Former Tottenham defender Alan Hutton has told football.london that he does not believe three of the candidates to fill in for the injured Micky van de Ven and James Maddison are long-term candidates for the positions.

Spurs have lost both Van de Ven and Maddison until the new year with hamstring and ankle injuries respectively and the previously unbeaten north London outfit lost their first two Premier League games they did not finish with the pair. Both picked up their injuries against Chelsea and were then unavailable for the trip to play Wolves later in the week.

Hutton, who was among the Tottenham team that lifted Spurs' last trophy - the League Cup - in 2008, believes that neither defender who came into the mix should be a long-term option for Ange Postecoglou and that one of the midfield choices to replace Maddison had already had enough chances to impress.

"As we see at this moment in time, they've had to turn to Ben Davies and Eric Dier to replace Van De Ven, and I think it is probably about time to move on from those pair," Hutton told football.london via OLBG.

“It's going to be very difficult to fill the void Maddison leaves. I think [Rodrigo] Bentancur will have to step up, a lot of the Tottenham fans are happy that he's back. But for me, I think the likes of [Giovani] Lo Celso, can he do it? I'm not sure. I think he's had enough opportunities.

"He's needed at this moment in time, but I don't think he'll ever be your go-to guy. Ange isn't going to turn it around overnight, he's going to need a couple of transfer windows to try and get it right and improve squad depth and I believe in him."

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Hutton has been impressed with this new-look Tottenham and feels like their new Australian head coach has removed the negativity from the north London club.

"I think Ange Postecoglou has been a breath of fresh air. He was at Celtic, he was a winner there and he'll want to do the same thing at Spurs," said the former Scotland international.

"I think that's the remit for Tottenham moving forward. I don’t think they thought it would be such a quick turnaround, but the style of play is exactly what the fans want to see. The injuries haven't been great, back-to-back defeats. He's going to go through a little bit of a difficult time. I think the international break came at a good time for Tottenham, but I do think they can win something this year.

"I think it's going to be difficult to challenge for the league. The big thing for me is what they do in the January transfer window. If Ange gets funds to go and reinvest and they recruit well, I think we will be talking about them winning something.

"I think the culture of the club has changed, it's now more like if you score two, we'll score three. We've got talented players at the moment who can go and make something happen. I think they've gone through too many seasons now where it was very defensive-minded.

"Ange wants to win the ball back within the first five seconds and really put the team under pressure. I think the players have really bought into that and that's why we're seeing some great performances."

So would Hutton in his prime have been able to operate as one of Postecoglou's inverted full-backs, with their dual roles as number 10s in the centre of the pitch?

"It’s something I could never have done," he admitted. "I could never go inside the pitch and play head-on a swivel. I'd just be getting tackled right and left, so that wouldn't be for me."