The 2025/26 season could be the year where Tottenham fans see the real Wilson Odobert. New head coach Thomas Frank will certainly be hoping that is the case as he looks to take the club forward and challenge for silverware.
Arriving from Burnley last August in a deal worth £30million, the Frenchman was restricted to 21 appearances in all competitions due to injury. Odobert did finish the season with a Europa League final winners' medal around his neck and he also played a huge role on the team's way to the final.
It was his double in a 3-1 round of 16 second leg win over AZ Alkmaar that saw Tottenham overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg to crucially secure a place in the quarter-finals of the competition. A few weeks later he then scored his first Premier League goal for the club in a 1-1 draw away at West Ham.
Odobert showed glimpses of his quality in his Tottenham appearances, perhaps most notably on his Premier League home debut against Everton, but there were occasions where he found himself on the periphery of a game and unfortunately having little influence. The hamstring injury he suffered in the Carabao Cup win at Coventry City ultimately had a big impact on his season and meant he was playing catch-up from the moment he returned five months later.
Speaking after his European double against AZ Alkmaar, Ange Postecoglou lavished praise on the winger and touched upon the "enormously exciting talent" at the club.
“Super pleased for him because he’s worked awfully hard," said the Australian. “I’d be surprised if I have to explain why I selected him, if you didn’t see that today… I was excited when we signed him. He’s one of these players who has the ability to take players on, find space, great technician and super pleased for him to get his goals. He’s worked hard silently to get back in the team.
“Obviously, he came to a new club, a big club and a big move for him and it didn’t work out for him through no fault of his own, through the injury and it’s been frustrating for me not to be able to showcase him and know how much he can develop and that’s just the starting point for him.
“He’s still working his way to full fitness. When you look at the likes of him and Lucas and Archie and two or three others we’ve got, there’s some enormously exciting talent there.”
It will be Frank rather than Postecoglou who hopefully benefits from the talented Odobert in the months and seasons ahead. The France Under-21 international did not feature in either of Tottenham's games against Brentford last term due to injury but he did play twice against the Bees the previous campaign when he was a Burnley player.
In his second outing against them as the Clarets won 2-1, Odobert teed up David Datro Fofana for the winning goal with a lovely disguised pass that the striker finished off. Frank will certainly know all about the qualities his player possesses and he has a track record of extracting even more out of his players, which hopefully will in turn result in Tottenham fans seeing the very best of the 20-year-old.
It won't be so straightforward in terms of the Meaux-born player securing a place in Tottenham's strongest XI but it will be a task he relishes. As things stand right now, Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski, Mathys Tel, Manor Solomon, Mikey Moore, Bryan Gil, Yang Min-hyeok, Son Heung-min and Richarlison are all options to play on the wing.
A few of the aforementioned players will head for the exit door and there is also the possibility of further incomings in that area of the pitch, with West Ham's Mohammed Kudus linked with a big-money move across the capital. Following a summer where he got even more minutes under his belt after playing for France Under-21s at the recent UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Odobert now has to make his mark in pre-season and put himself in the best possible position to start against former club Burnley on the opening weekend of the season.
It is a big year for the player and it could prove to be a very exciting one with Frank now the man tasked with his development.