Why Tottenham are unlikely to do any business before the end of the January transfer window

Tottenham Hotspur and the January transfer window are not the happiest of bedfellows, but why exactly is that?

The club have not signed a player in the winter window since Dele Alli in 2015 and the midfielder was immediately loaned straight back to MK Dons to finish that season and help them earn promotion to the Championship.

The common perception is that Daniel Levy, with his reputation for financial prudence, is the man refusing to loosen the purse strings in January and Spurs have never really gone transfer mad in the winter windows long before Mauricio Pochettino arrived - not that many clubs do.

It's been a long time since the likes of Ryan Nelson, Louis Saha and Lewis Holtby were January purchases.

However, in this current era at Spurs, it's very much Pochettino who is the cautious one when it comes to signing new players. He's the same whether it's summer or winter.

But to have signed absolutely no players to go straight into his team during his entire time at Tottenham suggests a particular aversion to making moves during the month.

He was the same at Southampton. He joined the club on January 18 2013 and on the same day Molde defender Vegard Forren signed, clearly not a Pochettino signing. The central defender never played a minute for the team and he was the only player to join the Saints that month. That means even though he had a new team to mould, Pochettino did not look to add to it, rather work with what he had.

Then in his first full season at the Saints he again signed nobody during the January window. That means Pochettino has never signed a new player to go into his first team during his time in England. It's certainly a Pochettino trait, not just a Tottenham one.

The main problem with the January window for Pochettino is that his teams play in a very particular style and require a certain philosophy and fitness requirement.

To throw a new player into a very settled Pochettino side is tough on the new guy. That's the Spurs manager's biggest gripe about the club's usual proclivity to sign players late in the summer transfer window as they miss out on the gruelling pre-season that the Argentine and his assistant manager Jesus Perez put the players through.

The Tottenham boss has admitted that July is when he can take a full month to get his philosophy for the season across to any new recruits while tweaking what he wants from each individual within the current crop of players. A January signing does not get any of that.

Pochettino did say recently that perhaps it would be better to sign players in the winter in order for them to be present for the pre-season months later, but it should also be pointed out that those quotes came as a response to a question about whether that would be a good idea.

There is a chance he was being polite with his answer rather than coming out with it naturally, as previous January windows suggest.

Pochettino is very particular about his playing staff and he personally vets every player who comes through the door to ensure they fit the model of player he wants to fit in and connect with his other players to continue the great team spirit he and his coaches have fostered at the club.

We understands the club are not close to signing anyone right now, which fits in with all of the above history.

Unless a great deal crops up in the next seven days that is just too good to turn down or to leave for rivals to take in the summer it's likely to stay that way.