Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte reportedly wants the club to make as many as three new signings in the January transfer window.
The Lilywhites boss brought in no fewer than seven new players in his first summer transfer window, with six arriving permanently and Clement Lenglet joining from Barcelona on loan.
Richarlison, Ivan Perisic, Fraser Forster, Djed Spence, Yves Bissouma and Destiny Udogie all penned permanent deals with the club, although the former has remained on loan at Udinese for a further season.
Despite their significant summer outlay, Conte has frequently insisted that his side need multiple transfer windows to be able to compete for the Premier League title.
Furthermore, the likes of Forster and Spence are yet to have a real opportunity to prove themselves to Conte, while Richarlison is currently out with a calf problem and is yet to score a Premier League goal for the club.
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According to Football Insider, the Italian is keen to bring several new faces to the club in January, and Daniel Levy has given the go-ahead for a number of new signings to arrive in January.
The report claims that Conte is looking for a striker, midfielder and a versatile defender to improve his squad mid-season, having been left short in the attacking ranks in recent weeks.
With Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski out injured, Conte has either opted for a 3-5-2 or - on rare occasions - placed faith in Lucas Moura, with Bryan Gil restricted to substitute outings.
Richarlison is expected to return to action before the World Cup, but there are fears that Kulusevski may not play for Tottenham again until December with his hamstring injury.
Having been given the green light by Levy, Fabio Paratici is now said to be putting plans in place for a busy January window, and Tottenham have every confidence in the director's knowledge of the transfer market and wide range of contacts.
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Tottenham dipped into their war chest in January to sign Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur from Juventus - the former joining on loan - and both players had an immediate impact in the side.
Conte's side pipped Arsenal to Champions League qualification thanks to the efforts of Kulusevski and Bentancur, the latter of whom scored a 92nd-minute winner in Saturday's 3-2 comeback win over Bournemouth.
However, Conte has nevertheless stressed that his squad needs improvement, telling reporters earlier this month: "I think my only worries in this moment is we have to try to keep the fingers crossed and don't have injuries because we are not a team with such a depth of squad to face competitions like the Premier League and Champions League.
"At the start of this season I said to you that we need to go step by step and have time and patience and have two or three transfer markets to bring this squad to be competitive to play in two competitions like Premier League and Champions League."
Tottenham remain third in the Premier League table after recovering from 2-0 down to beat Bournemouth and now prepare for Tuesday's Champions League clash with Marseille, where a point would be enough to seal qualification for the knockout stages.
Ben Knapton
