The Guardian

Alejandro Garnacho will be allowed to leave Manchester United this summer if the price is right. One surprising potential suitor is Aston Villa, who could make a move for the winger. They took Marcus Rashford on loan from Old Trafford last season, revitalising his career somewhat in the progress, so Garnacho may feel it is a move in the right direction away from the current dead end.

It will be a busy summer at United as Ruben Amorim attempts to assemble a squad that has the vague chance of fitting into his 3-4-3 constraints. One key area where improvement is required is centre-forward. A potential plan to source an actual goalscorer could see United offer up Joshua Zirkzee to Napoli as part of a deal for Victor Osimhen. There could, however, be some very serious competition for the Nigerian as Liverpool may also fancy a nibble.

Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike is another shortlisted name at United. The Frenchman scored 15 goals in the Bundesliga last season and, at 22, could be getting better for years to come. If anyone does want to sign Ekitike, it will cost them €100m (£85m). “If the price isn’t right, then he’ll just stay with us. We don’t have to sell Hugo,” said the Frankfurt CEO, Markus Krösche.

Bayer Leverkusen and Erik ten Hag continue to sniff around the vicinity of the Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah. The 22-year-old struggled for regular minutes under Arne Slot last season but the homegrown centre-back is still valued at £40m around Anfield.

Thomas Frank is now officially the new Tottenham head coach. When a manager moves from one club to another, there are always a few rumours that he will take some of his favourites from his previous employer with him. In Frank’s case Bryan Mbeumo has already been heavily touted as someone of interest, while Christian Nørgaard could be another name the new manager will whisper into Daniel Levy’s ear, having worked with his compatriot at Brondby too. Everton, Fulham and Bournemouth are also rumoured to be keen.

Milan have gone on the blower to Arsenal to ascertain the availability of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jakub Kiwior. If the pair do leave, it could prompt Mikel Arteta to firm up his interest in the Ajax defender Jorrel Hato but Chelsea are also keen.

After impressing in the Scottish Premiership for Rangers, Hamza Igamane has gained a couple of admirers south of the border. West Ham and Brentford are somewhat eager to pursue a deal for the 22-year-old Moroccan, who scored 16 times last season.

Leeds United are back in the big time and they want to bring the Udinese defender Jaka Bijol with them to the Premier League. The 26-year-old Slovenian, who has already amassed 63 caps for this country, is valued in the region of £15m.

Brøndby appointed Thomas Frank as manager in June 2013 and did not win any of their first eight games of the 2013-14 season. Brentford appointed Frank as manager in October 2018 and lost eight of their following 10 games. So nobody should panic if Frank begins slowly at Tottenham.

In reality, though, the first couple of months will be a major challenge for the Dane. These are not easy circumstances for anybody to take the Spurs job. Usually a manager takes over after a run of poor form, with fans and players ready for a change and a regression to the mean in the offing. Spurs have been on a run of poor form: one win in 12 league games over the final three months of the season, but in that time they also won the Europa League, which means everything is seen in a different light.

Fans may have grumbled, they may have stopped singing Angels, and there was the contretemps at Stamford Bridge, but many of the doubts about Ange Postecoglou were forgotten amid the ecstasy of Bilbao. To judge by the victory parade after the Europa League final and the outpourings of love on social media, the players remained supportive of the previous manager. Which makes this a very unusual situation: Frank inherits a side that finished fourth-bottom of the league, that is both buoyed by recent success and expectant of improvement.

That Postecoglou started his first season so well only complicated the issue: unfair and unrepresentative of the whole as it may be, it’s easy to imagine the comparisons to his first 10 league games, which yielded 26 points.

There are other doubts. After working in the youth ranks in Denmark, Frank has only ever managed Brøndby and Brentford. In terms of scrutiny and expectation, Tottenham is a whole new level. It’s one thing to be affable at the club with the second-lowest wage bill in the Premier League, quite another at a club like Spurs with a vast global fanbase. Already there has been some online scepticism about the wisdom of a club of their size and self-perception appointing from humble Brentford.

While the examples of José Mourinho and Antonio Conte show the dangers of turning to a manager who believes the club should be grateful to have them, latent doubts about the scale of the step-up could exacerbate the backlash if early results or performances are poor – as Tottenham experienced during Nuno Espírito Santo’s inglorious 17-game reign. And then there’s the Champions League: after the Europa League win, there should be few fears about playing in Europe, and Spurs should at the very least qualify for the playoff round, but constant high-level games are a drain on both physical and emotional energy.

