Paulinho is still at Spurs and, as such, could still come good but, as things stand, it certainly looks like the £17 million fee paid out for him - a club record until it was twice beaten that same summer - was very much a case of Spurs being overcharged. Last year, Paulinho came out of nowhere. having spent time playing in some of the poorer European leagues (like Lithuania and Poland), as well as for Bragantino in the second tier in Brazil, he finally found his form at Corinthians in his homeland and had become a regular feature in the Brazilian international squad - indeed, he was named the third best player at last year's Confederations Cup. He was expected to become Spurs' answer to Frank Lampard, but his first season far from met those expectations. He showed signs of class at times, scored six Premier League goals, but was often anonymous in matches and Tim Sherwood dropped him entirely when he took over from Andre Villas-Boas. He had a poor World Cup 2014 in his homeland and was even booed by his own fans. This season, he has mostly been limited to Europa League games and appears to be nowhere near Mauricio Pochettino's favoured first eleven. He is, therefore, a long way off proving he was worth the cash paid for him as things stand.
