Tottenham's Summer Dilemma: Keep Van de Ven or Rebuild?
North London has known better springs than this.
Back-to-back 17th-place finishes, a fanbase clinging to memories of a Europa League triumph that already feels older than its 17-month vintage, and Arsenal parading the Premier League trophy while Tottenham scramble for survival on the final day. The contrast could hardly be sharper.
Ange Postecoglou briefly changed the mood. That Europa League win snapped a 17-year wait for major silverware and masked a few structural flaws. But the glow faded quickly. Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor came and went without leaving much more than a smudge on the club’s recent history. Roberto De Zerbi has at least steadied the ship, guiding Spurs away from the trapdoor, yet the escape was narrow enough to sting.
As Arsenal celebrated a title, Tottenham celebrated staying up.
Now comes the hard part. Rebuild or drift.
The squad looks ripe for surgery, and the market is already circling. Several high-profile names are being linked with moves away, with fresh faces expected through the door in return. Among the most unsettling rumours for Spurs fans are those around Micky van de Ven, the Dutch defender whose form has drawn admiring glances from Liverpool.
For Alan Hutton, a former Spurs full-back who knows the demands of the club and the stadium, letting Van de Ven go would be a grave mistake.
“That’s one guy that I think they have to keep, in my opinion,” Hutton told GOAL. “If they want to build and be stronger for next season, he's your captain in waiting because I think [Cristian] Romero will probably be off. So they need to keep these kind of guys to build around.”
That line says plenty about where Tottenham stand. Van de Ven is not just a good centre-half. In Hutton’s eyes, he is the cornerstone of any serious rebuild.
The temptation to cash in will be real. Premier League money talks, and Spurs have been here before. But Hutton warned of the cost of short-term thinking.
“If you did cash in on him and he goes to another Premier League team or whatever, you have to replace that guy and that's not going to be easy,” he said. “So it's a difficult situation because these guys want to play at the highest level possible and it's going to probably take a number of windows, I feel, for Spurs to get back to that sort of level, but they have to keep the likes of Van de Ven if they want to do that.”
That is the tension at Tottenham in a sentence: ambitious players versus a project that will not be fixed in one summer.
The Liverpool links only sharpen that edge. Anfield, Champions League nights, a team built to challenge at the top end of the table – it is the kind of move that tests a player’s resolve and a club’s conviction.
“He'd be an outstanding signing,” Hutton admitted. “I really like him as a player. Strength, his running power, his speed, some of the goals that we've seen him score – I know it doesn't happen every week, but it's quite incredible.
“He's good with the ball, technically good. He literally ticks all the boxes. He should be playing with a Champions League team, in my opinion. So I think that's the number one priority, to try and keep hold of him.”
That is the crux of Spurs’ summer. Keep your best, or accept your place in the food chain.
Because the wider question now hangs over the club’s identity: are Tottenham still part of the Premier League’s so-called “Big Six”, or has that label become an exercise in nostalgia?
Hutton does not sugarcoat his answer.
“I don't think so, if I'm totally honest,” he said. “I think you have to show that mentality of a squad that can go and compete regularly at the top end of the table and they've not done that. It's quite as simple as that.”
The stadium is elite. The training ground is elite. The commercial operation hums. On the balance sheet, Spurs still look every inch a heavyweight.
“Probably if you look at the finances and money that's coming into the club, you'd say the business side of it has been run really well,” Hutton continued. “But unfortunately that's not gone onto the pitch for them and they've really struggled. So at this moment in time, I don't see them as a ‘Big Six’ team.”
That verdict will sting in N17, but it reflects the table rather than the balance sheet.
So the summer ahead becomes more than just another window. It is a test of whether Tottenham can match the scale of their stadium with the stature of their squad, whether they can convince players like Van de Ven that the climb back to the elite is worth the wait – and worth staying for.