Frank has limited experience of balancing the domestic league and Europe, the furthest he ever took Brøndby being the fourth qualifying round of the Europa League. His European record is notably poor: played 10, won three, and two of those were against Juvenes/Dogana of San Marino. His record in domestic cups, similarly, is dismal; his past history makes it unlikely a poor league season could be redeemed by other silverware – although the depth of the Spurs squad perhaps means the cups will not be such a low priority.

There is one further doubt, which is more to do with Spurs than with Frank. He is leaving an exceptionally well-run club, at which every component worked together to a coherent philosophy. There can be no certainty that any one cog from that system, however important, can achieve success in a different environment, something Chelsea have found as they accumulate more and more parts from Brighton without ever looking like replicating the efficiency of the Brighton model. It may be that such efficiency is not even possible at bigger clubs.

But there are risks in any appointment, just as there are in any transfer. There can be no guarantees that what worked in one set of circumstances will work in another. Football is complicated, and Frank has not just thrived at Brentford – taking the club with the 19th-highest wage bill to 10th in the table is a remarkable achievement – but has given every indication that he is flexible enough to adapt to a new environment.

Brentford were promoted as a progressive side with 55% possession in 2020-21, stayed up in their first three Premier League seasons playing in a relatively low block with 44% or 45% possession and then, in the season just ended, began pressing higher and playing more in transition, their possession rising to 48%. That’s three clear and distinct ways of playing, even before you get to the frequent tweaks of formation.

Not for Frank stubbornly sticking to a philosophy – only to then abandon it when the injuries became too much, leading paradoxically to glory – which is a large part of his appeal.

Frank is 51, but he is a manager on the way up. He has Premier League experience. He is the sort of profile of manager Tottenham should be looking to appoint. His track record is very good. It should work. But nothing in football is ever certain and there is a danger a poor start, combined with a confusion about realistic aspirations, could undermine his reign before it begins.

Tottenham have confirmed the appointment of Thomas Frank as their new manager. The 51-year-old Dane joins from Brentford on a contract that runs until 2028, and succeeds Ange Postecoglou, who delivered Europa League glory to end Spurs’ 17-year trophy drought but was sacked because of dismal results in the Premier League.

Spurs moved to line up Frank before dismissing Postecoglou last Friday, holding talks via ­intermediaries and plainly keen to avoid a protracted search for the ­person to lead them forward after a season in which they finished 17th with 38 points. Only once in club history have they had a worse league record – in 1914-15.

When Frank, who has impressed with his work in charge at Brentford during a near seven-year period, gave the green light, Spurs knew he was within their grasp because of a £10m release clause in his contract. They have spent the past few days negotiating the finer details, plus the transfer of some of Frank’s coaches from Brentford.

The writing had been on the wall for Postecoglou, with the expectation that he would depart even if he led Spurs past Manchester United in the Europa League final on 21 May. The club said they could not “base our decision on emotions aligned to this triumph” when they announced Postecoglou’s departure.

The move for Frank has been pushed by Tottenham’s technical director, Johan Lange, a Dane who has a longstanding relationship with his compatriot. Lange gave Frank his first full-time position in the game as a youth coach at B93 in 2004, although they did not spend much time together at the club as Lange soon left.

The pair were reunited not long after at Lyngby where Frank came to the attention of the ­Danish ­Football Association, who hired him as the coach of their under-16s, under-17s and later the under-19s. From there Frank got his break in senior ­management at Brøndby in 2013, managing them for almost three ­seasons before going to Brentford, where he worked initially as the assistant to Dean Smith. He succeeded him as the manager in October 2018.

Spurs have been impressed by more than the headline items of Frank’s Brentford tenure – the ­promotion from the Championship via the playoffs in 2021, how he has established them in the Premier League, finishing 13th, ninth, 16th and 10th. Frank consistently over-achieved in relation to his financial means at Brentford; they have one of the smallest budgets in the division. An excellent ­communicator and noted developer of young ­talent, he has also shown himself to be ­tactically flexible. A Spurs statement read: “We are delighted. In Thomas we are ­appointing one of the most ­progressive and ­innovative head coaches in the game. He has a proven track record in player and squad development and we look forward to him leading the team as we prepare for the season ahead.”

