New Tottenham head coach Thomas Frank says he is "very, very excited" about Mathys Tel arriving at the club on a permanent deal from Bayern Munich.
The 20-year-old Frenchman became the first signing of the Frank era at Spurs after the Dane gave the green light to the move that will cost the north London club £29.8million (€35million), plus a potential further £4.2million (€5million) in add-ons. Tottenham knocked around £15million off the original £45million option to buy the player at the end of his £8.5million loan spell.
football.londonreported earlier this week that Frank was excited by the prospect of working with Tel and that he believes he can improve and that the Dane studied the Frenchman himself and felt the move was a good one. There is a feeling that the 20-year-old, who signed a six-year deal with the club, could be more suited to Frank's approach as it gives freedom to its wide players and allows them to come in off the line to link up play.
Now Frank has confirmed that report in a new interview about the attacker, who is currently at the European U21 Championships with France, alongside team-mate Wilson Odobert.
"Very, very excited about Mathys signing with a permanent deal," said the new head coach in a club interview. "I think he's a very talented player that can play across the front four positions. He's a goalscorer that we can develop even further to be more consistent in his all-round game but also to more consistently land in the right positions in the box. So I'm looking forward to it."
football.london reported this week that staff within Spurs quickly saw Tel as strong technically with an excellent training mentality as well as being a positive character and influence on the squad. He had not played many minutes for Bayern ahead of his move so needed plenty of fitness and conditioning work with the belief remaining that he still needs to improve physically, particularly in his explosiveness and the stamina required for the Premier League.
Tel is seen as promising in his one vs one duels against defenders but could benefit from extra strength to improve those moments. His finishing also requires work, as shown in some of the missed chances in the Premier League last season.
The youngster's performance against Nottingham Forest at home in April was held up internally as one of his best of the spell, with his energy and creativity from the flank, and that will be the yardstick for the player as the foundation with what can be added on top with more consistency and plenty of coaching from Frank and his team.
While the Frenchman is always eager to track back, his defensive work is also seen as requiring further development as he looks to become more than just an impact player under the new head coach.