Hotspur HQ

Tottenham Hotspur embarrassed themselves yet again on Thursday night, drawing 0-0 to Brentford in a totally apathetic performance that had Thomas Frank's finger prints all over it. Spurs fans can not believe how little improvement the team has shown over the past couple of months, as Frank knows he is 100 percent on the hot seat and yet continues to deliver these sorts of putrid performances and the most boring football in arguably the entire Premier League.

As Spurs head into this weekend's Premier League Matchday, they are in the bottom half of the table and look no closer to the top four than they were last season when they ultimately finished a historically inept 17th place.

Tottenham are less impressive now than they were then, and things are not going to get any easier against the darling team of the 2025/26 season, Sunderland, who boast one of the best defenses in European football this season.

Tottenham are down another key man

To make matters worse, Lucas Bergvall, who suffered an injury last weekend against Crystal Palace and was held out of the goal less draw with Brentford, is also expected to miss this weekend's Premier League matchup.

That is according to Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank, who said, via Football.London's Alasdair Gold, that Bergvall still remains a doubt to play for the Sunderland game.

Lucas Bergvall is one of the best midfielders on the team, and he has become even more important to Tottenham in the short term with star attacking midfielder Xavi Simons still out with a suspension after picking up a silly red card in a loss to Liverpool a couple of weeks ago.

Simons is a better fit for the 10 than Bergvall, but Bergvall is still a better 10 than the other options. Plus, not having either Simons nor Bergvall out there is a heavy loss to Tottenham's overall creativity and dynamism, as Spurs even more severely lack both, with the consequences of that being evident in the horrid 0-0 draw with Brentford.

Sunderland are a better side than Brentford with an even stronger defensive and midfield, led by former Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka, and thus things could get really, really ugly for Tottenham from an attacking perspective on Sunday. Tottenham supporters could be looking at yet another goose egg score line for their beloved team, and you can only imagine the nauseating excuses Frank will bring up at the press conference.

At some point a couple of months ago, the Thomas Frank updates on Tottenham Hotspur striker Dominic Solanke devolved into pure comedy. Instead of giving concrete timelines or even saying, "I don't know because of x, y, and z", Frank began coyly making vague statements and nothingisms on the frequently injured 65 million pound record signing.

Solanke played a useful role in Tottenham winning the 2024/25 Europa League tournament with clutch goals and solid all around performances, even if his overall scoring record and lack of real star power at the striker position were significantly disappointing for a player with his massive price tag.

This season, though, Solanke has only featured in a couple of games for a handful of minutes as a substitute due to injury, and even a procedure on his foot a few months ago has not provided any better clarity on his return date for Spurs.

Thomas Frank does it again

Now, Thomas Frank continues to double down on his non updates for the veteran Tottenham Hotspur striker. Ahead of Sunday's Premier League battle against an elite defensive team in surprise side Sunderland, Frank said, via The Spurs Web, "To say mid-Jan, end of Jan or 255 Jan, I won't do that."

Basically, Frank has a vague idea of when Solanke may come back, it is probably relatively soon, but it is impossible for him to commit to an exact date, probably because he is afraid of being wrong in light of how stubbornly slow his striker has been to recover.

At this point, Solanke is an aggravation risk with this injury, just by virtue of how slow it has been to heal. And for that reason, literally any minute Solanke plays for Tottenham from this day forward until the end of the season is a mere bonus for Tottenham, because they simply can not count on anything else - or anything at all.

Tottenham have three other striker options on the table without Solanke. Mathys Tel never plays so we can exclude him, though he has scored on the rare occasion Frank lets him be a 9. Randal Kolo Muani is thus the only legitiamte striker option, because, as Brentford exposed yet again, Richarlison is not someone Spurs can rely on.

Solanke has the size and all around ability to be a quality piece of the puzzle for Tottenham, and a striker partnership with Kolo Muani would actually be quite good. But with the non updates continuing, Spurs can not hold their breath.

