Sports Blog 25/07/2017: International Champions Cup Preview – Tottenham vs Roma, Wednesday 26th July 2017

With the purse-strings firmly grasped can Tottenham pull-off an International Champions Cup victory over Roma?

Compared to the likes of Manchester City, who have paid more than £200 million on 5 players, and Manchester United, with Mourinho splurging £75 million on Romelu Lukaku, Spurs have been the paupers of the Premier League this summer. They’ve yet to bring in a single player, instead spending the last couple of months trimming the fat, with one major casualty in the form of Kyle Walker who departed for City in exchange for £50 million.



While that is likely to change before the window closes – Real Madrid’s Mateo Kovacic is a rumoured target – this lack of activity suggests a manager pleased as punch at the state of his squad. If Tottenham’s first performance in the International Champions Cup is anything to go by – and given it’s a pre-season friendly, it might well not be – Mauricio Pochettino has every right to be happy.

Spurs quickly found themselves 1-0 down against PSG thanks to an early goal from Edison Cavani, only to draw level 5 minutes later following an equaliser from Christian Eriksen. Eric Dier put the North London club ahead on the 18th minute mark, before Javier Pastore made it 2-2 before the break. With 10 minutes to go the game was still in deadlock, until goals from Toby Alderweireld and Harry Kane saw Tottenham romp to a 4-2 victory.

As for Roma, they’ve found themselves in a similar position to Monaco this summer – in other words a lot of their best players have headed to the door with inflated price tags. The most notable departures have been Mohamed Salah to Liverpool for €42 million, Leandro Paredes to Zenit Saint Petersburg for €23 million and Antonion Rudiger to Chelsea for €35 million, with the potential for a few more big name exits still to come.

That the Italians are still getting used to the new status quo players into Spurs’ hands, meaning Spreadex are offering a Tottenham/Roma Goal Supremacy spread of 0.3-0.5 alongside a Total Goals spread of 3.2-3.4.