The club’s manager Mauricio Pochettino has received plenty of credit for their transformation, after successfully moulding together a highly effective unit revolving around a clutch of talented young players.
While Spurs have unearthed some outstanding gems in recent years, ranging from bargain signings like Dele Alli and Eric Dier to homegrown academy graduates such as Harry Kane, the hierarchy at the club has been guilty of offloading good players prematurely.
As Kane himself has proven, it’s difficult to judge just how good a player can become, and these days there are plenty of players showing their former clubs that they were hasty in offloading them.
Here are 10 players who thrived after leaving White Hart Lane.
N.B. Players such as Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Michael Carrick have been excluded from this list, as the club wished to retain rather than sell them.
Gylfi Sigurdsson
Tottenham appearances: 83
Sold to: Swansea City (2014)
Key stat: Since leaving Spurs, Sigurdsson has been involved in 52 Premier League goals (27 goals, 25 assists)
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-486849301.jpg
Sigurdsson performed reasonably well during a two-year spell with Tottenham, but he was often played out-of-position on the left-wing and largely had to settle for being Christian Eriksen’s back-up.
Shortly after Pochettino arrived, Sigurðsson was allowed to join Swansea, where he’d previously flourished during a loan spell, and since returning to the Liberty Stadium the Iceland international has become one of the most dangerous attacking midfielders in the Premier League.
So good has Sigurdsson been, that not only has Pochettino since expressed regret at selling him, but Everton have now spent £45m to sign him this summer.
Kevin-Prince Boateng
Tottenham appearances: 25
Sold to: Portsmouth (2009)
Key stat: Boateng was directly involved in 14 La Liga goals last season (10 goals, 4 assist)
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-78853808.jpg
A year after winning the Fritz Walter award given to the best U19 player in Germany in 2006, Boateng departed Hertha Berlin for Spurs in a deal worth around £5.4m.
Despite his burgeoning reputation in the game, Boateng was unable to force his way into the Spurs side consistently, making 25 appearances in two seasons and spending time on loan with Borussia Dortmund.
Eventually he was sold to Portsmouth, who he helped reach the FA Cup final in 2010, before he went on to star for AC Milan (twice) as well as Las Palmas.
But the Ghanian is now a free agent after leaving the La Liga side by mutual consent.
Frederic Kanoute
Tottenham appearances: 66
Sold to: Sevilla (2005)
Key stat: Kanoute scored 134 goals in 291 competitive games for Sevilla.
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-73869690.jpg
Spurs’ decision to offload the talented but inconsistent Kanoute in 2005 wasn’t lamented too much by the club’s supporters, after he’d managed 15 goals in 66 games for the club.
Both Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe were in the Spurs squad at the time and ahead of Kanoute in the pecking order, but after leaving English football, Kanoute exploded into life in La Liga, becoming one of the most feared strikers in Europe.
A couple of years later, Kanoute punished his former club by scoring twice for Sevilla against Spurs to knock them out of the UEFA Cup. He retired in 2013 after a spell with Beijing Guoan.
Jermain Defoe
Tottenham appearances: 363
Sold to: Toronto FC (2014)
Key stat: Defoe scored 30 Premier League goals for Sunderland over 2015/16 and 2016/17.
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-462417717.jpg
Defoe had found playing time increasingly difficult to come by under Andre Villas-Boas, so he decided to embark on a new adventure by moving to MLS to sign for Toronto FC.
The veteran front-man performed well in Canada, scoring 12 times in 21 matches, but it’s since his return to England to join Sunderland that he’s really sparkled in front of goal, scoring 43 goals for the Black Cats.
With Vincent Janssen struggling, Defoe could’ve been the perfect back-up to Harry Kane. Instead, Bournemouth will benefit from his finishing this season.
Etienne Capoue
Tottenham appearances: 36
Sold to: Watford (2015)
Key stat: Capoue recorded his joint-best ever goal tally in 2016/17, netting seven in 37 for Watford.
