It’s time for F***, Marry, Kill: Tottenham Hotspur once more. Since the last piece, I have been sheltering myself from the rocks and various debris thrown my way after suggesting I sell half our midfield. The forecast after this? Well, more of the same.
It’s time to take a look at Spurs’ attack, starting with the wingers. For each, we’ll give you our thoughts as to why they should stay (Keep), head out on loan (Loan), or go (Sell - either via an actual sale, or conclusion of their contract); though there may also be a bacon sandwich that pops up here and there also.
Editor’s note: this series and a couple of the pieces in it were nearly completed at time of writing, so we will still cover players whose future has already been confirmed (i.e. released players)
Timo Werner - Sell (Loan concluded) - confirmed
Well... yeah. I actually feel a bit sad about this in that I really hoped, both for Timo and Spurs’ sake, that it would work out for him here. He showed promising signs in his loan late in the 23/24 season, but this season he just went from bad to worse before disappearing into the ether. Or should I say, “before being disappeared”? Ange Postecoglou clearly tired of the German’s inability to hit the broad side of a barn, and from there the only outcome was for Timo to head back to Germany.
Son Heung-min - Bacon Sandwich
Sonny is now officially a club legend. In my books, that means he can do whatever the hell he wants with my blessing. If he wants to see out the remainder of his contract at the club, fantastic. If he wants to chase the bag in Saudi Arabia, well, you go get yours Sonny (the grossness of sportswashing aside). If he wants to make a heroic homecoming to South Korea, or hang out with some friends in MLS, absolutely!
Son is turning 33 next month, and as such there’s no way Spurs would (or should) offer him a deal that he would want to accept beyond next season. He is also clearly in a physical decline - the amount of minutes he has played through his career taking a toll - but he has also managed to reinvent his game as his athletic tools have waned, becoming a more creative presence while still able to burn a defender on his day. Unfortunately, that’s probably not enough to be a regular starter for a Champions League club, and that’s okay! He’s been a faithful servant when others haven’t, and he deserves to finish a legend. Do what you want, Sonny.
Brennan Johnson - Sell*
*If an offer around what we paid is received
Yes, I can already hear the commentariat screaming at me now. Hear me out. Brennan Johnson is very good at the most important and hardest thing to do in football. He is bad to okay at everything else. What do you do with that? The funny thing is if he had just a bit more physicality and a long-range shot, he would fit right in as a striker and we’re probably not having this conversation, as that is a skillset that works well up front; but you can’t carry his lack of progressive skills on the wing at the top level... unless you have somebody elite on the other side.
Which Spurs do not.
This feeds into the Son, Wilson Odobert, and Mathys Tel options as well; all of these guys are incomplete players. Spurs need somebody complete. So if a club with a bunch of money comes in and offers to buy Brennan Johnson for what we paid, I am saying thank you very much and immediately reinvesting that cash into a top-level winger (no, not Bryan Mbeumo) - it’s the easiest way to get that influx of cash - but if that doesn’t eventuate, maybe we look at options around Wilson Odobert or Mathys Tel (or a Saudi club pays ridiculous money for Son).
This would lead to Brennan Johnson potentially moving into more of a bench impact role - which JOHNSON AGAIN OLE OLE! I will leave this on a positive: perhaps the most frustrating thing to see through the season just gone was for a player like Brennan, all physical tools and few technical, to be so lackadaisical in his defensive work-rate; however, after his time out of the side around two-thirds of the way through the season, he returned with a renewed vigor in that regard, really impressive with helping out Porro cover the right-hand side. If he can keep that focus, I think he can really do a job in a Thomas Frank-coached Spurs side, whose tactics I think will be of benefit to the Welshman’s game.
Wilson Odobert - Keep*
*But potentially loan out if Tel is signed, or Johnson or Son go
Wilson Odobert is an exciting, young winger. He’s also not very good. At least, not yet. There’s a lot of promise with Wilson; he can beat players at will and has a good work-rate out of possession, but he struggles to make an impact on the match if others don’t find him in space. Basically, he can disappear in games, and that makes sense for a guy who’s only 20! I think we sometimes forget that.
Time is on Wilson’s side, though, and if he keeps growing and improving, Spurs could have a very talented player on their hands. The only question is if he is going to be able to make the requisite impact as Spurs look to make an impression in the Champions League this coming season. If Spurs decide they are carrying too many raw talents, they could decide to loan the Frenchman out to gain some valuable experience and invest in somebody a bit more polished.
Mathys Tel - Keep (Sign)*
*If the price is right, and Spurs don’t see another talented prospect for cheaper elsewhere
In some ways, Mathys Tel is a raw player much like Wilson Odobert. In others, he is much further along in his development. Not willing to let the game come to him like his compatriot, Tel tries to impose himself on matches, sometimes to a fault; but that’s an approach to the game I love to see in a Spurs player.
