With all the comings and goings at the top end of the Premier League, for Spurs, this is shaping up to be a critical summer, but not as they’d like…

Continued...

Chelsea have an intriguing new manager, and appear very much in the business of team strengthening, Man United have added young class to a title-winning side, Arsenal seem intent on shaking up a squad that’s continually fallen short, Man City have begun signing Champions League-quality players for their maiden Champions League campaign, and Liverpool have added the likes of Stuart Downing to a squad that was threatening a re-emergence under Kenny Dalglish in any case

But what of Spurs? Most of their transfer activity thus far has involved telling Chelsea where to shove their interest in their star player, which would be a perfectly admirable thing for any Premier League big hitter to do, where it not for the fact that they have history of doing just that in the past, only to flog him on deadline day (Berbatov to Man United, anyone?).

My point is that for all Harry Redknapp and Daniel Levy’s insistence that Luka Modric will be going nowhere, I’d still argue that there’s more chance he’ll be running out in a Chelsea shirt come the early weeks of September than a Spurs one.

When you consider that Spurs have yet to make any significant signs in the window either, it all points towards a club stagnating – or even moving backwards – while their rivals forge ahead.

Such is the nature of the Premier League these days that beneath the front-runners, there’s often very little separating a lower mid-table club than one fighting for a European place.

If Spurs don’t get their fingers out soon, I think they could find themselves stuck in mid-table mediocrity just one season after thrilling fans all over the world in the Champions League.

Here’s action from their adventure in Europe’s biggest club competition…

And here’s more…

The way things are going, I reckon this could be the last we see of Spurs in that particular competition for some time.