Justin Cochrane will join Frank at Tottenham as his assistant while he has also brought the head of ­performance, Chris Haslam, and first-team analyst Joe Newton with him from Brentford. Another assistant coach, Andreas Georgson, will arrive from Manchester United.

Frank prioritised possession-based attacking football in the Championship but adapted in the Premier League, becoming more solid and direct while retaining a powerful threat on set pieces and long throws. That said, Brentford could still build through the thirds and they were the joint-fifth highest scorers in the league during this past season. His preference is for a back three and wing-backs, which could suit Spurs’s current full-backs Pedro Porro, Destiny Udogie and Djed Spence.

Frank has yet to win silverware or manage in European competition beyond Europa League qualifying stages; Spurs are back in the Champions League after the Europa League triumph. But he is not short of high-profile backers. Pep Guardiola predicted last September that Frank would one day join an elite-level club. “It is just a question of time,” said Manchester City’s manager. “I’m good in a few things, one of which is reading when the manager is good. It is going to happen. Thomas is one of the best. What his team does always makes sense. Every corner is a headache. They are compact. This season they have a high press.”

Jürgen Klopp described Frank as “a cool guy” who he respected a lot in November 2023. “He plays against possession teams one way and plays against other teams when all of a sudden they are a possession team themselves,” the then Liverpool manager said. “It’s really interesting.”

LET’S BE FRANK

As the wait goes on for Thomas Frank to be announced as Tottenham Hotspur’s new manager, Football Daily can’t help but wonder what exactly is causing the delay. On Sunday it was reported that personal terms between the Dane and Daniel Levy had more or less been agreed, a compensatory fee in the region of £10m for Brentford was deemed to be adequate and all that was left to be decided was how many of Frank’s coaching staff would be joining him. But while the Daily holds Keith Andrews – who has successfully muscled his way in to the pantheon of camera-hogging set-piece coaches with great hair in recent months – in the very highest of regard, we’re going to go out on a limb and guess the former Ireland international’s inclusion in any exit package almost certainly isn’t a deal-breaker.

What might be troubling Frank, at this potentially crucial juncture in his career, is that Spurs, not content with sacking managers for not winning trophies, have just got rid of the bloke who secured their first one in 17 years. Given the comparatively snakebelly low expectations he shoulders in his current role, Brentford’s manager could be forgiven for wanting to know exactly what will be expected of him in N17 and more pertinently, if the Spurs hierarchy actually have any clear idea. Given that winning Bigger Vase and qualifying for next season’s Bigger Cup was not deemed good enough for Ange Postecoglou to keep his job, the Tottenham board have ostensibly made it clear that finishing higher up the Premier League than 17th is quite literally all that concerns them. “To dare is to do,” as the club motto says, just so long as you don’t dare to do anything so audacious as win a cup and seat at European football’s top table.

Among a small handful of top-flight managers who are almost universally liked and admired, Frank has long been renowned as a very straight talker. So much so that in any interview scenario between him and a prospective new employer, it is not difficult to imagine the Dane asking the more probing questions while his headhunter squirms in the face of a barrage of interrogatory projectiles. The second-longest serving manager in the Premier League behind Pep Guardiola, Frank ticks a number of the apparently requisite boxes for Spurs in so far as he has never won anything, hasn’t been relegated, doesn’t wang on about knack all the time and doesn’t say “mate” in a passive-aggressive way when the world is conspiring against him. And while his slow starts at Brondby and Brentford, where he won two out of his first 18 matches combined, may perturb a fanbase who are not exactly famous for their patience, he seems as good a choice as any for a club that increasingly seems to have little or no idea what it wants or who it needs to help them achieve it.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Rob Smyth at 7.45pm (BST) for red-hot friendly updates on England 0-0 Senegal.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The level will increase immediately once we are playing against Portugal or Spain. We will rise to the occasion. This will come. It will bring out the very best in us” – Thomas Tuchel, there, wrapping up some words in a big white sheet with two eyeholes cut into it, and inviting them to come back and haunt him.

Following last week’s balanced piece in Football Daily on how Cristiano Ronaldo’s ego continues to destroy Portugal’s chances of success, readers will look forward to some acknowledgement of that side’s Nations League victory. Perhaps focusing on how a 40-year-old Scotland captain, say, would be viewed if he had just led his country to a tournament final victory over England, scoring eight goals along the way including one in the final and the winner against Germany in the semi-final” – Brian Broderick.