Tel improved as his loan went on, with some impressive underlying shooting and shot creation stats: 0.54 xG+xA for a 20-year-old in a bad side is really good! He also has a level of versatility that could be useful - especially in a Thomas Frank side. The thing with Tel is opportunity cost. Is there somebody out there who could do the same (or more) for less? Maybe. Is he worth the original mooted £55 million? Almost certainly not right now; but I think he will be one day, and if Spurs can get him on the cheap he could end up a bargain.
Mikey Moore - Keep
Mikey Moore, long thought Spurs’ most promising academy talent, was a key contributor to Spurs’ 24/25 campaign. How many 17-year-olds not named Lamine Yamal are playing regular minutes for European champions? Not many.
It is possible Spurs opt to send Mikey on loan this coming season; but with European football meaning plenty of minutes to go around, and still very, very young, it may be that he stays closer to home, with some valuable cup minutes and cameos off the bench to see how he develops - with a loan perhaps looked at in January.
Dejan Kulusevski - Keep
Many commentors questioned why Deki was left out of the midfielders piece. The main reason was that there were already ten players to cover there, and I had deadlines to hit! That said, I’m still not convinced Deki is a midfielder. I know, I know.
He does some great things there - his ability to draw in defenders and release the ball can be quite dangerous around the box, and in broken play; but though he had some impressive appearances in the middle of the park last season, when he plays there you often see a disconnect between him and his midfield partners, with him often drifting to... well, the wing. This is not really the job of an attacking midfielder, who really needs to link the attacking and middle third - and it can make it difficult for Spurs to progress the ball. Bizarrely, though, he tends to progress the ball really, really well on the wing, almost acting as an auxiliary midfielder to move the ball up the pitch with quick passing and smart turns.
It’s almost like Deki has been used all over the pitch his entire career.
The reality is that Deki is a fantastic utility for a manager that loves to tinker and modify tactics, and that’s worth its weight in gold. He may not always start, and he may not always play in the same position, but he can kind of play anywhere across the front-line or in attacking midfield and do a job (and generally a good one at that). I think he could spend a fair amount of time this coming season operating just off the striker, slightly different from the advanced midfield role he played often through 24/25, and I am still intrigued by the idea of Kulustriker.
All this to say - he’ll be staying with the club, pretty much regardless of what anybody thinks. Deki’s injury saw off any thoughts the club may have had of selling him, with him potentially out for a good chunk of the first part of 25/26.
Bryan Gil - Sell
Yeah. Players of Bryan Gil’s stature tend to not succeed in the Premier League, UNLESS they are quite technically gifted, or extremely pacey. Bryan Gil is neither, and he is thus not a fit for Spurs. They love him though in Spain, where he should return the club a small fee - though nowhere near what Spurs paid for him.
I miss Erik Lamela.
Manor Solomon - Sell
Yes, Manor Solomon lit up the Championship last season; but history is littered with players who were brilliant in the Championship and then failed to make an impact at Premier League level. Manor Solomon is at his peak now, both in terms of his career and value, and he has a pretty sordid history of injuries. With the season just gone, he should comfortably fetch eight figures for Spurs. That’s a pretty easy sale in my books, and a quite tidy return for a free player.
Yang Min-hyeok - Loan
Yang moved to Spurs permanently in January and immediately headed to Queens Park Rangers on loan. I thought he would struggle with the physicality of the Championship; but he actually did okay from that respect, with the bigger surprise being his technical ability not popping in way some may have expected.
That said, he started around half of his matches at QPR, gaining regular minutes and returning two goals and an assist. Not too bad for the now-19-year-old’s first taste of English football. I think the club will want to build on this with him heading out on loan again. Frustratingly, unless there’s some part of the deal we’re missing in which he technically transferred to Spurs before the start of the 24/25 season before being loaned back to the K-League, he will never qualify as UEFA club-trained for Spurs, so it may be that unless he really breaks out he just becomes a tidy profit generator for the club.
Oyindamola Ajayi - Loan
Outside of Spurs winning the Europa League, was there a better moment this season than Damola Ajayi scoring his first senior goal for the club on debut against Elfsborg? The vibes were so great in that moment, it felt like they couldn’t be defeated... yet here we are. Keep the vibes good, guys! Please don’t yell at me in the comments!
Ajayi has shown promise in the U21’s at the age of 19, so I’d say he’ll head out to the lower levels of the English football pyramid to really test himself against grownups. Let’s see how he goes.
There you go. Like the midfield, the wide areas need quite a bit of work in terms of reinforcement. I believe that signing a starting-level winger is critical for Spurs this summer, and to make that happen, we could see a domino effect amongst the squad of loans and sales, leading to potentially further investment for some young talented depth. Let’s see how Johan Lange and Fabio Paratici view the situation.
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