Have Tottenham turned over new leaf signing Robertson and Senesi? | OneFootball

Ollie Whitmore, Chief football news reporter

Tottenham’s summer has begun as quickly as it has proven cheap, with defenders Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi both confirmed as free transfers before the start of the 2026 World Cup on Thursday.

Roberto De Zerbi’s new employers moved quickly to secure the services of 32-year-old Robertson, whose time at Liverpool was confirmed to be end once the season was over back in April, with Senesi arriving today also for not one penny.

Spurs haven’t always been quite as frugal, nor successful in previous transfer markets, however, having spent an incredible £229m on this season’s arrivals only to finish 17th for the second season running and only confirm survival on the final day.

With Robertson and Senesi representing smart additions to a squad decimated by injuries, disillusioned by various managerial and tactical styles, and in desperate need of repair, have Tottenham already started to turn over a new leaf?

Where did Spurs’ downfall start?

It’s a question that many have tried numerous times to answer: how could a club whose current squad is valued in excess of £650m and one that reached a Champions League final in 2019 finish so low down the Premier League pecking order?

Though there are certainly a few points in time that present themselves as candidates for the inciting incident to Spurs’ misery, but some fans will look further back than this season, or indeed the last, going as far back as the summer window of 2018.

As The Athletic point out on a video published under their Tifo Football YouTube channel, it was during that summer when Spurs made history as the first club to not sign a player since its invention in 2003.

What’s perhaps more remarkable, though, is what Spurs did – or rather didn’t do – between that window and January 2019. During that period, Tottenham signed just a single player: Brazilian forward Lucas Moura.

Though his addition proved to be one of their best in recent years, scoring the last-minute winner to send his side past Ajax and into the 2018/19 Champions League final, such moments have been few and far between ever since.

It was Brenan Johnson who scored the winning goal against Manchester United to win the Europa League under Ange Postecoglou, an addition who arrived under Johan Lange once he had become the club’s sporting director in November 2023.

However, his future is no longer certain, having come in and out of the side and arguably being ill-fitted to De Zerbi’s preferred style of football, one that utilizes more conventional, pacey wingers instead of wide goal threats.

Tottenham spent a considerable length of time in football opting not to actively enhance their squad to go one step further than their defeat to Liverpool in the Champions League final, an issue that we’ll see Lange has been actively addressing.

Spurs’ underwhelming additions

A root cause of Spurs’ misery over the past two seasons is, undoubtedly, their transfer business. Xavi Simons, their most expensive signing in 2025/26 at roughly £56m, is currently recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury having been involved in just seven goals over the 28 matches he featured in, 19 of them starts.

The 23-year-old had registered 17 goal involvements in the Bundesliga for RB Leipzig, but was ultimately unable to maintain such form in the Premier League, albeit under two different managers – making his move across Europe at a young age burdened by a hefty transfer fee all the more challenging for the Dutchman.

Yet he did manage to outperform Paris Saint-Germain loanee Randal Kolo Muani, who is four years his senior and a more experienced forward but scored just one goal in 30 first-team appearances.

By comparison to other players who switched clubs for big money and can play out wide, former Bournemouth talisman Antoine Semenyo was snapped up for £65m by Manchester City and found his feet within a matter of matches.

The Ghanaian couldn’t stop scoring early on in his City career, and though the prize money for winning the FA Cup doesn’t even begin to repay the fee to bring him to the Etihad, fans will tell you his audacious winner was worth it on sight alone.

Indeed, Pep Guardiola argued in his post-match press conference that Semenyo was a “cheap” addition to his squad, with the transfer leading to the winning goal in English football’s showpiece fixture. It all worked out in the end.

“You can spend, I don’t know, how [ever] much money, and if it works it’s cheap,” Guardiola said. “You can spend less money and if it’s not working, it’s expensive – always the tendency when I’ve signed players.”

Previous Tottenham bosses have had quite the rocky relationship with the signings they’ve had at their disposal. Look no further than what Antonio Conte in the press conference that led to his sacking shortly afterwards.

“Tottenham’s story is this,” he said. “Twenty years there is the owner, and they never won something, but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stays here?”

In other words, he challenged the press on their belief as to who’s fault it was for Spurs’ pain. He didn’t last much longer in the job.

Being lauded as a cheap yet highly effective arrival, like Semenyo in the eyes of Guardiola, is something that Mohammed Kudus, Mathys Tel, or Randall Kolo Muani simply can’t say about their time spent at Tottenham so far.

If anything, Tel’s brilliant curling strike moments before conceding a penalty for a dangerous overhead clearance against Leeds is enigmatic of the wider issue with Tottenham’s transfer business: they just haven’t certain what to expect.

It was received just as you would imagine. On social media, one Spurs supporter simply wrote: “Genuinely no idea why he’s done that.”

Former Bayern Munich prodigy Tel arrived at 20, and since turning 21 he has scored four Premier League goals and has long been rumored to be unhappy and requesting a move away from North London. He was signed for just over £30m.

Tottenham’s renewed transfer policy

Johan Lange may well be one of the first to admit that things haven’t gone to plan since arriving at Tottenham in November 2023. If anything, it’s clear to see that Spurs went backwards in terms of Premier League finishes.

But the additions of Robertson and Senesi strike as a markedly different profile of signings, for two main reasons.

The first is that they are simply less speculative. It is well-known what both can offer, with Robertson boasting a Champions League and Premier League win alongside much experience playing at the elite level. Senesi is a strong, powerful centre-back and a quality top flight centre-back. For the first time in a while, Spurs have made signings that raise no questions at all.

Another point of difference is age. Save for the loan signing of Joao Palhinha in the hope that the 30-year-old would provide a solid base operating in the box-to-box role under Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, Spurs have opted for more seasoned talent.

Robertson is 32 and while perhaps he is past the peak of his powers, he remains more than able to put in the caliber of performances necessary to take Tottenham forward.

As for the former Cherry, Senesi has arguably been snapped up by Tottenham at the perfect time: he has had four years to get accustomed to the English game, said to be more physical and unforgiving that elsewhere, and has already proven himself.

By comparison, the average age among Spurs’ 10 new signings for the 2025/26 season was just 23. Some of them unproven at Premier League level, and unfortunately that showed in some underwhelming performances – to put it lightly.

It represents a concrete change in the club’s approach to recruitment, in light of the arrivals that were still at an early stage in their development and failed to deliver consistent and quality performances by the end of the season.

Tottenham’s transfer window ahead of the 2026/27 season is quite the turnaround from signing one player over three of them between 2018 and January 2019, too.

They identified players more likely than any of their arrivals this term to deliver when needed, in Robertson and Senesi, and they acted quickly to secure their services.

In short, Robertson and Senesi seem like the kind of signings that have been made with the aim of kickstarting a new and prosperous chapter under De Zerbi. Both are capable. Both are well-suited to the Italian’s system.

And if things don’t pan out as planned, then I will have no choice but to eat every last one of the above words.

Did Tottenham get it right bringing in Andrew Robertson and Marcos Senesi? Let us know in the comments, and for more detailed reports, reaction, and analysis of the Premier League – and the upcoming World Cup – head to our website and OneFootball page.