If you do have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Rollover. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, can be viewed here.

RECOMMENDED LOOKING

Here’s David Squires on … the buildup to Gianni Infantino’s big, beautiful Club World Cup in the land of Trump.

Tottenham have approached Brentford over appointing Thomas Frank as their new head coach. The Dane is the club’s No 1 target to replace Ange Postecoglou, who was sacked on Friday, and there is confidence that a deal will be struck in the next 48 hours.

Negotiations are due to take place on the cost of recruiting Frank, who has a £10m release clause, and his backroom staff. The 51-year-old Dane wants to join Spurs after almost seven years at Brentford, with terms already in place.

Tottenham have moved swiftly after parting company with Postecoglou, who lost his job despite winning the Europa League last month and ending the club’s 17-year wait for a major trophy. The Australian’s fate was decided after the chairman, Daniel Levy, looked past the side’s European run and focused on a dreadful Premier League campaign.

Spurs finished 17th last season after losing 22 games. That has not made the job less attractive to Frank, who will be taking over a team that earned Champions League qualification thanks to their triumph against Manchester United in Bilbao.

Frank has established himself as one of the most respected managers in the top flight since leading Brentford to promotion from the Championship in 2021. They have steered clear of relegation battles and finished 10th last season. Frank has operated with a modest budget and has admitted that Brentford cannot hope to hold on to their best players if bigger clubs try to buy them. Bryan Mbeumo is expected to depart for Old Trafford this summer.

It remains to be seen how Brentford respond if everything goes smoothly with Spurs and Frank departs. Kieran McKenna has been suggested as a potential replacement for Frank but it is not clear if he wants to leave Ipswich Town.

Tottenham have sacked their women’s manager, Robert Vilahamn, two days after the men’s team manager, Ange Postecoglou, was relieved of his duties.

The 42-year-old joined Spurs in 2023 from the Swedish side BK Hacken and led them to a first FA Cup final in his first season in charge.

Tottenham finished sixth in the Women’s Super League that season, one point and one place below their best ever league finish, prompting the club to give him a three-year contract extension last July. The future had looked bright, with the manager adamant that their 2024 FA Cup run could catapult their growth.

“We perhaps shouldn’t be in the final this year, but we are in the final and we can win it,” he said before the 2024 final, which they lost 0-4 to Manchester United. “That’s the main thing we can try to do and if we fail, hopefully we are starting to grow for next year.”

However, after nine new signings in the summer, including the Australian forward Hayley Raso and Spain international Maite Oroz, the 2024-25 season was a very difficult one. The double loss of the loanee Grace Clinton, who returned to Manchester United, and Celin Bizet, who joined Clinton in Manchester, were huge blows and the team did not get close to matching the standards set the preceding year. They finished second from bottom, conceding 44 goals, a tally matched by Aston Villa and beaten only by relegated Crystal Palace.

The managing director of the women’s team, Andy Rogers, said: “There have been some special moments during Robert’s tenure, including reaching the FA Cup final for the first time.

“However, results and performances this season have not been to the level we would expect and now is the right time to make a change. We should like to thank Robert for his professionalism and efforts over the past two seasons, and we wish him well for the future.”

Mauricio Pochettino pushed back against suggestions he is a candidate to take over the newly-vacant Tottenham Hotspur managerial position, telling reporters on Saturday that it was “not realistic” for him to leave his current role as US men’s national team manager.

Pochettino had been considered a possible candidate to replace Ange Postecoglou, who was sacked by Tottenham on 6 June despite him leading the club to Europa League glory – the club’s first trophy in 17 years. However, Tottenham finished 17th in the Premier League, their lowest position since 1977.

Pochettino enjoyed a successful run at Spurs from 2014 to 2019, challenging for the Premier League title in 2016 and advancing to the Champions League final in his last season. He was let go because of Tottenham’s league performance – the club finished 14th.

“After I left [Tottenham] in 2019, every time [the manager position] is free … my name appeared on the list,” Pochettino said following USA’s 2-1 loss to Turkey in a friendly on Saturday afternoon. “If you have seen the rumors, I think we are 100 coaches on the list of the club. Don’t be worried about that. If something happens, we for sure will see. But we cannot talk about this type of thing because I think today it’s not real. I think it’s not realistic. And look – where I am, where we are? The answer is so clear, no?”

