The Magnificent Seven to The Lone Ranger

Back in 2013, Tottenham Hotspur sold their star player Gareth Bale for a then-record transfer fee in the region of £80million before indulging on a spending spree to attempt to replace the man who had near single-handedly kept them challenging for a Champions League spot that season.

By the end of the same transfer window Spurs had purchased a group of players dubbed "The Magnificent Seven" to replace Bale. Former Spurs player and current pundit Garth Crooks would go onto add that what Spurs had done was to sell Elvis and buy The Beatles. In the 6 and a half years since that head-spinning summer of transfer news Spurs have sold or otherwise released six of the Magnificent Seven with Erik Lamela now the last man standing

So what happened to our gunslinging, Beatlemania buys. Here's how they have fallen over the years...

Roberto Soldado

At £27million Soldado was the equal record signing of The Magnificent Seven (Lamela also cost £27million) and this sharpshooter was supposedly signed to fill the void in goals scored by Bale. Finding a 20 goal a season striker is the holy grail for most clubs and Spurs supporters thought they were onto a winner here given Soldado's pedigree at Champions League regulars Valencia not to mention the Spanish national team. However, Soldado struggled to adapt to the English game while at the same time being played in a lone striker role that never suited his style of play. 16 goals in 76 appearances over the space of 2 seasons underline his struggles before he was shipped back to Spain at a 50% loss. He never really returned to the kind of goal-scoring form that convinced Spurs to splash out that kind of money on him he can currently be found plying his trade at mid-table Granada.

Paulinho

He's Brazilian, of course he's gonna be good ... The midfielder was a wanted man when Spurs signed him up for £17 million from Corinthians. A goal scorer from deep with a good technique and range of passing, he had already demonstrated his talents against English opposition during the World Club Cup when Corinthians defeated then champions of Europe Chelsea in the final. Big things were expected of him and at the very least Spurs supporters assumed he'd be an upgrade on Tom Huddlestone! He was a regular in the Spurs midfield during his first season without setting the world on fire. However, Poch never seemed to rate him (an Argentine not liking a Brazilian, not exactly news) and in the few appearances he did make in his 2nd season he looked both unfit and uninterested. The fact that he took a deal to go and play in the Chinese Super League is perhaps proof that this was a guy more interested in filling his wallet than his trophy cabinet, although he did later sign for Barcelona for a single season suggesting the talent was there even if the application wasn't.

Étienne Capoue

A less high-profile and indeed lower-cost member of the Magnificent Seven, Capoue was actually establishing himself as a decent member of the Spurs squad before injury intervened (from memory he went off injured in a North London Derby which we were winning at the time with Capoue giving a good account of himself). By the time he regained fitness Spurs had been through a couple of managers and the plans for the side had changed. He was transferred out to Watford and became at the time their record signing. He remains a Premier League regular for the Hornets and was named their player of the season 2018-19 which suggests that transfer worked out a little better than his move to Spurs.

Vlad Chiriches

Not satisfied with signing a striker that couldn't score, Spurs also used a chunk of the Bale money to secure the services of a centre-back who couldn't defend. Chiriches created his own problems on signing for Spurs when his agent announced that he believed after a couple of good years in North London he'd definitely be a wanted man at Chelsea - good way to endear yourself to the fans! Like all the players on this list, Chiriches wasn't exactly helped by the managerial merry-go-round that Tottenham found themselves on during that period but then again getting caught on camera being blind drunk while on international duty also isn't a good idea if you're trying to impress a new boss. Poch certainly wasn't pleased and he shipped the big Romanian off to Napoli where he's remained a bit-part player ever since.

Nacer Chadli

Chadli is probably the first player on the list so far that can be considered a semi-success at Spurs and given that he cost just £7million he turned out to be a good bit of business. In fact, the Belgian is what you would call a classical Spurs player showing moments of brilliance in amongst some other decidedly flaky performances. His best season was undoubtedly in 2014-15 where he scored 11 Premier League goals cutting in from an inside forward position and perhaps his finest display came in a classic at White Hart Lane where Spurs beat Jose Mourinho's Chelsea 5-3 with Chadli causing The Blues defence all sorts of problems. As better, more consistent players were brought in, Chadli found his chances limited and he was moved onto WBA. He can now be found playing on loan in his native Belgium with Anderlecht.

Christian Eriksen

The only player out of the 7 to really have established himself as a great player at Spurs, Eriksen had been monitored by several big European clubs after breaking into the Ajax team as a teenager. From 2014 to 2018 you'd be hard-pressed to find a better and more complete player in the Premier League with Eriksen topping the charts for chances created and assists while also regularly covering more of the pitch than most others. With Spurs strict wage structure and with equivalent players like Mesut Ozil earning 4 times as much as Eriksen for doing half as much work it was only a matter of time before the Dane sort a move to more profitable pastures. His fall from grace over the last year at Spurs is a shame and spoils the 5-years prior to that when he was one of the best players we've had in the Premier League era. This time last year Eriksen was angling for a move to either Madrid or Barcelona so to see him spend what could be his best years in a league like Serie A which has been on the decline for some time is somewhat disappointing.

Erik Lamela

And then there was 1....

Lamela was seen largely as a direct replacement for Gareth Bale and came in from Roma off the back of a 15 goal season in Serie A. However, he's never come close to hitting those kind of numbers at Spurs and under Pochettino he redeveloped his game to become less a flair player and more a tenacious tackling midfielder. Injuries over the last few seasons have made his involvement with the first team very stop-start with a number of conspiracy theories about why he's struggled to be involved ranging from injuries sustained while playing computer games to a ban for substance abuse. Lamela was touted as being a makeweight for several transfers this window and with Spurs signing the likes of Lo Celso and Bergwijn to compete with established players like Son and Alli, it seems likely that Lamela will continue to be a fringe player or be moved on in the reshaping that has now begun.

Have you seen Elvis?

Possibly at your local golf course? The Times were reporting yesterday that Daniel Levy had travelled to Madrid to try and pull off a late move that would see Gareth Bale return to Spurs. It's always difficult to judge Bale's career at Real. He's won 4 Champions League's during his 7 seasons at the Madrid based giants and yet he is still regularly booed by his own fans - only at Real! In more recent seasons he has perhaps brought some of the ire on himself with his attitude to playing (and golf) and you'd be hard-pressed to get a full EPL season out of the 30-year-old given his recent injury problems and yet, there is reason to suspect that he could still be a top-player at Spurs. Perhaps with the Magnificent Seven having all but departed the Universe needs re-balancing. Are we selling the Beatles to bring back Elvis?