Tottenham haven’t always been a member of the Premier League’s elite, and so they’ve often needed to scour the transfer market for bargain buys.
Since the start of the Premier League era, the north Londoners have had an eye for a great deal, whether that meant taking a punt on a prodigious youngster or giving an older player their first shot at the Premier League.
Here are a few of the smartest pieces of business they’ve done since 1992.
Jurgen Klinsmann – £2m
Spurs manager Ossie Ardiles hailed Klinsmann as “one of the best players in the world” when the German arrived after the 1994 World Cup, and the £2million fee shrunk with every appearance.
The frontman hit 20 league goals in his one full Premier League season, before later coming back for a nine-in-15 loan stint, but his impact on the club went beyond the goals.
Without his arrival, we might not have seen supporters as open to foreign imports in the years that followed. Indeed, who knows if some of the others on this list would have arrived if attitudes had stayed as they were.
READ: A celebration of Jurgen Klinsmann & a signing that changed English football
David Ginola – £2.5m
Ginola was hardly an unknown quantity, having starred for Newcastle United’s nearly-men in the 1995-96 season, so the £2.5million Spurs forked out on the Frenchman certainly feels on the low side.
He was able to fit some sensational performances into his spell in north London, earning him a PFA Players’ Player of the Year award in 1999, and arguably played his best club football in a Tottenham shirt.
Simon Davies – £700,000
Any move for a talented youngster is a bit of a gamble when you have no idea how they’ll progress, but the deal for Davies was well worth the sub-£1million fee.
The Welshman joined from Peterborough as part of a deal that also included Matty Etherington – who also did a decent job for Spurs before becoming the makeweight in a deal for Fredi Kanouté – and became a key cog in…