Five Tottenham transfers Johan Lange can still sign off for Ange Postecoglou before deadline day

Here we take a look at five transfers that could still come to fruition at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ahead of Friday’s 11pm transfer deadline

The 77th minute of Tottenham’s 4-0 win over Everton highlighted just what Micky van de Ven is all about. Gaining possession of the ball on the edge of his own box as Dwight McNeil tried to pick out an Everton teammate, the Spurs defender kept on running and running and running.

Now on the edge of the Toffees’ 18-yard area, Van de Ven slipped the ball to his left and that allowed Son Heung-min to convert beyond Jordan Pickford to make it 4-0. The pace, power and quality on the ball was all on show from Van de Ven, which is why he is the perfect defender for Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham system.

Rewind back to the 39th minute of the contest and Van de Ven was perhaps incredibly lucky to still be on the pitch so late in the game. Competing for the ball with McNeil just inside the Tottenham half, the 23-year-old tried to hook the ball away with his right foot but when he planted his foot on the ground he subsequently appeared to jar his knee.

It looked incredibly nasty and it was no surprise to see the defender immediately go down in agony. Looking very likely to come off as Radu Dragusin went to warm up down the touchline before he was told to come back and get ready, Van de Ven eventually got back to his feet and returned to the field after treatment.

Possibly looking like one of those situations where a player sees out the half only to come off at the break following a half-time assessment, the ex-Wolfsburg man returned for the second half and delivered a standout performance as he frustrated Everton at both ends of the pitch. Van de Ven certainly caught Postecoglou’s eye across the 90 minutes and he duly came in for praise from his head coach after the game.

“Yeah, outstanding. I mean he’s a pretty special footballer,” said the Australian. “Last year when we had that back four up and running, we were a pretty compelling team, but we also know we can’t just keep putting them out there and I think with Romero, Micky and Destiny, they’re not at peak fitness at the moment and they all sort of missed pre-season.

“So we knew sort of this two or three weeks, we saw it last week about the 60 minute mark, they really started to fatigue and we’ve just got to be really careful with them. But if we can get through the international break, then once the midweek games start, we can start rotating a little bit and, you know, because we need them at the peak of their performance because when they’re like that, they’re outstanding footballers.”

On the injury scare, he added: “Yeah, I was worried, obviously but I’m worried about all of my boys mate. They’re all special to me. You certainly don’t want anything, particularly when it’s something awkward like that.

“There’s a real fear [in that moment] that it could be something but speaking to him, he handled it ok and he said he was fine after a couple of minutes. He is important to us but they’re all important. That’s why we’ve tried to create a squad where we’re not going to just be putting him out there week after week.”

Rotation over the coming weeks is going to be key, especially with Tottenham set to return to European action towards the end of September following their qualification for the Europa League. Due to the new format UEFA are introducing, Tottenham will face eight games in the league phase and then they also have Carabao Cup football to contend with as they enter the competition at the third round.

Tottenham are well stocked in certain areas of the pitch but they are still a tad light when it comes to their centre-back options. If Van de Ven had ended up leaving the pitch in the first half through injury, the north London club only have Dragusin as an available out-and-out centre-back following Ashley Phillips’ loan move to Stoke City.

Ben Davies is of course someone else who can play there but he is not a centre-back by trade and very much an emergency option if required, as was the case last season when Cristian Romero and Van de Ven were missing towards the end of 2023. Postecoglou mentioned towards the end of last season that he would like another centre-back signing for the new term but as of yet Tottenham have failed to strengthen there.

Quite what happens in the final week of the transfer window remains to be seen, with clubs having until 11pm on Friday, August 30 to complete any remaining business. The last thing Tottenham want to do is go into three competitions too short in such a crucial area of the pitch with such a hectic calendar to come.

A busy transfer window for the club so far, all Tottenham supporters will have their fingers crossed that a new centre-back is on the books by the time the team travel to Newcastle United next Sunday.