Tottenham Hotspur are changing their transfer strategy. It is about time they did.

Tottenham Hotspur’s Cristian Romero and Djed Spence are two players who were key players for their respective countries in the recently concluded FIFA World Cup, going exceedingly well for their nations. Romero finished second with Argentina, while Spence finished third with England, both playing big roles in the business end of the tournament.

Yet, with just under three weeks for the transfer window to end, they find themselves put up for sale. While Djed Spence is reported to be in the final exchanges of a deal that will take him to Inter Milan in a deal worth a little over €30 million, Romero’s future remains uncertain, with several clubs interested but nothing having materialised thus far.

Now, that these aforementioned players find themselves in transfer tussles is nothing new, with discussions about their future not really breaking news by any stretch of the imagination. However, there seems to be an upheaval in the way Spurs are doing their business this time around.

If Spurs manage to sell both of them before the end of the window, this could have the potential to be a landmark moment in the early days of the post-Daniel Levy era. And it is not because of the scale of finances, nor for the quality of players, rather because of the change in their method of doing business.

By bringing in midfielders Matheus Fernandes (£85 million) and Sandro Tonali (£100 million), the club have finally shown that they will not be averse to spending the big money required to get in the players they want, which also shows in the salary packages they have offered them. Even the renewals of Pedro Porro and Mickey van de Ven show their attitude towards recommitting the existing players with big money.

A dual sale of Romero and Spence will rubber-stamp their change in approach towards selling players as well, and that will be something new.

Spurs’ relationship with the market in terms of selling players over the years has been bittersweet, to say the least. Under the previous setup, if they had a player with the quality worth the big bucks, Levy eked out every last penny possible, as exemplified by the sales of Dimitar Berbatov, Gareth Bale, and Harry Kane.

However, the downside was that apart from these blue riband players, Levy rarely sold players in their prime. As a result, the squad could never get a sufficient infusion of fresh and quality new faces. It was akin to a swimming pool that needed to have its water changed a while back, only for it to never get changed and inevitably go stale.

Over the years, Spurs have had golden opportunities to recoup money for their key players. Eric Dier, Dele, Toby Alderweireld, Lucas Moura, and Danny Rose were all capable of delivering huge windfalls at one point, and had Spurs lined up their fortunes correctly, they would have raked in the sales as well as used it to bolster their ranks with quality replacements.

But they did not. And millions of pounds went washing away. The players eventually ended up staying way too long, and their inevitable departure got the club absolute pittance.

However, there is a change now. Albeit very small, it is still a change. The sale of Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace in January for £35 million did bring a lot of sharp criticism and uproar, but it was the right move, and it came as a welcome change, given that Spurs are not known to making such moves.

The transfer news surrounding Romero and Spence suggests that Spurs have made a long-awaited and much-needed change to their oft-maligned transfer strategy in terms of player sales. And it was about time that they did it.