Football.London

Tottenham Hotspur owner Daniel Levy has reportedly held talks with Belgian outfit Westerlo about a possible collaboration.

According to Sunday People, Levy, chief football officer Scott Munn and technical director Johan Lange met with Westerlo vice-chairman Hasan Cetinkaya in Instanbul before Tottenham's Europa League defeat to Galatasaray this week. The topic of discussion being loanee Alfie Devine, 20, and Croatia ace Luka Vuskovic. Devine has so far started in all seven, bar one, Jupiler Pro games.

Vuskovic, on the other hand, started in all 14 games, playing the entire 90 minutes in all but one game. It's said the performance of both players left Spurs feeling 'highly satisfied' and the two clubs will look to 'explore deeper and more extensive collaboration opportunities' in the future.

A deal between clubs would see Westerlo sign more Tottenham youngsters while also giving the north Londoners the chance to keep a close eye on emerging talent at Westerlo and elsewhere in Belgium.

Speaking about the club's ambitions, Cetinkaya said: "We want to work together in the long term. For instance, the intention is to have players gain experience here in the coming years as well, but we can definitely join hands in terms of scouting and the operation of the academy as well.

"Apart from the loaned players, this could also be of interest to Tottenham. Their performance manager, Andy Scoulding, is in the stands every week in Belgium. So not only do they monitor their own players, but they also have a front row seat to follow interesting players in the Belgian league."

On the players, Cetinkaya added: "We’ve talked about Luka and Alfie. There’s weekly contact anyway around the succession of their players, but the club has reiterated that they are satisfied with their evolution.

"They don’t just get to play, they also show appreciation for our project and our way of working. On and off the pitch, we have made a good impression. We can be proud of that. This is also an extra boost for the image of our club."

Is time running out at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for Ange Postecoglou?

Social media can be a cesspit at times and it is no worse for football fans than when your team has lost. Badly.

But there are voices on there that deserve to be heard, as long as they are not abusive and unnecessarily expletive. And there are plenty of calls for the Spurs head coach to be sacked.

Tottenham Hotspur are a club with a vocal fanbase - positive or negative. Although the negative normally outweighs the positive.

Take a look on social media for supporters of a Spurs persuasion on Sunday afternoon and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone with anything good to say. And who can blame them?

Tottenham have just lost 2-1 at home to Ipswich Town. Two weeks after Spurs turned in an insipid display against Crystal Palace, to hand the Eagles their first win of the season, Spurs did exactly the same for the Tractor Boys.

Yes they had a difficult night in the Europa League against Galatasaray and did not arrive home until early on Friday morning, leaving them little preparation time. But Postecoglou made seven changes from the team that started in Turkey.

And without being arrogant about it, Tottenham should have enough to beat a team like Ipswich, no matter the preparation. Particularly at home. Spurs were genuinely poor in N17 on Sunday, it was a lifeless performance from start to finish.

Another international break is now upon us and Spurs have once again sent us into it with a dismal defeat.

They sit tenth in the Premier League with 16 points from those matches. There have been five defeats in 11 games. Nuno Espirito Santo was sacked with 15 points on the board from 10 matches. The football back then was undoubtedly far harder to stomach, but how often this season have Spurs been genuinely good for a full 90 minutes?

Good for the most part against Newcastle but losing; good in spells against Arsenal, Brentford, West Ham and Aston Villa; good in a half against Leicester and Brighton.

Spurs have kept just two clean sheets in the Premier League this season - one against a dire Everton side and one against 10-man Manchester United - possibly the only occasions this season really where Spurs have been legitimately outstanding from start to finish.

Postecoglou's team have been good in spells, without finding any consistency. And the poor defensive performances should be cause for concern, even with an attack-minded manager. You simply cannot focus on the attack and expect to score more than the teams you come up against. The lot down the road are pretty adept at going forward and being defensive when they need to be.

Spurs are regularly too narrow at the back, leaving wide open spaces for opposition wide men and offer up too many chances to opposition teams.

