Ian Wright claims that Tottenham should be trying to sign players of Riyad Mahrez's ilk after enduring a frustrating summer in the transfer market.
Despite being linked with several players, most prominently Aston Villa playmaker Jack Grealish, Spurs made Premier League history earlier this week by becoming the first team not to make a summer signing since the transfer window's inception in 2003.
Regardless of that failure, Mauricio Pochettino's side began the season with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Newcastle on Saturday, after which Arsenal legend Wright expressed his belief that his old rivals should have made a play for Mahrez.
The Algerian international joined Manchester City from Leicester in a club-record deal worth £60million in July after previously seeing a proposed move to the reigning champions break down in January.
'When you’re hearing Pochettino saying that he thinks he’s got everything he needs and there wasn’t anything out there that was available at the moment that could better his team,' Wright said in his role as a pundit on Match of the Day.
‘I feel that when you look at someone like Mahrez, it would have been tough to get him, but would Mahrez improve that team? I think he would.
‘That’s the kind of player they’ve got to try and go for.’
Despite Tottenham, boosted by the availability of most of their World Cup stars, getting the new campaign off to a winning start at St James' Park thanks to goals from Jan Vertonghen and Dele Alli, Alan Shearer warned that they could live to regret their lack of transfer activity.
'I think it might come back to bite them, not buying someone,' he said.
‘Every single club – whether you’re Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City – they always go out and buy one or two players.
‘You have to freshen up. I remember when we won the league with Blackburn in 1995 and then the next season we didn’t improve and that cost us.’