Jermain Defoe, an icon for Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland, was the guest attraction at Sunday’s match between the two sides, their first meeting since Defoe led the line for Sunderland in a 0-0 draw at the Stadium of Light in 2017. He was given a hero’s applause from fans of both clubs when he was invited onto the pitch at half-time.
Seconds into the game, Mathys Tel executed a move that could have come from a Defoe highlight reel. Having received the ball in an inside-left position near the edge of the box, Tel shifted it right and, in an instant, hit a powerful, driven, no-backlift shot that stung the palms of Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs. Like Defoe, who seemingly never skewed a shot off target, whatever the angle, Tel has the quick-fire shoot-on-sight quality of a natural goalscorer.
“Definitely. It’s an old saying that if you don’t shoot, you don’t score,” manager Thomas Frank said when asked whether Tel’s shoot-first instinct brings something different to the attack, speaking in his pre-match press conference for Wednesday’s game against Bournemouth. “So it’s probably pretty good to have players that can get a shot off. But Matty is a versatile player. So he can play to the left, he can play ‘No 10’ (attacking midfield). He plays striker. Probably his best is something between the three roles. And he’s young, so he’s not the first time (you have wondered with) a player, ‘Where will he actually end?’.
“In the past, I worked with Ollie Watkins. He came to Brentford as a winger, and I converted him to be a striker, and he’s quite a successful striker. Yoane Wissa came as a winger, and he ended as a striker. Is Mathys the same type, to start as a winger and end as a striker? I don’t know. No matter what, I’m pretty sure he can perform in both positions.“
For a while, it seemed as if Tel had been lost in the shuffle. As Frank experimented with different front lines, either due to injuries or lack of attacking chemistry, the 20-year-old remained on the fringes behind Wilson Odobert, Randal Kolo Muani and even Brennan Johnson, who was sold to Crystal Palace for £35million ($47m) on January 2.
It was effectively a continuation of the awkward circumstances that led to him signing for the club on an initial loan deal from Bayern Munich a year ago, with Tel failing to show much more than glimmers of his obvious talent under Ange Postecoglou. Tottenham making his move permanent in the summer in a deal worth €35million (£30m; $41m), plus €10m in potential bonuses, seemed to signal an investment in Tel, particularly after the departure of club legend Son Heung-min, but his status on the fringes of the starting XI has remained largely unchanged this term.
Frank’s comments allude to why that may be the case. Tel, who believes his future lies on the left wing, is one of the few people who seems to have a handle on which position he will make his own. It’s not uncommon to see young players trialled in several positions before nailing down their long-term role — Gareth Bale started as a left-back before becoming one of the world’s best right-wingers, for example — but it’s difficult to assess whether testing multiple roles in fits and starts will aid Tel’s long-term development. It will make him more versatile, but elite forwards tend to specialise in one position.
Like Odobert, Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall, the core of high-potential young talents Frank is investing in, there are no questions about Tel’s desire to reach the top. Bayern were always impressed by his dedication. An example of his attitude was on public display last season, when he spoke to frustrated fans in the away end after a miserable 2-0 defeat against Fulham at Craven Cottage. For a then-teenager who did not know whether he would be at the club the following season, assuming that responsibility speaks to his mentality, and frequent visits from his family in France to his new home in London help keep him focused and grounded.
So when Frank named him in the starting XI on the weekend, he was itching to go. He had not started a Premier League game since the 2-1 defeat against Aston Villa in October — he scored the opening goal in their previous fixture, a 2-1 win over Leeds United — and had not started a league match from the left all season. Within seconds, he had registered a shot on target, something Spurs only managed to do twice as a unit in the dour 0-0 draw away at Brentford on New Year’s Day. On reflection, had he been more up to speed, Frank believed he could have registered his third league goal of the season.
“It was a positive performance from Mathys,” Frank said on Monday afternoon. “He did some positive things and got into good situations.
“He had one where he bent it to the far corner, where he’s probably the best finisher from that position. He is a little bit disappointed in himself. It’s fair, he’s young. It’s not like he played five games in a row. I hoped he could do it and we’ve seen it. So that was good.”
Since joining Spurs, Tel has often felt slightly out of place. He was brought in mid-season with a plan to develop him as a wide attacker and asked to lead an attack in an unfamiliar striker position. Then he signed permanently under a different coach, who later omitted him from the Champions League squad. Compared to Odobert, who was a long-term target before signing from Burnley in 2024, the vision for his France Under-21 team-mate has been blurry.
Johnson’s departure and a leg injury to Mohammed Kudus have left the Tottenham squad even shorter on attacking players, and Tel can stake his claim. Frank said there’s “no one who’s really grabbed that shirt” on the left wing. When asked if Tel will remain at the club in the face of loan interest from around Europe, the head coach responded “hopefully”, after saying, “We are maybe a little short on offensive options.”
Desperate for a run of games in his favoured position for the first time in his short career, a depleted forward line presents Tel with the opportunity he has sought since leaving Bayern in search of more first-team minutes. Starting against Bournemouth, the onus is on him to take what’s “up for grabs”.