Tottenham Hotspur suffered a bitter defeat at home to newly-promoted Ipswich Town on Sunday afternoon, and supporters made their feelings on the performance clear at the full time whistle.

Ange Postecoglou is in his second season with the north London club as he succeeded Antonio Conte in the dugout back in 2023. Last term, Spurs finished fifth in the Premier League standings and secured a place in the Europa League for the 2024/25 season.

They have now won just two of their last five league matches this season and Sunday's defeat to Ipswich places them 10th in the standings after 11 games. Sammie Szmodics opened the scoring for the visitors in the first half at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, before Liam Delap added a second before the break.

Spurs attempted to muster some form of a comeback after the break as Rodrigo Bentancur pulled a goal back with 20 minutes left to play. However, the hosts were unable to find a much-needed equaliser in the closing stages of the game, let alone a winner.

Midweek, they were beaten 3-2 by Turkish side Galatasaray in the Europa League, and they now sit seventh in the league phase standings. While they have picked up some positive results in recent weeks, including the 4-1 league thrashing of Aston Villa and narrow victory over Manchester City in the round of 16 of the Carabao Cup, Sunday's result against Ipswich represents a second defeat to a relegation-threatened side in the last four weeks.

Boos rang out around the stadium at the full time whistle on Sunday as supporters made their feelings towards the performance abundantly clear. A video recorded by Spurs fan Chris Cowlin then showed Postecoglou making his way down the tunnel while fans were shouting at him.

Although inaudible, the manager didn't appear to like what he heard as he stopped in his tracks and looked up towards the fans above the tunnel. After a brief moment, he continued to make his way off the pitch along with other members of his backroom staff.

Speaking after the game, Postecoglou claimed responsibility for the team's lack of consistency this season. "That's down to me," he told BBC Sport.

"That's my responsibility. The inconsistency we're having this year, ultimately it comes down to me and my approach and it’s something I need to try and fix and see if I can help the players in that area."

Ange Postecoglou has been speaking to the media following Tottenham's disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to Ipswich Town on Sunday in the Premier League.

The Tractor Boys secured their first league win of the season with Kieran McKenna leading his team back to the club where he started his playing and coaching career. Spurs could have climbed up into third place in the table with a victory but instead now sit 10th after the dismal defeat.

The away side took the lead on the half hour mark. Brennan Johnson didn't challenge for an aerial ball and that gave Sammie Szmodics time to hit an overhead effort into the bottom right corner. Ipswich were gifted a second goal before the interval when Spurs could not convert a break at one end and the visitors swept up the other end where Szmodics' low cross was palmed out by Guglielmo Vicario against Radu Dragusin and the ball rolled back towards the goal line where Liam Delap smashed it into the net.

Spurs grabbed a goal back on 69 minutes when Rodrigo Bentancur headed home Pedro Porro's corner but it was all the hosts could celebrate as Tottenham huffed and puffed and could not find another goal.

Here's every single word Postecoglou said in his press conference at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after the defeat:

What went wrong today?

We didn't start the game well at all. It was all sort of passive, without the ball, with the ball. I felt we didn't get the tempo right or intensity right and then we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. Second half we were in the ascendancy and had opportunities obviously but we didn't do enough with them.

You've said you don't think there's recurring themes in matches but it does feel like falling behind at home is one during your time here, is that an issue?

They're all different sorts of scenarios. When we went behind against Villa we were playing well. We weren't playing well today. So you've got to look at in isolation today, it was a different scenario for me. I don't think it was anything like last time. We gave ourselves too much of a deficit to try to overcome. Obviously second half we had the opportunities to do that, but we should never have been in that position.

Why are you having these games where you're more passive than usual, like at Palace?

That's down to me. That's my responsibility. The inconsistency we're having this year, ultimately it comes down to me and my approach and something I need to try and fix and see if I can help the players in that area.

Is the squad struggling to deal with the constant Thursday-Sunday amount of games?