Tottenham Hotspur underwent a sea of changes in the summer transfer window last year. Many of those changes were good, such as bringing in Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons to boost their attack, as well as waving goodbye to Daniel Levy as the club's chairman. Other moves stung, like replacing Ange Postecoglou with the eminently disappointing Thomas Frank or letting Son Heung-min finish his career off in MLS.

Just as well, not everyone has the same opinion of what is a positive or a negative transformation at the club. Take, for example, the most recent transfer decision Tottenham made when they started off the January window with a bang by selling Brennan Johnson for one of the club's highest ever fees of 33.5 million pounds.

According to reporting from Football.London's Alasdair Gold, the Johnson sale to local rivals Crystal Palace has not been met with resounding praise. Gold says that within the dressing room, Tottenham Hotspur players are upset at the club's upper management for selling Johnson because the Wales international was such a popular player.

Tottenham support their own

Like with the Ange Postecoglou firing, there was an outpouring of support from large swathes of the locker room on social media for Brennan Johnson. Obviously, Johnson is a likable bloke and scored the winner in the Europa League Final to forever etch his name in the Tottenham books, and you would expect nothing less than public praise for the player.

However, it is surprising to see that the Tottenham players do not understand the merits of why Spurs sold Johnson with a legitimate transfer offer on the table. Johnson, after all, has not been important to Tottenham this season, struggling badly off the bench or as a starter on either wing with little all around ability as a pure winger.

Tottenham have to sell at a right time and generate some sort of revenue from players who are not important to the team, and this was clearly the only time Tottenham were going to get anywhere near 30 million pounds for Johnson, a backup right winger soon to become a third stringer with Dejan Kulusevski's return to health.

It is nice that his teammates leave behind fond memories of Johnson, but Tottenham should not worry about what the players think at a time like this. The most important thing to keeping the morale up and helping the club is to invest that money in the right player and to start winning some dang games.

All everyone is talking about is how Tottenham Hotspur need to sign a left winger in the summer transfer window, and pretty much the only players concretely linked to Spurs by the big reporters are left wingers like Antoine Semenyo, Savinho, Omar Marmoush, Yan Diomande, and a couple of others.

But Tottenham are clearly after needs elsewhere, too, as a club battling in the bottom half of the Premier League table easily has other issues to resolve. The midfield is one, but left back is a position that has gone under the radar as a big need for Tottenham.

Destiny Udogie is an excellent young left back, but he does not have a real backup. Spurs haved used right back Djed Spence on the left, and, well, that usually does not go over well, especially when Tottenham are playing better teams.

Tottenham are after defenders, too

According to a new report from Brazilian journalist Lucas Musetti Perazolli of UOL on his YouTube channel, Tottenham Hotspur actually went off the beaten path a little and made a transfer offer for one of the top prospects in Brazilian football, Santos star left back Souza. Spurs offered 10 million euros to the club of Neymar for one of their most prized defenders, and they were, of course, rejected by the Brazilian Serie A side.

But Perazolli reports that Santos also countered Tottenham with an offer of their own to sell Souza, who is wanted by many big clubs around European football. Per the UOL reporter, Santos want 17 millino euros for 70 percent of the rights to Souza. A deal is said to be unlikely at this time.

Souza is almost certainly not coming to Tottenham any time soon, and Spurs probably need someone more established to compete with Udogie, given the Italian international has an extensive injury history at left back and is often out.

However, the intention is interesting and shows two things. One, that Tottenham are probably serious about signing a left back in 2026 to help the squad's most overlooked depth issue. And two, that Tottenham remain mostly interested in signing stars of the future, rather than wasting their money on 30 year olds who, at best, end up being holdover options like Joao Palhinha. Souza was worth a look, but if Spurs are not going to get a bargain out of Santos, they might as well go back to the drawing board for other options.

Tottenham Hotspur absolutely have to sign a new forward in the January transfer market, as failure to do so would effectively doom Spurs for the remainder of the 2025/26 Premier League season. Even firing Thomas Frank alone would not rectify the major issues in the side, as Spurs are trapped in the bottom half of the league table not just because of their new manager's serious problems.

