the January transfer window showed how important this can be. We shall continue to support investment in both our first and women’s teams and our academy."
Conte is a winner. Qualifying for the Champions League next season would be big for Spurs, but Conte wants more. He wants trophies, titles, and he knows a lot needs to be done at Tottenham to compete with the likes of Premier League champions elect Manchester City and Champions League finalists Liverpool.
If Conte is to turn Tottenham into winners, he needs players who have been there and done it before. And if he gets his way he will go out and sign them this summer. Eric Dier has called on Conte to stay in N17 this summer and build on what he's already started and indications are that will be the case.
But, he already has a couple of them in his ranks, thanks to the work Fabio Paratici did in the January transfer window. Spurs were linked with numerous players in the winter window, but in the end only signed two. And those two were seen by many as last-ditch signings rather the pre-planned deals, given it was Paratici going back to his old club Juventus for two players the Old Lady did not want anymore - Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur - with Spurs rumoured to be keen on making a third transfer raid on Juventus this summer.
It felt to some like Juve had done Paratici a favour. And, given the second half of the season, it has come true, it was a massive favour to Tottenham, with the duo impressing in their first few months in England.
It takes many players who come in from foreign leagues time to adapt and get into the fast-paced Premier League environment. Not these two though.
Kulusevski has taken all the headlines, with eight assists since his first game in February. Only seven players have more assists than him this season and all of them have been here since the start of the campaign. But Bentancur has gone slightly under the radar. He sits in midfield, assessing all in front of him and creating a barrier with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in helping the back-line too.
At £21.5million he already looks a bargain. And he is one of those who has been there and done it on the biggest stages. He won the Primera Division with Boca Juniors twice, then won Serie A with Juventus three times, picking up the Coppa Italia twice along the way too. And at just 24 years of age he has a lengthy career ahead of him.
He has an 88.6% pass completion rate in the Premier League so far, putting him in the 85th percentile in the Premier League. He is also in the 90th percentile for ball carries. And when it comes to defending he is in the 94th percentile for blocks in the top flight and the 76th percentile for pressures.
He is the mould of a player who goes unnoticed during games, but does everything his manager asks of him. Granted his shooting needs honing and if he were to add some goals to his game he would be a standout midfielder in the league.
Against Burnley on Sunday he was constantly dictating the play - something that will not get spotted by the armchair fan, or even some of those in the stadium who cry out for the front players to be given the ball and show us their flair. Bentancur sits in front of the defence, telling them where to play the ball, or telling them where he wants it and then starts the ball rolling, never resting. If the ball is further up the pitch he joins in, offers himself as an outlet to switch the play from one side to the other.
What he lacks are those thread the needle passes to create big chances, and the aforementioned shooting is not exactly up to par, but Bentancur is a winner, he has shown that at Juventus. He can become a trusty steed of Antonio Conte next season and he and Tottenham proved in the narrow 1-0 win over Burnley they can grind out results when it matters most, something that has not always been the case watching Spurs.
Winning teams are built on those matches that need grit and determination to win them. You can't win three, four, five-nil every week. The 1-0s are key and Bentancur was at the heart of one on Sunday.