I shouldn't think so. I don't think so. If we were seeing that we'd probably feel it more at the end of games and we're not feeling it at the end of games. We're finishing games strongly. We can't start games like that at this level and expect to overcome the gap that exists between us and the other teams.

Any complaints with the time wasting as the fans got wound up by that?

Look I think it's the way the Premier League is going. It's pretty strategic now. You can almost look at your clock around the 20-minute mark and some player will go down, they'll all come over to coach and get instructions. It's funny I always liked the Premier League because it wasn't like that. You would watch teams play in Europe and get frustrated by it, but now it's part of the game here as well. Nothing we can do about it. For us, if we want to mitigate those things because we don't do it and we want the game to be played, then we shouldn't give opportunities for the opposition to do that.

Can I check on Pape Matar Sarr's injury and Dominic Solanke seemed to pick something up in the first half and played on?

I think Pape is all right. He just got a bit of a knock. Dom jarred his knee, it was pretty sore but he wanted to continue. Hopefully it is nothing serious.

Listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham by clicking here for in-depth Spurs chat on your preferred podcast platform.

Ange Postecoglou is holding his press conference following Tottenham's 2-1 defeat at home against Ipswich on Sunday afternoon in the Premier League.

The visitors took the lead on the half hour mark. Brennan Johnson didn't challenge for an aerial ball and that gave Sammie Szmodics time to hit an overhead effort into the bottom right corner.

The Tractor Boys were gifted a second goal before the break. Spurs could not convert a break at one end and the visitors swept up the other end where Szmodics' low cross was palmed out by Guglielmo Vicario against Radu Dragusin and the ball rolled back towards the goal line where Liam Delap smashed it in.

Spurs grabbed one goal back on 69 minutes when Rodrigo Bentancur powered home a header from Pedro Porro's corner. Tottenham huffed and puffed but could not find another goal as Ipswich claimed their first win of the Premier League season.

Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold is among those putting the questions to Postecoglou after the game. Scroll down for his latest updates from the press conference at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Tottenham Hotspur fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Ipswich Town in the Premier League on Sunday and here are our Spurs player ratings.

Spurs only flew back into the UK in the early hours of Friday morning from Istanbul after an intense match at Galatasaray, where they played the final half hour of the 3-2 defeat with 10 men after Will Lankshear's red card, which followed the 19-year-old's first goal for the club.

Postecoglou brought back seven players into the side to face Ipswich that he had left out of his line-up for the game in Turkey with Cristian Romero back in the team following his foot injury suffered in the Villa win and Djed Spence was back on the bench after missing out in recent weeks.

Ipswich took the lead on the half hour mark. Brennan Johnson didn't challenge for an aerial ball and that gave Sammie Szmodics time to hit an overhead effort into the bottom right corner.

The visitors were gifted a second goal before the break. Spurs could not convert a break at one end and the visitors swept up the other end where Szmodics' low cross was palmed out by Guglielmo Vicario against Radu Dragusin and the ball rolled back towards the goal line where Liam Delap smashed it in.

Spurs grabbed one goal back on 69 minutes when Rodrigo Bentancur powered home a header from Pedro Porro's corner.

Tottenham huffed and puffed but could not find another goal as Ipswich claimed their first win of the Premier League season.

Here are our Tottenham player ratings from the match:

Guglielmo Vicario

Made an early save from Szmodics with his legs. Couldn't do much about the same player's overheard kick into the bottom right corner. Pushed Szmodics' low cross into Dragusin as Ipswich scored their second goal. 4

Pedro Porro

Wasn't great for either Ipswich goal but did send in the corner Bentancur headed home in the second half. 5

Cristian Romero

Back in the team but he couldn't do much to help Spurs turn the game around. 5

Radu Dragusin

Made a mess of an early header which allowed Ipswich to break towards Spurs' goal but executed an important interception in his own box soon after. Was then beaten to the ball by Burgess from a corner with the Ipswich man's header hitting the crossbar. Then couldn't react when Vicario pushed the ball against him from Szmodics' low cross and the ball ran towards the goal line for Delap to score. Got better but this was a shaky display overall. 3