Simply put, Tottenham are not scoring enough goals, nor do they have enough star power in the attack. Obviously, Frank could be doing a lot more tactically to help Spurs offensively, and decisions like relying on Rodrigo Bentancur, Joao Palhinha, and Richarlison for starts while discarding Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel certainly are not helping.

But Spurs need more talent up front to help Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons, and Randal Kolo Muani - all three being new signings from the summer 2025 transfer window - out. There are a number of players Tottenham are still dreaming about signing in January 2026 even after Antoine Semenyo swiftly rejected them for Manchester City, and, in fact, two of those players are Man City players.

Tottenham are losing targets quickly

One of them is goal scoring left winger Omar Marmoush, and the other is a familiar transfer target in dynamic winger Savinho, who was already tabbed by Spurs as one of their dream winger targets in the summer window.

Trying to convince Man City to sell Savinho has always been difficult, and even this winter, David Ornstein and others have been warning Tottenham fans that despite Spurs still trying, it is highly unlikely and bordering on impossible for Man City to agree to sell the young Brazilian winger.

Now, it looks like Manchester City may be handing Tottenham a definitive blow in their transfer courtship of the former Girona man, but it has more to do with a recent turn of events than anything else.

Savinho had to leave a 0-0 draw with Sunderland with an injury, exiting the pitch for Jeremy Doku. And according to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, the injury to Savinho "does not look good", via Manchester Evening News reporter Simon Bajkowski.

Now, it is still too early to tell the nature of Savinho's injury, and Guardiola and Manchester CIty have not given concrete updates. But Savinho is indeed injured and could be out for some time, meaning he might be fully off the table for Tottenham Hotspur.

Savinho's injury may be the last straw Man City need to avoid selling him at all this winter, while Tottenham may not want to try to sign an injured player. Worse yet, the Savinho injury could also take Marmoush off the table on top of that - or even emergency option Oscar Bobb - because losing one key winger would make Man City less likely to sell the other players important to their depth.

Once again, Tottenham Hotspur were the laughingstock of the Premier League, drawing 0-0 with Brentford in another toothless, lethargic display that serves as a shocking reminder to Spurs supporters of how little progress has been made by Thomas Frank.

The same problems the manager had two months ago remain totally unsolved. Maybe he has finally made a few tweaks here and there, like actually playing Archie Gray, but for every young Tottenham standout who is finally getting chances, there are three others who are discarded entirely. Look at how Pape Matar Sarr, Mathys Tel, and Wilson Odobert have been treated despite being superior options and playing well.

Frank has continually thrown away any slight amount of good will he had with Spurs fans, and after this draw with Brentford, Spurs supporters were roundly booing him. The away support was chanting random player names like Erik Lamela and Eric Dier while serenading Frank with deserved boos.

Tottenham fans won't like the replacements either

But for Tottenham supporters hoping that this will soon be the end of Frank's tenure at the N17 as 2026 begins, the harsh reality is that Tottenham do not appear to be seriously considering a change right now - nor are they going after the kinds of names Spurs fans would want as replacements who would actually be upgrades.

Journalist Paul O Keefe remarked that Tottenham Hotspur will likely reassess Thomas Frank's job status in the summer 2026 transfer window, rather than making any moves now in January. And when it comes to possible replacements, Fulham manager Marco Silva will, once again, be among the names considered, which even O Keefe admits is an unfortunate reality. Earlier in the thread, O Keefe also explained why Oliver Glasner would not likely fit Spurs and called Unai Emery "impossible".

Basically, Tottenham are not going to fire Frank unless something drastic happens this season, and then if they were to replace him in the summer, the very same types of mid table managers like Silva are going to be the people Spurs look to replace him with.

Hopefully, things change between now and then and Tottenham have some guts and ambition, but, look, when has that ever been the case? O Keefe is telling nothing but the harsh truth to Spurs supporters. Tottenham are going to have to suffer with Frank and be happy about it until they are so, so irredeemably bad that then the club has to finally step in.

