As the summer transfer window approaches, Antonio Conte will have to think about the positions he needs upgrades in and hope that he will have the support from Fabio Paratici and Daniel Levy. If Tottenham can finish inside the top four, they will be likely to encourage more players to make the move to the capital, with the attraction of Champions League football.
Spurs are currently two points behind fourth placed Arsenal and still have to play the rescheduled North London Derby and face a trip to Anfield. Overall the Italian has made a number of improvements both on and off the pitch since his arrival, despite the last two results and performances not being at the level expected.
There are a number of players names already flying around the Tottenham camp as potential new arrivals for the summer. Included in this list is the return of Christian Eriksen, when his contract at Brentford expires at the end of the season and Leicester's Youri Tielemans.
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A player who many may not have heard of to the levels of Eriksen and Tielemans is Ronnie Edwards. The 19-year-old is currently playing for Peterborough United, after making the move to the Championship side from Barnet in 2020.
The centre-back has already impressed for both club and country and made his England debut when the Under-19s played a friendly against France, last year. Peterborough have just a couple of games left of their season but confirmed their relegation after failing to beat Nottingham Forest in their most recent fixture.
However, with Edwards getting a lot of praise playing for Peterborough, the summer transfer market may see him move up to the Premier League, with reported interest already from Tottenham and Crystal Palace. In September last year, the then Posh manager Darren Ferguson, made a big claim about his defender.
"He’s an incredible talent, easily the best young player I’ve managed. He seemed to get everyone playing. It was a remarkable performance as he also coped defensively against two Premier League standard players in Troy Deeney and Tahith Chong," Ferguson admitted.
Edwards is usually found in the centre of defence but Peterborough's current manager, Grant McCann moved the 19-year-old over to the right of a back three in their recent draw with Bournemouth. This earnt him yet more praise, "It freed up Ronnie to get up on the ball more and I thought he did very well against Dembele, who is tough to play against," McCann explained.
Not only is Edwards young, so would be a long-term signing for Tottenham and a player for the future, his switch in position also shows his versatility.
Conte's current back three of Eric Dier, Ben Davies and Cristian Romero have been performing well in a number of recent games. However if the Italian can bring in a young player who may not have had Premier League experience, but has made 32 Championship appearances so far this season and can adapt to different defensive positions, he could be a great addition to the Spurs side.
Peterborough have done good business in previous transfer windows, with them being the side who sold Ivan Toney to Brentford in 2020 for £10million. Their director of football Barry Fry, explained Edwards' transfer status to the Peterborough Telegraph ahead of the summer window.
"That record [Toney's] would be smashed if we were to sell Ronnie. There was plenty of interest in him before he started playing regularly in the Championship and that interest will only grow further when he plays for England in the summer," he admitted.
"Spurs have been watching him for a long time, but so have other clubs. There is a big German club showing interest which is no real surprise as they love to take young English players and develop them.
"I’m not saying he will be sold as we haven’t had our planning meetings for next season yet, but, if he was to leave, ideally he’d go and be loaned straight back to us for a year. Nothing is likely to happen anyway until Ronnie comes back from his tournament this summer."
Oliver Skipp returned to Tottenham this season after a successful loan spell at Norwich and before his injury and was producing some solid performances. Edwards being loaned back to Peterborough may not be a bad deal for Spurs, much like Pape Matar Sarr has done with Metz.
However, with the Championship side now being relegated to League 1, the experience Edwards would get in being loaned back to Peterborough may not be as much of a benefit as playing in the second tier. It would be something that Spurs need to assess and with the 19-year-old already impressing, they are likely to have competition from a number of clubs if Paratici does target the defender.
