Tottenham Will Not Regret Failing to Make Major Signings in January

Tottenham Hotspur were virtually inactive during the January transfer window. 

Fringe first-team players Andros Townsend (permanently to Newcastle United) and Alex Pritchard (on loan to West Bromwich Albion) departed, but no players were added to Mauricio Pochettino's squad. 

With the team still involved in both the FA Cup and Europa League, as well as being long shots in the Premier League title race, their reluctance to seek out reinforcements raised some eyebrows.  

The pursuit of Fulham striker Moussa Dembele appears to have been the only real attempt to bring in new players, yet it faltered on Tottenham's unwillingness to loan him back to the Cottagers until the summer, reported by the London Evening Standard.

Spurs saw Dembele as a valuable addition and seemingly made no serious pursuit of any alternative strikers. 

Their steadfast refusal to meet Fulham's demand is, in that context, confusing. 

Surely their intention was not to use Dembele only for the next six months and then discard him in the summer. Why, then, would they not make the deal and take Dembele in the summer?

Several news outlets attempted to revive the Saido Berahino rumours that dominated during the summer, but there seemed to be little basis for reports such as this one in the Independent. 

For the media, transfer rumours are a volume business.

As most Spurs fans know, newspapers are quite adept at spinning outlandish stories linking players to unlikely new clubs.

In years past, Tottenham were one of the most heavily linked-to Premier League clubs, but the fact those days are very much in the past reflects the club's maturity under Pochettino.

Rui Vieira/Associated Press

Baseless transfer rumours are simply unbelievable under such a careful manager.

He insists new players meet his strict standards and, even then, that they are Pochettino fit before they see the pitch.

In that context, Spurs were unlikely to make major additions in January. 

After Tottenham's impressive 2-0 FA Cup third-round victory over Leicester City in January, in which Heung-Min Son started as striker, Pochettino outlined his attitude toward the then-open transfer window. 

The Argentinian told reporters, relayed by the Express, that, "If you take the wrong decision, maybe you break the balance in the squad and changing room." 

He added "We are proud of the changing room that we have built, and their performances and how they believe in how they play."

It is only right Spurs are wary of disrupting the harmony evidently at the centre of their unlikely title challenge.

Of course, should Kane go down with a long-term injury, any hopes Tottenham have of claiming the league title will dissipate. 

The same can be said of Hugo Lloris, their peerless goalkeeper, and indeed Toby Alderweireld and the Belgian Mousa Dembele are similarly vital to this team. 

Were Arsenal to lose Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, Leicester City Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez or Manchester City Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure, their title hopes would also plummet.

Had Tottenham signed the French Dembele, it would have done little to protect against this threat. 

There were no players of comparable quality to Spurs' first team available in January. Certainly none in their price range.

This reality would have been perfectly clear to Tottenham in the summer too. The club clearly decided Pochettino had the players necessary to achieve their ambitions this season.  

Pochettino has repeatedly emphasised his wish to only add to his squad if the new player would raise the quality of the options at his disposal, saying as much ahead of the recently closed transfer window's opening, relayed by the Guardian. 

As far back as August, Tottenham's apparent overreliance on Kane was put to Pochettino, and his response was telling.

"Sometimes you have five strikers, like Liverpool last season, and they were sixth," per the Mirror.

Rui Vieira/Associated Press

He believes his players are good enough to win the title. 

They will need to be lucky with injuries, just as any champions invariably are. 

They have already hurdled long-term injuries to Nabil Bentaleb, Ryan Mason and Nacer Chadli this season, all of whom were key players in the previous campaign. 

Whether Spurs do regret their quiet January transfer window will only become clear when the final whistle blows against Newcastle at St James' Park on the last day of the season.

Failure to win the Premier League should not be exclusively hung upon Tottenham's quiet January window, however.

This is a young squad, consistently developing under a manager with a long-term vision. 

The arrival of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and the inevitable improvements of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United will raise the bar. But Pochettino's men are already doing that on their own.