Ranking the top six contenders for the 2018/19 Premier League title

#4 Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur

The Lily Whites have made steady improvements since Mauricio Pochettino's appointment in 2014. He guided them to sixth place in the league in his first season before making Tottenham the only contenders during Leicester's Premier League triumph in 2016 in an eventual 3rd place finish and return to Champions League. He dethroned Arsenal for the first time in the Premier League era in 2017 and repeated the feat last season, forging Tottenham into a compact and well-drilled outfit.

Under his tutelage, a lot of young players have blossomed into world beaters including Harry Kane, Eric Dier and Heung-min Son. The 46-year-old deserves massive plaudits for the strides Tottenham have made under his tutelage, however, there is a limit to which a coach's acumen and developmental expertise can take a club without the requisite backing in the transfer market.

Daniel Levy also deserves credit for his leadership of Tottenham and he has earned a reputation as a shrewd and astute businessman during his 17-year tenure as chairman of Tottenham, but times have changed and major clubs have been increasing their spending in the transfer market to remain relevant.

Spurs are yet to make a signing in this window as compared to their rivals, as the club have a spending limit, and a strict salary structure means they don't pay players beyond a certain amount. These factors have seen Tottenham lose out on transfer targets and their key players move to rival clubs for bigger pay.

Tottenham have been impressive in getting to this level, but to morph into genuine title contenders, they would have to keep hold of their key players while reinforcing them with more quality from the transfer market, both of which require a deviation from their stringent financial measures.

The completion and move into their new 62,000 capacity stadium should generate extra revenue for Tottenham and maintaining consistency as a Champions League team will be key to Spurs genuinely challenging for titles in the coming seasons.