Destiny Udogie

Busy up and down the flank but still hesitates in challenges at times when he needs to go in strong. 5

Pape Matar Sarr

Constantly moving and trying to get the ball going. Seemed to take a knock in the first half and then another which forced him off in the second period. 5

Rodrigo Bentancur

Spurs' best player for much of the game with an all-action display and he powered home a header on 69 minutes. Picked up a yellow card and started to tire after that before being replaced. 7

Dejan Kulusevski

Huffed and puffed but this was one of his least effective displays in such a good start to the season. 4

Brennan Johnson

Touched a good chance just wide of the post from an early Son curling ball into the box. Really should have challenged for the ball in the box that handed Szmodics all the time in the world to score on the half hour. Kept pushing forward but without much joy before coming off with 10 minutes to go. 4

Dominic Solanke

Lovely chest control, touch, turn and shot from Solanke 20 minutes in which forced Muric into a low save. Looked to pick up an injury in the first half but played on. Had the ball in the net early in the second half only for VAR to rule it out for a handball. Had a late chance that Muric saved with his leg. 6

Son Heung-min

Put a great early curling cross into the box that Johnson touched wide before testing the keeper following a jinking run himself. Tried to make things happen for Spurs to no avail. 5

Subs

Timo Werner

Went direct down the left and forced Muric into a flying save after a shot on the run. 5

James Maddison

Offered little after coming on for the final 10 minutes. N/A

Yves Bissouma

Replaced Bissouma for the latter stages of the game. N/A

Listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham by clicking here for in-depth Spurs chat on your preferred podcast platform.

Ange Postecoglou has named the Tottenham Hotspur side that he believes can overcome Ipswich Town and climb up into third place in the Premier League on Sunday.

Postecoglou had a couple of decisions to make after Spurs flew back into the UK in the early hours of Friday morning from Istanbul after an intense match at Galatasaray. They played the final half an hour of the 3-2 defeat with 10 men after Will Lankshear's red card, which followed the 19-year-old's first goal for the club.

Postecoglou had made seven changes to his side after the big win against Aston Villa and took captain Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson off at half-time with this weekend's game in mind. That's because Tottenham have a string of absent players at the moment with Micky van de Ven, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison all out with hamstring injuries. Timo Werner is back after a groin problem but Mikey Moore has been struggling with a virus this week and remains out.

Postecoglou have Cristian Romero back in the team following his foot injury suffered in the Villa game and Djed Spence is back on the bench after missing out in recent weeks.

The Spurs boss has stuck with the midfield trio of Pape Matar Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski after they impressed against Villa.

Here's the Tottenham team Postecoglou has selected:

Vicario; Porro, Romero, Dragusin, Udogie; Sarr, Bentancur, Kulusevski; Johnson, Solanke, Son. Subs: Forster, Davies, Spence, Gray, Bissouma, Maddison, Bergvall, Werner, Lankshear.

Listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham by clicking here for in-depth Spurs chat on your preferred podcast platform.

Tottenham Hotspur are back in action on Sunday afternoon with the visit of Ipswich Town in the Premier League.

Spurs arrived back from Istanbul in the early hours of Friday morning following their 3-2 Europa League defeat in Turkey at Galatasaray after Ange Postecoglou made seven changes to the starting XI that overcame Aston Villa 4-1 the previous weekend.

Now Tottenham have the chance to move into third place in the Premier League table before Chelsea and Arsenal play later in the day, if they can get past the currently winless Ipswich, who are managed by former Spurs academy player and coach Kieran McKenna. A victory would make it 10 wins out of 13 for Tottenham under Postecoglou, but would only represent their second set of back-to-back wins in the Premier League so far this campaign.

Our Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold is at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and you can follow his live updates from the match by scrolling down.

