Tottenham's Dilemma: Keep Van de Ven or Reset?

Tottenham’s long drift from the Premier League’s sharp end has not been sudden. It has been slow, painful and, for many inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, depressingly familiar.

Back-to-back 17th-place finishes have stripped away any illusion of progress. Ange Postecoglou briefly broke the gloom with a Europa League triumph that ended a 17-year wait for major silverware, a night that felt like a turning point. It wasn’t. The trophy glossed over structural cracks that have since widened.

Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor came and went without leaving a meaningful footprint on the pitch. Results stayed poor, identity blurred. Only when Roberto De Zerbi arrived, late and under pressure, did Spurs finally find a foothold. He steadied the ship, nothing more, guiding them to safety on the final day.

That final day told its own story. Inside one part of north London, Spurs fans exhaled in relief at survival. Across the city, Arsenal lifted the Premier League trophy. The contrast could hardly have been more brutal: one club clinging on, the other stretching away.

Now comes the hard part. Tottenham must decide what they want to be. A reset is coming, with talk of major outgoings and fresh arrivals as another transfer window looms. The problem is simple: if you sell your best players, what exactly are you building around?

For Alan Hutton, one name stands out in thick black ink.

Van de Ven “has to stay”

Dutch centre-back Micky van de Ven has already attracted admiring glances, with Liverpool among the clubs linked. To Hutton, a former Spurs full-back, that should set alarm bells ringing in N17.

“That’s one guy that I think they have to keep, in my opinion,” he told GOAL, speaking courtesy of casino zonder cruks.

Hutton sees Van de Ven not just as a defender to retain, but as a pillar for the next iteration of Tottenham.

“If they want to build and be stronger for next season, he’s your captain in waiting because I think [Cristian] Romero will probably be off. So they need to keep these kind of guys to build around.”

The logic is ruthless but clear. Cashing in on Van de Ven would solve one problem and create another, far bigger one.

“If you did cash in on him and he goes to another Premier League team or whatever, you have to replace that guy and that’s not going to be easy,” Hutton said. “So it’s a difficult situation because these guys want to play at the highest level possible and it’s going to probably take a number of windows, I feel, for Spurs to get back to that sort of level, but they have to keep the likes of Van de Ven if they want to do that.”

The pressure finally told last season, and Tottenham flirted with disaster. Players of Van de Ven’s calibre do not tend to hang around for repeated relegation battles. They want Champions League lights, not survival scraps.

And that, Hutton admits, is exactly the stage the 23-year-old should already be on.

“Outstanding” and Champions League level

Liverpool’s interest in Van de Ven makes sense to anyone who has watched him closely. Pace across the ground, power in the challenge, a rare ability to recover from seemingly lost situations – he has looked like a defender built for elite football.

“He’d be an outstanding signing. I really like him as a player,” Hutton said. “Strength, his running power, his speed, some of the goals that we’ve seen him score – I know it doesn’t happen every week, but it’s quite incredible.

“He’s good with the ball, technically good. He literally ticks all the boxes. He should be playing with a Champions League team, in my opinion. So I think that’s the number one priority, to try and keep hold of him.”

That is the dilemma facing De Zerbi and the Spurs hierarchy. Do they cash in and accept another reset, or do they draw a line, keep their core talents and absorb the pain of a slower rebuild?

Are Spurs still “Big Six”?

The question cuts deeper than one transfer saga. It goes to the heart of Tottenham’s identity in the modern Premier League.

For years, they were bracketed among the “Big Six”, a club that, even in its missteps, lived in the conversation for Champions League places and major honours. Recent seasons have shredded that status.

Pressed on whether Tottenham can still claim that label, Hutton did not duck the issue.

“I don’t think so, if I’m totally honest,” he said. “I think you have to show that mentality of a squad that can go and compete regularly at the top end of the table and they’ve not done that. It’s quite as simple as that.”

The boardroom numbers tell one story. The pitch tells another.

“Probably if you look at the finances and money that’s coming into the club, you’d say the business side of it has been run really well, but unfortunately that’s not gone onto the pitch for them and they’ve really struggled. So at this moment in time, I don’t see them as a ‘Big Six’ team.”

That is the reality Tottenham now stare at. A proud club, a vast stadium, strong commercial muscle – but a squad that has forgotten how to live among the elite.

If Spurs want to change that, the next few windows cannot simply be about churn. They must be about conviction. Keep the players who can drag the club upwards. Build around them. Refuse to be a stepping stone.

And for Hutton, that starts with three words: keep Van de Ven.