Pochettino took over the US national team at the end of 2024 and has overseen a mixed bag of performances in his first nine months. Saturday’s friendly was seen mostly as a way to regain the team’s footing after a pair of far below-par outings in March’s Nations League finals, with the team losing to Panama and Canada and looking generally listless throughout.

Even though they lost, the US played with far more verve against Turkey than they had in March. Pochettino has called in a younger and less-experienced squad for this summer’s games, with several of the team’s first-choice stars out – either by choice, for health reasons, for personal reasons, or due to their club’s participation in the Club World Cup. Jack McGlynn, one of those newcomers, opened the scoring on Saturday with a signature curling effort from outside the box. Later that half, two defensive miscues in about three minutes doomed the Americans, with both resulting in goals.

In football, there is always a lot of light and noise. There is always a lot of emotion. That is both its appeal and why it is so difficult for those in the game to make decisions. Ange Postecoglou gave Tottenham one of the great nights in the club’s history when they won the Europa League in Bilbao.

A first trophy in 17 years. A first European trophy in 41. It’s easy to understand why the instinct is gratitude, to hope that somehow victory can be self-replicating, that silverware begets silverware and something fundamental in Tottenham’s being was transformed at San Mamés.

But the question really shouldn’t be how you felt about Postecoglou at 11pm CET on 21 May, but how you felt at 9pm. It makes no sense for anybody to have changed their mind on whether Postecoglou should stay on the basis of a dreadful performance from Manchester United and a goal scrambled in off Luke Shaw’s arm.

When Postecoglou said he always wins something in his second season, the underlying logic was that it takes that long for the players to absorb his principles and put them into practice. Was there any sense of that in the Europa League success? Did it feel Tottenham had slowly been building to that?

On the contrary, the wins against Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-final, Bodø/Glimt in the semi-final and then United in the final weren’t rooted in Angeball as we had come to understand it, but in sitting deep, playing without the ball and striking on the break. On the one hand, credit is due for adapting, albeit largely because the high-intensity football Postecoglou prefers became unsustainable with a squad of injured and exhausted players, but on the other that removes any argument that the Europa League win was the result of an ongoing process.

A case perhaps could be made that the new pragmatic Postecoglou would have prospered in the Premier League next season. He was unfortunate with injuries – while acknowledging the intensity of his style may have played a part in that crisis. He was dealing with a very young squad. But that requires a leap of faith Daniel Levy was not prepared to make. Who did not watch Paris Saint-Germain ripping through Inter in the Champions League and wonder with a shudder what that might look like against a Postecoglou defence in the Super Cup in August?

Precedents in football should be treated with caution: there’s no reason to assume what happened with one particular manager at one particular club in one particular set of circumstances will necessarily repeat with a different manager at a different club in a different set of circumstances. But the memory of Erik ten Hag casts an unavoidable shadow: Spurs could not afford to find themselves in the position United did last October, sacking a manager three months after allowing his ideas to shape summer spending and in effect writing off another season.

Tottenham have their own precedents: Juande Ramos went eight months after the 2008 League Cup final and Mauricio Pochettino five and half months after the 2019 Champions League final. Ramos’s side were bottom of the league, Pochettino’s 14th. Levy has experienced the cost of an autumn sacking.

If there were doubts, best to act upon them; Levy signalled his intention fairly clearly in his programme notes for the final game of the season. And, for all Danny Blanchflower’s line that the game is about glory has been thrown at Spurs since the decision was taken, Postecoglou’s departure leaves the glory of Bilbao unsullied by future failure.

There is a beauty in the simplicity of the narrative arc: glory at the last, delivering on the promise of a trophy in the second season (albeit a glory that owed a lot to having significantly more resources than most clubs in the competition). That Postecoglou was dismissed two years to the day after his appointment was announced underlined the sense of a cycle ending.

The question then is what comes next. Tottenham’s preference is for somebody with Premier League experience, which is understandable enough. The league is uniquely relentless, as evidenced by Bruno Fernandes’s comment about Ruben Amorim’s surprise at how good Ipswich were. That presents particular pressures that can grind managers down. It removes some of the risk to turn to a manager familiar with that.

