Mathys Tel is a major coup but Tottenham might have missed another golden opportunity | OneFootball

Spurs needed to be decisive and brave in January but instead they appeared to be driven largely by opportunism

In the end, Tottenham finally landed the "help" Ange Postecoglou so desperately wanted for his stretched squad, signing centre-half Kevin Danso and forward Mathys Tel in the final 36 hours of the window.

Tel is a major coup for Spurs, especially as the 19-year-old also attracted interest from Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea and his loan deal from Bayern Munich includes a buy option worth £45.7million at the end of the season.

For Spurs, the structure of the deal is a win-win, with Tel providing depth for all three forward positions in Postecoglou's system for the remainder of the campaign, but the club not tied to an expensive deal if he struggles to settle in London or adapt to the Premier League.

Tel, 19, is one of the most highly-rated young players in Europe

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Danso, meanwhile, is a well-regarded Austria defender who is coming into his prime and should be a good fit for Postecoglou's system.

He will be in consideration to start Thursday's Carabao Cup tie at Liverpool after Spurs lined-up at Brentford on Sunday without a specialist centre-half.

It is, however, effectively one in, one out for Postecoglou at the back after Radu Dragusin was ruled out for the season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury and Spurs failed to land a second new defender before the Monday's 11pm deadline.

In a frantic scramble, they were knocked back by AC Milan’s Fikayo Tomori and Chelsea's Axel Disasi, and failed in a significant bid worth up to £70m for Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi.

It was obvious from long before the start of January that Spurs were in chronic need of defensive reinforcements, and had the club moved with greater urgency in the window - as they did a year ago, when Dragusin joined from Genoa on January 12 - they might have avoided an embarrassing and unsuccessful trolly dash.

In waiting so long to act, Postecoglou has been left to hope that Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero get fit and stay fit in the second half of the season if Spurs are to avoid a continuation of the defensive selection crisis which has crippled them since the start of November.

The recoveries of both Van de Ven and Romero are proving anything but straightforward, however, so Spurs' failure to land another defender could hamper their chances of salvaging a rough season via the cup competitions.

There is also enormous pressure on Danso to hit the ground running for the biggest week of the club's season, with Spurs travelling to Anfield 1-0 up from the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final before Sunday's FA Cup fourth-round tie at Villa.

Danso joined Spurs in a £20.9m deal from Lens

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Had Spurs moved for the 26-year-old (or another defender) sooner, he would have had time to bed-in for a pair of matches which feel potentially make-or-break to Spurs' campaign and perhaps even Postecoglou's tenure.

Spurs also signed promising young goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky at the start of January and, in the fullness of time, this might come to look like an important window, particularly if Tel can be persuaded to sign a permanent six-year deal in the summer and begins to live up to his obvious potential.

In the here and now, though, the club needed more than a like-for-like replacement for Dragusin, a back-up goalkeeper and another promising young forward, who will likely need time to adjust, to give themselves the best chance of rescuing the campaign.

As Postecoglou has repeatedly pointed out during this bleak mid-winter, the club are still in with a chance of achieving "something special" and enjoying an historic season by winning one of the cups.

In the circumstances, the club needed to be decisive and brave in the transfer window but instead they appeared to be driven largely by opportunism.

If the toll on Spurs' injury-hit and jaded back line proves too much in the second half of the season, this January may come to feel like another opportunity squandered.