Listen to the full interview with Lipton on the Off The Ball Football Show podcast which also includes a review of Borussia Dortmund v Bayern Munich.
During the summer, one club received plenty of praise for the way in which they conducted their transfer business.
But thus far Tottenham Hotspur have been very underwhelming. Struggling to score goals and with new signings not gelling, yesterday's "embarrassing" 6 - 0 defeat to Manchester City seems to be the nadir.
To delve into Spurs' problems, The Mirror's Chief Football writer Martin Lipton joined us on the show and he did not mince his words about the atrocious defeat to City.
"Up until two games ago, people seemed happy with what was happening at Tottenham," he said. "Then they had that defeat against Newcastle which was a bit of a fluke because they could have scored four or five. But yesterday was literally a humiliation from start to finish. It was a total debacle."
Yet Lipton pointed out that Spurs are actually two points better off than this time last year against the same opponents. And they are only four points off second spot.
Lipton pinpointed Younes Kaboul as a weak link in the backline and was also critical of record signing Erik Lamela who has flattered to deceive since joining from Roma.
"He made a big call yesterday on Kaboul who he wants to be his main centre-half alongside Vertonghen or Chiriches. But Kaboul was not right and never up to it. He was so slow to react for the first goal. Lloris also didn't look right. Lamela is trying to find his feet but at the moment he can't even find his shoes. Holtby was poor. It's not terminal because it's such a concertina of a league but it didn't look very clever."
Lamela struggling to "find his shoes" depsite their fairly lurid colour
But arguably the most pressing issue is how to give striker Roberto Soldado better service. As I wrote earlier, the statistics show that Spurs' wingers are not providing the right kind of crosses for a penalty box poacher to thrive on.
"I think it's something they've been looking to address. There was that chance yesterday for him from a cross by Kyle Walker and Walker is often their best source of delivery on the flank when he gets forward," said Lipton who believes that Spurs need to find a more aggressive style of play.
"Soldado has also been a streak scorer as well, scoring in fits and starts and then has a fallow period. Maybe he has to be playing alongside someone. He's looking a bit lonely. He was almost crying at the end of the game."
Lipton also thinks Gareth Bale has been missed since he moved to Real Madrid.
"They haven't got Bale which is a massive difference. It was something you could not legislate for. He was just fantastic. Yesterday they were appalling but taken as a body over the 12 games, it hasn't been bad. It just hasn't been good enough. Have they got enough about them to get out of this blip?"
Listen to the full interview by following the link at the top of the page to see whether Lipton believes manager Andre Villas Boas is the man to get Spurs out of this mess.