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-453684158.jpg
One of the seven players signed following the £85m windfall raised from Gareth Bale’s sale to Real Madrid, Capoue struggled to force his way into Spurs’ midfield in his debut season.
It initially looked as though he would be a key man for Pochettino, as he started in Spurs’ opening 11 Premier League games of the 2014/15 season, but he lost his place and ended up joining Watford where he thrived last term.
The Frenchman has even added goals to his game this season to become an all-round midfield presence.
Iago Falque
Tottenham appearances: 11
Sold to: Genoa (2014)
Key stat: Falque has scored 27 goals in Serie A since 2014/15 for Genoa, Roma and Torino.
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-158025573.jpg
Falque was certainly well-travelled in his youth, taking in spells at the academies of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus before ending up at Spurs in 2011.
He stayed at Spurs for three years, but spent most of his time at the club on loan elsewhere, with Southampton, Almeria and Rayo Vallecano all taking him on a temporary basis.
It looked as though the former Spain youth international would never make it, but he has begun to realise his potential in Italian football, enjoying an excellent campaign with Torino in 2016/17.
Paulinho
Tottenham appearances: 67
Sold to: Guangzhou Evergrande (2015)
Key stat: Paulinho has hit double figures – 11 and 12 – in his last two seasons in the CSL
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-455663990.jpg
Paulinho two years at White Hart Lane and was a key cog in the Brazil first-team when signing from Corinthians.
However, Paulinho appeared a shadow of the player he was billed as being; wayward passes and curiously wayward shooting – that one against Burnley in particular – are what the midfielder will be remembered for in the Premier League.
But his time away from the pressures of the Premier League in China allowed him to rebuild his confidence and reputation, all while playing consistently for Brazil. Tite, the Selecao head coach, has picked Paulinho nine times. Nine starts, four goals and three assists are not to be sniffed at, especially when considering the competition for places in the Brazilian midfield.
Yet even with this modest career recovery, the Spurs hierachy couldn’t have believed what they were seeing when Barcelona spent €40m on their former player this summer. Paulinho is winning.
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PaulinhoBrazil.png
Adam Smith
Tottenham appearances: 2
Sold to: Bournemouth (2014)
Key stat: To date, Smith has made 70 Premier League appearances for Bournemouth since their promotion in 2015.
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-149906193.jpg
Before Kyle Walker left, Kieran Trippier found it a tricky to dislodge the first-choice option at Spurs, and it was that predicament that ultimately forced Smith to leave the club permanently in 2014.
After progressing through the Spurs academy, Smith made only two first-team appearances, but he’s gone on to become an established Premier League full-back for Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth.
Nabil Bentaleb
Tottenham appearances: 66
Sold to: Schalke (2017)
Key stat: Bentaleb has scored seven goals in 44 matches for Schalke, after netting only once in 66 games for Spurs.
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-486070806.jpg
During Pochettino’s first season in charge, Bentaleb was a fixture in Spurs’ midfield, but lost his place during the team’s surprise title challenge last term, resulting in a loan move to Schalke 04.
Despite being obviously talented, question marks over Bentaleb’s attitude and application arose during his final days at the club. But he has knuckled down impressively since moving to Gelsenkirchen.
His loan move was made permanent this summer in a deal that could fetch Spurs around £17m.
Nacer Chadli
Tottenham appearances: 119
Sold to: West Bromwich Albion (2016)
Key stat: Chadli has been directly involved in 10 Premier League goals for West Brom this season (five goals, five assists).
image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-584534912.jpg
Another of Spurs’ ‘Magnificent Seven’ to succeed elsewhere in the Premier League, Chadli left Spurs last summer after losing his place in the team.
The Belgian international has shown his quality on a regular basis for Tony Pulis’s side, and would surely offer more of a threat than some of Spurs’ back-up wingers these days, such as Moussa Sissoko and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou.
A £25m move to Swansea City is in the offing before the transfer window shuts.
Source: Squawka