Tottenham Hotspur come into the January transfer window needing to vastly improve a squad that looks set to finish in the bottom half of the Premier League without any drastic changes to alter this course, even if one of those changes includes the firing of a severely disappointing Thomas Frank.

The first moves of the January window, though, are all going to be departures. Fabio Paratici is set to leave Spurs to become the Director of Football at Fiorentina, the worst team in Italy right now, in a huge shocker, while Brennan Johnson is poised to join London rivals Crystal Palace to bolster Oliver Glasner's attack.

And while Tottenham need to be accelerating any hopes at signing forwards like Yan Diomande, Etta Eyong, Savinho, and Omar Marmoush, it looks like more high profile exits from the current first team squad could be coming - even if they are not necessarily permanent losses.

Tottenham can't lose this baller

According to information from Alasdair Gold of Football.London, Tottenham Hotspur could loan out forward Mathys Tel and center back Kota Takai in the January transfer window, replacing those players with veterans for the squad to close the season while giving these two players more minutes.

To be honest, loaning both players would be a shock, especially Tel. Thomas Frank needs to be tried in court for the way he has treated Tel, who has been brilliant and certainly far beyond the horrible Richarlison. Tel has scored big goals and provided more dynamism and goal threat than the other options on the left wing, yet he rots on the bench because of an incompetent manager. Loaning him out with left wing as the biggest need in the squad would be idiotic, but, well, Gold is not wrong to float this idea from his info because this is exactly the sort of dumb move Spurs are famous for.

Now, Takai does have a more convoluted path to playing time than Tel, because his lack of minutes as a surprising new transfer from the Japanese top flight has less to do with Frank's incompetence and more to do with a legitimate logjam at center back.

But the thing is, if Tottenham are, as everyone fully expects, bound to sell Radu Dragusin to Serie A as he and his agent laughably complain about playing time shortly after the player returned from an ACL tear, then it makes little sense to lose even more depth by getting rid of Dragusin and Takai, even on loan, in the same winter transfer window.

Tottenham Hotspur are not getting the most out of their forwards this season, but that is also because their strikers have not been able to help the team out. Besides summer transfer deadline day loan signing Randal Kolo Muani, the other No. 9's in the Tottenham squad have been total disasters.

Anyone viewing Richarlison as a net positive just because he has bumbled his way to the Spurs top leading goal scorer was given a harsh reality check against Brentford. Horrid as usual, Richy tamely crossing the ball into the keeper's hands on a breakaway with the hard working Kolo Muani wide open was a microcosm of the often mindless and maddeningly inconsistent performances of Richy, who seems to play the game as if he is a team of one.

Tottenham are going into the winter transfer market as, once again, a team locked in the bottom half of the Premier League table, and whlle the left wing position is seen as their biggest need, they do technically have two decent players with a lot of long term value in that position between Wilson Odobert and Mathys Teyl.

Tottenham only have one legit striker

Meanwhile, at striker, all Spurs have is Kolo Muani, and he is on borrowed time as a loan signing from PSG. Richarlison is someone Spurs need to get rid of expeditiously if they are serious about winning, while Dominic Solanke is basically a net zero at this stage.

So Tottenham need to strongly think about signing a young striker who can help the team score goals now and potentially be the definitive solution for the next decade. And it looks like Spurs are indeed showing an interest in a great young striker who has been subtly floated in transfer rumors this season despite already making a move this past summer.

According to a report from the Daily Mail's Simon Jones, Tottenham Hotspur have checked in on Levante striker Etta Eyong as a possible signing this winter transfer window. It is surprisingly the first time Eyong has been concretely linked to Spurs, and while other Premier League clubs have been whispered in general, Barcelona is the only big club strongly linked with the current La Liga star.

Eyong is becoming a much more coveted name now, too. He flies under the radar at Levante, a small and struggling club, but he is getting more attention with his big performances for Cameroon at AFCON, where he has already scored despite only starting one of the three games.

Flying under the radar, Eyong is just 22 and transferred from Villarreal to Levante in surprising fashion. He is a good, clinical finisher with great athletic tools and fluidity, quietly scoring 5 goals in 12 games despite playing for one of the worst teams in Spain. He is one to watch for Tottenham.

