NEWS IN – Ange Postecoglou has clear Tottenham transfer mission for Daniel Levy as two key decisions made and now waiting for execution in January [Full Details]

NEWS IN – Ange Postecoglou has clear Tottenham transfer mission for Daniel Levy as two key decisions made and now waiting for execution in January [Full Details]

Ange Postecoglou has opened up on Tottenham’s need to not be picky with their centre-back targets in January as Cristian Romero is ruled out for over a month with injury. The Argentine was taken off at half-time during the narrow win over Everton and once more leaves the defence looking threadbare.

Through injuries and suspensions Postecoglou has been unable to name a first choice backline since the manic 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in early November and the poor run of results that followed coincided not just with the absence of Micky van de Ven, James Maddison and Destiny Udogie but also Romero.

Having started the three wins over Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Everton he is now expected to miss at least the next four games but that could climb to six or more. It once again leaves Postecoglou scrapping around for options to fill his defence.

The Australian, who has already seen his side open talks with Nice’s Jean-Clair Todibo, football.london understands, will now have to revert to using full-backs in the middle once more. With Van de Ven still sidelined, and Eric Dier and Ashley Phillips not fully trusted by Postecoglou, the January window comes at an ideal time but Romero’s latest absence isn’t going to force the club’s hand.

“No, it doesn’t change anything,” Postecoglou said ahead of travelling to Brighton. “Disappointing to lose him, for sure. We obviously missed him with the suspension and now, we’d just got him back and kind of steadied things up and obviously we have him missing again for quite a chunk of time. But it doesn’t change really … you can’t accelerate time, mate. It’s still December. January 1 stays January 1 irrespective of our situation. The plans and the planning is still in the same shape.”

The centre-back conundrum is certainly one for a think-tank of Postecoglou, Johan Lange and Daniel Levy to solve with clear stock needed in midfield too given the impact that the African Cup of Nations is likely to have on the squad. The exact make-up of recruits isn’t too complex though for Postecoglou.

He will be missing both his first choice players for the right and left-sided centre-back roles and isn’t too concerned about primary roles. Postecoglou told football.london on Wednesday: “I don’t put as much stock into the left-sided or right-sided centre-back scenario, we just need another player in that position who can provide some more depth for us and the ability to change it up.

“It won’t matter if it is left-sided or right-sided, it is more the profile and characteristics. We didn’t go looking for a left-sided centre-back at the start of the year, it just happened that Micky was the perfect centre-back. Even if we had another left-sided one, I still would have signed him. It is about looking at the right profile, the right characteristics and seeing what is available, then going from there.”

As for Van de Ven, the Dutchman is still some way off a return despite saying that he would be in training within the next fortnight. Speaking at the PDC World Darts championships at Alexandra Palace last week he told the Sun that he was recovering well. Postecoglou played down the 22-year-old’s comments though.

“I’ve said before I wouldn’t be taking players’ views on their recovery process,” he explained. “He’s getting closer, we’ll see him sometime in January. I don’t think Burnley but Man United on the 14th I think potentially. But again, I don’t look at comeback dates until I see them training with us and he’s not part of the group. He’s not due to be part of the group this week, we’ll see how he’s going by the end of the week.

“Once they start training with the group we’ll think about when they’ll be available. He’s at the tail end of it for sure so at some point – middle of January definitely we’d think he’d be available but how we use him then, after such a long absence, is going to depend on where we feel he’s at.”

With Van de Ven’s absence in mind and the state of play already looking set for Spurs they are also looking at a host of other options including Tosin Adarabioyo, Lloyd Kelly and Radu Dragusin.