There is, though, always the fear that a manager cannot step up. The level of scrutiny, the expectations, at Tottenham are far greater than those at, say, Brentford or Fulham. Another autumn sacking must also haunt Levy: that of Nuno Espírito Santo, whose reign lasted 17 games over four months. He never seemed the right fit for the club and had been undermined by so obviously being not the first, or even the second or the third, choice for the role.

Thomas Frank seems the preferred option, but that would require paying compensation to Brentford in excess of £10m. Levy is renowned for his willingness for protracted negotiations, but this is a case where swift resolution should take priority, even if it ends up costing a couple of million more than it might.

Already there has been some online grumbling that Spurs should not be appointing from Brentford, which is absurd given the job Frank has done (Brentford finished the season 10th on the 19th-highest wage bill in the Premier League) and how things turned out with the two big-name managers Tottenham have recently appointed, José Mourinho and Antonio Conte.

But Postecoglou has left a problem for whoever succeeds him, both in terms of style and achievement. If the new manager starts slowly, there will be immediate grumbles that they are not building on the Europa League success and that the football is not so much fun as it was under Postecoglou, the 22 league defeats last season occluded by the gleam of silverware. Does a trophy win outweigh finishing fourth-bottom of the league?

Perhaps that’s not the right question. Personnel decisions should be based less on what has been done than on what is likely to be done and Levy evidently saw Bilbao as a glorious blip rather than a harbinger of a spectacular future. On that logic, change was the only option.

Son Heung-min has praised Ange Postecoglou as a “Tottenham Hotspur legend” as the club’s supporters’ trust expressed “concern” with another change in manager.

Postecoglou ended Spurs’ 17-year wait for silverware with Europa League success over Manchester United in Bilbao on 21 May, but it failed to earn the Australian a third season. A club statement on Friday announcing Postecoglou’s departure highlighted a woeful Premier League campaign where Tottenham finished 17th, their lowest top-flight finish since relegation in 1977.

Son, the club captain, was one of several Spurs players to pay tribute to Postecoglou, writing on Instagram: “Gaffer. You’ve changed the trajectory of this club. You believed in yourself, and us, since day one and never wavered for a second. Even when others did.

“You knew what we were capable of all along. You did it your way. And your way brought this club the best night it’s had in decades. We will have those memories for life. You trusted me with the captaincy. One of the highest honours of my career.

“It’s been an incredible privilege to learn from your leadership up close, I am a better player and a better person because of you. Ange Postecoglou, you are a Tottenham Hotspur legend forever. Thank you, mate.”

The goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was Postecoglou’s first signing and said: “You are not only a top manager, you are an incredible person to work for, a real leader, a mentor, and someone I’ll always look up to. What we achieved together will stay in the history books. Wishing you nothing but success as I know you will go on to achieve more and more. Thank you, Boss.”

The defender Micky van de Ven added: “Gaffer, thank you for everything! Believed in me from the first day I arrived at the club. Many ups and downs in the last two years but you kept believing in us and kept pushing us. Big part of the success from the club this year, and forever grateful that u made me part of it. All the best.”

Dominic Solanke, signed for Spurs last summer in a £65m deal, said: “Thank you for bringing me to this wonderful club, thank you for bringing us a wonderful trophy. [I] won’t ever forget the convo we had before I signed and we achieved a dream! All the best in your next adventure.”

The defender Pedro Porro insisted the 59-year-old would “always be celebrated”, writing: “Thank you for everything, boss. I’ll always be grateful for the way you led us, defended us, and kept us going through all the highs and lows. Above everything, you gave us one of the greatest moments in the club’s history and for that, you’ll always be celebrated.”

Richarlison added: “Everyone who loves the Spurs will remember that Big Ange always bags trophies in his second season.”

The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust thanked Postecoglou for an “amazing night” in Bilbao but acknowledged league results were a “long way short” of expectation. “Our concern now is that it appears we will have yet another change of direction and that this is something that is becoming a habit since we said goodbye to Mauricio Pochettino in 2019,” a THST statement read.

“We can only hope that the right decision has been made and that the new manager is fully supported by the board and everyone at the club to build on the cup success that Ange has lain. He will need the finances to build a strong squad that can challenge simultaneously on many fronts. We wish whoever is appointed well. Spurs fans have had a taste of glory and we don’t want to wait another 17 years for more.”