Tottenham Hotspur have gotten into the full swing of the winter transfer window, and while most fans want to see the club aggressively upgrade a squad that is comfortably in the bottom half of the Premier League table - and looks incapable of coming up higher under Thomas Frank at this rate - the name of the game in the early going has been sales.

Spurs have already received two fabled Here We Gos from transfer insider Fabrizio Romano on the first day of the New Year. Manor Solomon has made his way on loan from Villarreal to Fiorentina while on the books at Tottenham, and then Spurs have sealed a permanent sale of between 30 and 35 million pounds for Welsh winger Brennan Johnson.

The money from the Johnson sale is a hefty chunk of change that could help Tottenham sign a better winger on the left side of the formation who can actually help Spurs win some Premier League fixtures in this difficult 2025/26 season.

Tottenham need to keep making money

And now, Fabrizio Romano is reporting that the Manor Solomon move could yield Tottenham Hotspur further transfer earnings. At the time he reported of the new loan to Fiorentina, which was surely pulled by the guiding hand of Fabio Paratici ahead of his switch from Spurs to the Director of Football of the Viola, Fab said that there would be an option to buy in this new loan deal with the Serie A giants. Notably, there was no such option to buy in Solomon's failed loan to the Yellow Submarine in Spain.

Now, Romano states that Solomon will have a medical on Friday to help seal the deal, and he reveals that the option to buy is worth 10 million euros. While that may seem half of what Tottenham fans were hoping based on the rumors when Leeds United were interested in him last year, well, there is a reason why Tottenham struggled to sell him anywhere near that amount in 2025.

Any penny Tottenham can get out of Solomon is a win, because he showed in the Championship and just recently for Villarreal that he does not have the all around quality or dynamism to play meaningful minutes for a hopeful contender like Tottenham. So Spurs had better hope that Solomon scores a few clutch goals for the literal worst team in Italian football and finagles the Paratici connection into that 10 million euro deal.

Tottenham Hotspur were already snubbed by their dream transfer target on the wings before the January window even opened up. Antoine Semenyo said, "Thanks but no thanks" to Tottenham days before the market started, rejecting Spurs with the full intent of joining Manchester City.

And just in case Spurs fans were getting their hopes up that a likely Semenyo transfer to the Etihad would open the doors for a dream move by Savinho or Omar Marmoush to the N17, so far, early indications are that Tottenham are most likely not going to sign either of those guys, too.

The top transfer target for Tottenham on the wings just might be unproven prospect Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig - a player who currently carries a potential 100 million euro price tag. Of course, that is a bloated fee that Leipzig are starting out with to scare teams into overpaying, but, well, Leipzig do sell strong, Diomande is a special player, goal scoring wingers of his age are in high demand, and, obviously, the Bundesliga giants are in no position to sell.

Tottenham are falling behind again

All of that was already there, and with Tottenham having to compete with a Premier League powerhouse who already crushed them to Bryan Mbeumo last summer in Manchester United, Spurs supporters never had high hopes of competing for Diomande either.

Well, it is about to get more difficult. Simon Jones of the Daily Mail is reporting that not only are Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United interested in Yan Diomande, but the RB Leipzig gem is also now generating interest from two massive Champions League contenders who love to sign their players, Bayern Munich and Liverpool.

Mere interest from the English and German Reds immediately puts them at the top of the favored list, and it moves Tottenham to the bottom. Although Spurs can offer Diomande the easiest path to playing time on the left wing, when anyone watches what Thomas Frank produced against lowly Brentford in a 0-0 draw, it is clear that Spurs are going to have a harder time selling their attacking brand of football to anyone.

Bayern carry a certain level of cachet when it comes to recruiting talents already in the German top flight, and Diomande could be their long term heir to Luis Diaz. Meanwhile, Liverpool are still after a true out and out left winger to replace the very same Diaz. So Tottenham's task to recruit the next big thing on the wings just got even tougher.