Sporting director Johan Lange has detailed the planning behind Tottenham Hotspur’s record-breaking spending spree over the summer, while also insisting that he never feared for his job as the club flirted with relegation last season.

Lange joined the north London club’s backroom team in late 2023 but has overseen some turbulent domestic times, including back-to-back 17th-placed finishes, with a Europa League triumph sandwiched in between.

Last season was a complete disaster, with three managers used and relegation only averted on the final day of the campaign, thanks to the late arrival of Roberto De Zerbi.

In a bid to buck that worrying trend, majority Tottenham shareholders, the Lewis family, spent over £300million on new additions to De Zerbi’s squad.

Indeed, the club broke their transfer record twice in a matter of days with the £85m capture of Mateus Fernandes, followed by the £100m signing of Sandro Tonali.

That approach was completely different to windows of the past, where Spurs often bought high-potential young players from lesser leagues as investments, although the likes of Brighton and Brentford still follow that approach to great success.

While it took De Zerbi’s men until the sixth game of the Premier League season to claim their first win, there is hope that the victory over Coventry could be an early turning point in the campaign.

Lange disputes Tottenham overpaid for record signings

And, while Lange was adamant Spurs did not overpay for any of their summer targets, he waved away the idea the club was under more pressure to impress as a result of their outlay.

“Well, the prices. To a certain extent, you get used to them,” he explained in an interview with Danish magazine Borsen Pleasure.

“After all, these are the same amounts that competitors pay. All clubs’ scouting networks are so good these days that finding a player that others have overlooked, in a league that no one has heard of, for a tenth of the price – that race is over.

“(The money spent) certainly raises expectations. But it’s not because I think about it every day. I think all clubs think it’s hard to find good players.

“For people who aren’t into football, it might sound completely insane that there aren’t a lot of players to choose from when you have £80m. But how many players have the quality to justify such an investment?

“For every player you buy, you might have three or five clubs you talk to. If we need a right winger, we might be talking about five different players, five clubs, five agents. That’s a lot of balls to keep in the air at the same time.”

Lange, meanwhile, also revealed that he never considered the prospect of losing his job, despite fans calling for his head, alongside that of CEO Vinai Venkatesham early in the summer.

He added: “I actually didn’t. Our CEO, the owners and the board could see that Tottenham had ended up here because of something that had happened over many years.

“And they agreed with the strategy and could see that we were on the right track in several areas. So no, I never felt insecure in my job.”