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

An alternative managerial target for Spurs perhaps if they fail to sign Thomas Frank?

Share

Suzanne Wrack

Sarina Wiegman’s 23-player squad is pretty much what many expected; Lauren James is winning her battle to be fit and ready, according to the manager, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Esme Morgan have received the nod in defence and the young Arsenal forward Michelle Agyemang is the wildcard pick.

There are gaps, though. Looking down the list there is a lack of experience in goal without Mary Earps and there are only five named midfielders for the month-long tournament in Switzerland and one of those is Georgia Stanway, who has played only an hour of football since December (45 minutes against Spain on Tuesday evening and 15 minutes against Portugal last Friday night).

Share

England’s Euro 2025 squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Hannah Hampton, Khiara Keating, Anna Moorhouse.

Defenders: Lucy Bronze, Jess Carter, Niamh Charles, Alex Greenwood, Maya Le Tissier, Esme Morgan, Leah Williamson, Lotte Wubben-Moy.

Midfielders: Grace Clinton, Jess Park, Georgia Stanway, Ella Toone, Keira Walsh.

Forwards: Michelle Agyemang, Aggie Beever-Jones, Lauren Hemp, Lauren James, Chloe Kelly, Beth Mead, Alessia Russo.

Share

In case you missed it, Sarina Wiegman named her England squad for Euro 2025 on Thursday.

Millie Bright was absent after making herself unavailable on Wednesday, as were Mary Earps and Fran Kirby who both retired from international duty in the days leading up to the announcement.

Lauren James earned a call-up as she continues to recover from a hamstring injury, with 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang also making the 23-player squad.

Share

Arsenal reached a mutual agreement with Jorginho to end his contract with immediate effect on Friday. The midfielder will now join Flamengo as a free agent in time for the Club World Cup, which starts next weekend.

Share

Thoughts, West Ham fans?

Share

Charlie, a Brentford fan, is hopeful that Thomas Frank will stay at the Gtech Community Stadium amid ongoing interest from Tottenham:

“As a Brentford fan I am greatly enjoying the snobbishness of Spurs fans who don’t want Thomas Frank. Please keep it up until he stays. Those grumbling about the risk of playing effective football should cast their minds back to what he did with the Benrahma-Mbeumo-Watkins team that narrowly failed to go up, when he had the most exciting attacking talent and used it to devastating effect, rather than aiming for Europe with one of the smallest budgets the Premier League has seen. Oh and we still play pretty decent stuff now established anyway.”

Share

Martin Pegan

Ange Postecoglou took Tottenham Hotspur on the wildest of rides. A record-breaking run to begin his first Premier League campaign in charge. An injury-riddled slump that led Spurs to within sight of relegation the next season. A promise to win a trophy in his second year. The club’s first piece of silverware since 2008. The sack coming just 16 days later.

Share

Fulham announce death of Malcolm Elias

Fulham head of academy recruitment Malcolm Elias, who developed the likes of Gareth Bale and Trent Alexander-Arnold, has died. Elias arrived in west London from Liverpool in 2009 and had a keen eye for developing young talent which included Bale, Alexander-Arnold, Theo Walcott and Harvey Elliott among others.

A statement on the Fulham website said: “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our colleague and dear friend, Malcolm Elias, after a short illness. The club’s head of academy recruitment, Malcolm had a fantastic reputation in football for unearthing and nurturing young talent.

“The influence that Malcolm had on the modern game cannot be understated, having worked with and developed the likes of Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Harvey Elliott, Luke Harris and Jay Stansfield, to name but a few.”

Share

Tottenham stars pay tribute to Postecoglou

Son Heung-min, Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven and Richarlison were among the Tottenham stars to pay tribute to Ange Postecoglou following his dismissal on Friday.

Son, the club captain, wrote on Instagram: “Gaffer. You’ve changed the trajectory of this club. You believed in yourself, and us, since day one and never wavered for a second. Even when others did.

“You knew what we were capable of all along. You did it your way. And your way brought this club the best night it’s had in decades. We will have those memories for life. You trusted me with the captaincy. One of the highest honours of my career.

“It’s been an incredible privilege to learn from your leadership up close, I am a better player and a better person because of you. Ange Postecoglou, you are a Tottenham Hotspur legend forever. Thank you, mate.”