Tottenham Hotspur will be looking to bounce back from Europa League disappointment in midweek when they return to Premier League action on Sunday afternoon.

Ange Postecoglou's squad host recently-promoted Ipswich Town at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (2pm). The Tractor Boys are still searching for a first win of the season following their promotion from the Championship last campaign - under a man with Spurs connections in Kieran McKenna.

As for Tottenham, they will aim to put Thursday's 3-2 loss against Galatasaray behind them and build on their 4-1 win against Aston Villa in their last Premier League outing. Goals from Brennan Johnson, Dominic Solanke (2) and James Maddison saw them turn the game around in the second half to record a comfortable win.

Tottenham's supporters hoping to watch the game against Ipswich live on TV in the UK will be disappointed with the match not being shown. Here's why;

Why is the Tottenham game not on TV?

The game against Ipswich is not on TV simply because it has not been selected. It was originally due to be played on Saturday at 3pm, but was moved due to Tottenham being in European action during the week.

Tottenham headed to Turkey to take on Galatasaray in the Europa League on Thursday night. Therefore, the game against Ipswich was moved back to Sunday at 2pm so that Spurs could have an extra day of recovery.

Despite the change, the match will still not be shown live on TV. Sky Sports are just able to broadcast two fixtures each Sunday, with the selections explained below.

What games are being shown live instead?

Nottingham Forest's home game with Newcastle United which kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday will instead be shown on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League. That game will be followed by Chelsea vs Arsenal which kicks-off at 4.30pm.

From next season, any games that are scheduled outside of the 3pm blackout will be broadcast live in the UK, as part of the Premier League's new TV deal. But, for now, United's supporters in the UK will be unable to watch live, unless they attend the match.

How else can I follow the action?

Tottenham are looking to put a midweek defeat away to Galatasaray behind them as the Premier League swiftly returns. For the final time in 2024, Spurs will venture back into action before an international break.

When they return, it will be six weeks of intense football over the winter. It is a period that promises to make or break the seasons of many.

In general, Tottenham are trending in the right direction. They put poor first half performances behind them at home to hammer both West Ham and Aston Villa in recent weeks and remain in touch with their rivals for the top four.

Heading into a favourable fixture against relegation strugglers Ipswich Town - who remain one of just two winless teams in the league after 10 games - Spurs will be confident of putting pressure on those around them. The Tractor Boys have been draw specialists, taking a point from five of their games so far, no team has more.

However, they have also failed to take advantage of openings in games and have relied upon the impact of former Manchester City academy ace Liam Delap. Tottenham, themselves, have been buoyed by the return of Son Heung-Min and the form of Dominic Solanke.

Here, football.london brings you all the details on how to follow and watch the match.

When is Tottenham vs Ipswich and what time is kick-off?

Tottenham vs Ipswich Town is due to kick off at 2pm on Sunday, November 10 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It is one of three matches at the same time.

Manchester United face Leicester City at Old Trafford also at 2pm, whilst the final game of the early slot is Nottingham Forest vs Newcastle. Chelsea host Arsenal in the final game of the weekend at 4:30pm on Sunday.

Is Tottenham vs Ipswich on TV?

No. Well, at least not for viewers in the UK. There are a host of international broadcasters who will be airing the game, though, for those unable to be at the stadium in north London.

How to watch Tottenham vs Ipswich

Across Europe the game will be on a variety of domestic channels including: Arena Sport, Astro Premier League, beIN, Canal+, DAZN, MAX, Optus Sport, Sky Sport, Sport 2, SuperSport, Siminn Sport, TV3, V Sport, and Viaplay. FuboTV (Canada), Hub Premier, Telemundo, and USA Network will also have coverage.

Outside of that, football.london has a live match blog directly from the ground with pre-game buildup, updates throughout the action, analysis and reaction as well as press conference coverage. Highlights can be accessed on Youtube for those in the UK via the Sky Sports channel.

Listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham by clicking here for in-depth Spurs chat on your preferred podcast platform.