Thomas Frank and Tottenham’s marvelous yet muddled season will need January reinforcements
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Tottenham Hotspur’s 2025/26 season has resembled a riddle wrapped in an enigma with Thomas Frank’s side flying high in the Premier League but already well behind rivals Arsenal, and unbeaten in Champions League while sitting mid-table in the League Phase.
A statement victory over Manchester City in just Frank’s third competitive game, after he also drew with Paris Saint-Germain in normal time and only missed out on the UEFA Super Cup thanks to goals in the 85th and 94th-minutes goals, combined to a winning start to their Champions League campaign marked a very strong beginning to potentially another season of silverware.
However, draws to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bodo/Glimt preceded defeat to Aston Villa and the wheels seemed to be coming off after another lacklustre stalemate in Monaco.
Then came that surprise 3-0 win on Merseyside as Spurs became the first visiting team to win at the Hill Dickinson Stadium despite looking like the second-best team for much of the game, and more questions remain than answers.
We can’t solve all of those puzzles, but ahead of the full release of Football Manager 26 we can at least answer ‘who will Tottenham buy and sell in the January transfer window’ as we fired up the Beta, jumped to February and here’s what it predicted…
Royal return at Tottenham combined with risky FC Koln signing
Emerson Royal - £12.5 million from Flamengo - Royal was always strong out of possession at Tottenham, but struggled when The Lilywhites were going forwards and failed to make a positive impact for AC Milan. Still aged only 26, Royal’s now back in Brazil with Flamengo, who boast the best defensive record in the top flight, such a flexible manager as Thomas Frank could surely get more out of him.
Eric Martel - £16.5m from 1. FC Koln - 23-year-old Martel wouldn’t do much to improve the average age of a youthful midfield at Tottenham, but having played over 2,400 minutes in each of the last four seasons, he brings plenty of experience.
A defensive monster, Martel is in the 1% of midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues for blocks, interceptions and aerials won, while ranking in the top five for interceptions, touches in his defensive third and penalty area, and assists (with two for the season in eight games). While it’s a limited sample size, he certainly looks like another Joao Palhina and if Martel could keep those numbers up in the Premier League then £16.5m would be a bargain.
Mason Melia - £2.9m from St. Pat’s Athletic - Not the most difficult transfer to predict given Melia has already agreed to join Tottenham for an initial £1.6m that could rise to £3.5m. The first League of Ireland to break the million pound barrier, Melia has already played his final game in front of St Pat’s home supporters and scored his 15th goal of the season, having only turned 18 in late September.
Dodi Lukebakio - £43m from Benfica - Paying almost £50 million (a fee that would make Lukebakio Tottenham’s eighth-most expensive signing of all time, ahead of James Maddison) for a 28-year-old winger who’s never made more than 15 goal contributions in a league season would be a bold move, that’s for sure. Lukebakio has started this campaign well at least, notching three assists in four Primeira Liga games for Benfica at one every 83 minutes, and he’s pushed his goal tally into double figures twice in his last three full seasons.
Deranged loan departures in FM26 prediction
Brandon Austin - £3.8m to Ipswich Town - The Tractor Boys have endured a tour start to life back in the Championship and no one has felt that more keenly than Alex Palmer, who’s been the eighth-worst shot-stopper in the division out of 35 goalkeepers before injury forced Kieran McKenna to turn back to Christian Walton, who last played regularly in League 1.
FM26 believes the solution to that problem is Tottenham academy graduate Austin, who’s only been a first-choice goalkeeper once, a half-season spell at Viborg, but won’t be prising the jersey from Vicario any time soon.
Dominic Solanke - loan to Napoli - If you got through all of the signings wondered what gave us the right to label this an ‘unhinged’ wonder no more. There’s a reason why we led this section with Austin - he’s literally the only player FM26 had leaving Tottenham for a fee in January. Solanke hasn’t lived up to his club-record price tag so far but letting him leave, even on loan, with only Richarlison and Tel as Spurs’ only permanent alternatives would be insanity.
Djed Spence - loan to Brighton & Hove Albion - No, we can’t make head or tail of this one either…
Kota Takai - loan to Coventry City - The most expensive J-League player to move overseas at £5m, Takai is yet to make his debut in lilywhite battling a foot injury. Even when fully fit, he’ll struggle to get game time ahead Cristian Romero, the red hot Micky van de Ven, Kevin Danso and Radu Dragusin if he ever recovers from his own injury woes.
However, he’d fit in well at Coventry, who are flying high in the Championship and already have one Samurai Blue star in Tatsuhiro Sakamoto. And Tyrell Ashcroft, Maeson King and George Feeney are also leaving north London temporarily according to FM26, loaned to Harrogate Town, Lincoln City and Eastleigh respectively.