Despite the disappointment attached to Tottenham Hotspur’s defeat in the Super Cup, there were positives to take for Thomas Frank’s side.
Going 2-0 up against a very good Paris Saint-Germain team, Tottenham proved that they will be a lot more resolute under Frank, even if they did surrender their lead late on.
Perhaps that was partly down to Joao Palhinha coming off the pitch in the second half – he was the unsung hero in midfield for Spurs, a steely presence who will be an excellent addition in N17.
And whilst it would be easy to criticise Frank for taking him off, the Dane will be aware that he needs to manage Palhinha’s minutes, as he didn’t play an awful lot at Bayern Munich.
That being said, Spurs might not often line up in a 5-3-2 this season as they did in the Super Cup.
And whilst Mohammed Kudus impressed for Tottenham, Frank is arguably still lacking numbers in attack.
Gabriel Agbonlahor says Tottenham will sign Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace
With that in mind, pundit Gabriel Agbonlahor has now discussed Tottenham’s pursuit of Eberechi Eze on talkSPORT.
TBR Football recently confirmed that Tottenham were back in for Eze after links had gone cold – Daniel Levy wants to bring the Crystal Palace midfielder to north London.
And when discussing Wednesday’s game and Spurs’ situation moving forward, Agbonlahor confessed that he did expect Spurs to sign Eze.
Agbonlahor said: “Yeah that’s the only thing they were missing last night (Eze), because you can play that formation, but you can’t play the same formation and personnel when you’re probably playing a lesser team.
“You only had Richarlison and Kudus, I know you had Solanke on the bench to come on, Tel, who I’m not sure about – but they need a number 10, someone who’s going to open up defences, get on the ball and make things happen.
“I mean when you look at Cunha and Mbeumo, it’s similar fees (to Eze), Kudus was £55m, I just look at Eze, I think he’s worth like £90/95m, never mind £68m.
“Something must be going on, can they agree personal terms first before they put a bid in? That normally happens.
“But if they were in for Morgan Gibbs-White, that would have been similar money, so I don’t see any reason why not.
“They’ve got the money available, I’m sure it will happen, it wouldn’t surprise me in the next couple of weeks that he does go to Spurs.”
Richarlison might have ended Spurs’ need for a new striker
Before the summer began, it was believed that Levy wanted to sign another striker at Tottenham, even though the club had spent big on Dominic Solanke the summer before.
Of course, that might have partly been because Richarlison was expected to leave Spurs.
But after backing up his Europa League final contribution with another promising showing in the Super Cup, Richarlison has perhaps earned the right to stay at Tottenham to compete with Solanke.
Everton have shown interest in signing Richarlison, and the Brazilian will be desperate for regular minutes this season ahead of the World Cup.
But perhaps that could work to Tottenham’s favour whilst Richarlison remains in N17 – he could really push Solanke on to bigger and better things.
Solanke had a steady first season under Ange Postecoglou, but Spurs fans will surely be expecting a lot more from the record signing moving forward.