There is no denying it: this season has been nothing short of a disaster for Tottenham Hotspur, at least on the pitch.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have been dreadful in the Premier League, and following last week’s double cup exit, the only hope of silverware rests on their Europa League campaign.
With all that said, there have been some positives, such as the young players coming through and stamping their authority on the first team.
Moreover, despite the poor results, some of the first-team squad have seen their valuations grow, including someone signed by Nuno Espírito Santo during his short spell in the hot seat.
Nuno's Spurs signings
While he’s currently flying with Nottingham Forest, Nuno’s time in North London was far less successful.
In fact, with seven losses and one draw in his first 17 games, the Portuguese coach was sacked in November 2021, just four months after getting the job, and while he didn’t have much time to impact the club, he was responsible for some good and some not so good signings.
One who certainly falls into the latter camp was Emerson Royal, who moved from Barcelona in August 2021 for a fee of around £26m, which, according to a later report from the Telegraph, was a fee the Catalan club couldn’t believe the North Londoners were willing to pay.
Unfortunately, it didn’t take too long for fans to understand Barça’s shock, as while the Brazilian full-back wasn’t dreadful, he was not up to scratch, as demonstrated by the fact he was limited to just 1335 minutes of action in his final campaign with the club before being sold to AC Milan for just £13m.
Fortunately, Nuno did make a couple of good additions to the squad, with Cristian Romero being one of them.
The Argentine joined the Lilywhites on a season-long loan with an option to buy for around £46.7m in August 2021. While he endured a somewhat slow start to life in London thanks to injuries, isolation and the team’s overall poor form, he has since become one of the best players at the club.
In all, the World Cup winner has made 112 appearances for the North Londoners, in which he’s managed to rack up a fairly impressive haul – for a centre-back – of seven goals and one assist while also being named one of the club’s co-vice-captains in 2023.
The 26-year-old’s commanding presence has been sorely missed for much of this season, which further indicates his importance to the team, but he still isn’t the Nuno signing whose valuation has soared in recent years.
Market Movers
The Nuno signing whose valuation has soared
Aside from the likes of Archie Gray, Djed Spence, Mikey Moore, Lucas Bergvall and maybe Dejan Kulusevski, it would be hard to say anyone in the Spurs first team has had a particularly good season this year, so it’s hard to imagine anyone’s valuation skyrocketing.
However, a lacklustre campaign does not suddenly mean a talented player has no future or upside.
In Pape Matar Sarr’s case, there is clearly a belief that as he progresses, he’ll become a genuinely superb midfielder.
The Senegalese international signed for Tottenham from Ligue 1 side FC Metz for around £15m in August 2021 and, according to the CIES Football Observatory, is now worth an astounding €70.7m, which converts to about £59m.
That means that 22-year-old dynamo is now worth around 293% more than the fee paid by the club just three and a half years ago, and while that might sound like too much to some of you, it’s probably not.
Appearances
86
59
24
Goals
8
5
1
Assists
6
3
2
Goal Involvements per Match
0.16
0.13
0.12
For example, despite still being relatively young, the “unplayable” midfielder, as dubbed by Spurs fan and podcaster Lee McQueen, has already racked up 86 appearances for the Lilywhites, in which he’s scored eight goals and provided six assists from central and defensive midfield positions.
Moreover, he has also won 24 senior caps for Senegal, so has plenty of experience marshalling the midfield domestically and internationally.
Ultimately, Nuno may not have left much of an impact on Spurs with his management, but he did at least sign two quality players in Romero and Sarr, the latter of whom could be set for a bright future in North London.
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