Share

Paul is confident that Tottenham will succeed if they appoint Thomas Frank to replace Ange Postecoglou:

“There’s probably been too much over thinking on this. I sent this message to my son last night.

”It’s the right decision. He can leave a hero and will always be welcomed back.

£100m just for turning up in the CL is too much to gamble on him getting top four.

I know Frank hasn’t managed at CL level and he may be out of his depth but, personally, I’ve been walking out of games during the tenure of the last 3 managers. That needs to stop and if Frank gets me to stay 90+ minutes every week, he’s a step up! It will be interesting whether Frank can attract top quality signings. I see Manor Solomon’s coming back. Not a good start to the window!!”

Share

Bukayo Saka is expected to be absent from the England matchday squad this afternoon. The Arsenal winger suffered a knock in the final match of the Premier League season against Southampton and is yet to return to full fitness.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel said: “He came into camp with a little bit of discomfort from the last match against Southampton, so we took care of him and treated him individually until today [Friday] basically. It was the first training session that he started and finished with the group. Yesterday, he started with the group but did not finish with the group, so let’s see.”

Share

Updated at 10.07 CEST

Thomas Tuchel is looking to solve England’s physical problems ahead of next summer’s World Cup in North America. The head coach wants to harness the traditional virtues of the English game – namely pace, strength and aggression. But he is aware that searing temperatures await at many of the venues for the finals in the US, Canada and Mexico next summer and, as such, it will be vital to be able to play in different styles.

Share

Solomon has a different view of the current managerial situation at Spurs:

“As a Spurs fan, I’ll forever be grateful to Ange for getting us a European cup. It won’t stop the Spursy memes but now no one can say we haven’t won anything! Having said that, Levy made the right decision, one that has been obvious for a while now and is perfectly summarised by our dismal performance in the league.

“Ange-ball can’t make it in the PL, and being entertained is only fun when it’s accompanied with results. After the initial novelty wore off, it was fairly straightforward for opposing managers to set themselves up for Ange-ball, and the results dried up. If the next manager can make us competitive with teams like Forest, Bournemouth, etc. in the next season, that would be a start.”

Share

Updated at 09.51 CEST

John Rudd has messaged in with his view on the dismissal of Ange Postecoglou:

“Daniel Levy and the board don’t quite know what they want. How much money have they paid out to out going managers over the last 10 years or so? With the league form so dismal and the English media assassinating Ange all season long. It was always just going to happen (being sacked). No doubt next season Tottenham will finish mid table and another manager will go by the wayside. I will add that Ange-ball never has experienced this level of injury. It makes me wonder if it was the playing style or just players being incredibly unlucky. It’s a shame his style didn’t succeed. Let’s see Burnley 5-4-1 formation and wonder if the Prem League will ever see high octane football again.”

Share

Here’s a reminder of the England squad available for today’s match against Andorra and Tuesday’s international friendly against Senegal.

Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson, Jordan Pickford, James Trafford.

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dan Burn, Trevoh Chalobah, Levi Colwill, Reece James, Ezri Konsa, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kyle Walker.

Midfielders: Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher, Morgan Gibbs-White, Jordan Henderson, Curtis Jones, Cole Palmer, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers.

Forwards: Eberechi Eze, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane, Noni Madueke, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney.

Share

David Hytner

Ange Postecoglou advanced his case to the last. And it was a measure not only of his ability to own the narrative, to master it, but his body of work at Tottenham that he was able to do so with such conviction.

Share

As always, I want to hear from you today! What are your thoughts on Ange Postecoglou’s dismissal? Did he deserve to be sacked? Who will replace him?

Also, will you be watching England later today? Which starting XI should Thomas Tuchel go for? Let me know.

Share

In case you somehow missed it, Tottenham sacked Ange Postecoglou yesterday despite the 59-year-old leading them to their first trophy in 17 years. It is understood that Thomas Frank is one of the top candidates for the job.

Share

Preamble

Hello, good morning and welcome to another matchday live! Today we’re counting down to England’s third World Cup qualifier against Andorra, with the Three Lions looking to extend their lead at the top of Group K. Thomas Tuchel is expected to name a strong line-up for the clash, although he could be without Bukayo Saka, who is recovering from a knock.

We’ll also bring you the latest football news, including the fallout and reaction from Ange Postecoglou’s dismissal and the latest transfer talk.

Join me!

Share