Tottenham Hotspur lost out to Chelsea in the race for Ross Barkley in January.
If Chelsea land Luke Shaw ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, after winning the race for Ross Barkley too, it will show just how much work the Lilywhites still have to do to become real competitors in the transfer market.
Premier League sides have started to spend fortunes in recent times, but Spurs have been one of the few titles contenders to have success through developing players.
Tottenham have tended to avoid buying high profile stars, and have preferred to bring in promising youngsters.
Spurs’ strategy has paid off, but it would be a bitter pill to swallow if Chelsea beat them to their second target in six months.
Chelsea won the race for Barkley in January, after Mauricio Pochettino had identified the central midfielder as a potentially excellent addition.
Barkley has since struggled at Stamford Bridge, but if Shaw picked Chelsea over Spurs again, it would highlight the scale of the task ahead for Pochettino’s side.
Tottenham’s move to a new stadium was supposed to be the turning point, which allowed them to compete both on and off the field with the Premier League’s leading clubs.
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