Hotspur HQ

The signals from ENIC in a post-Daniel Levy landscape point towards newfound ambition in N17, but the majority of supporters will gauge the extent of the hierarchy's aspirations from their work in the transfer market.

The summer window was an impactful one for Tottenham, even if a few gaping holes weren't filled. Fortunately, opportunities to improve via external additions come around every few months, and Spurs are expected to conduct further business this winter.

Thomas Frank could do with more depth on the left side of his defence and a more able passer in midfield, but the most pressing need is arguably greater quality in attack. Spurs aren't exactly shy of bodies despite the spate of injuries at the start of the new manager's reign, but the majority believe our current options can and should be upgraded upon.

And perhaps the club will opt for a bold pursuit this winter in a bid to land another statement arrival.

Spurs reportedly willing to match Real Madrid's asking price for Rodrygo

There were only tenuous links to Real Madrid's Rodrygo in the summer, but the Brazilian is bound to be one of the protagonists of the January transfer window.

Rodrygo remained in Madrid in the hope that his minutes would increase under new manager Xabi Alonso, but the Spaniard has so far handed the winger no more than a sporadic role. At the November international break, Rodrygo has started just three games in all competitions, and the rumour mills are starting to churn once more.

Mundo Deportivo and Fichajes (via BBC Sport) are among the Spanish media outlets to link Rodrygo with a move to Tottenham. The latter writes that Spurs are willing to match Madrid's £70m asking price.

The winger has fallen out of favour in the Spanish capital this calendar year, but he's the sort of profile this Spurs team needs. Imagine Wilson Odobert with an extra layer or three. Rodrygo is a supreme technician who operates ever so smoothly with the ball at his feet, and is capable of beating his marker one-on-one via brains and brawn.

He boasts a vintage samba repertoire and the requisite burst of acceleration to keep any defender honest. In pretty much any other team in world football, Rodrygo would be the superstar.

However, I'm not going to wax too much lyrical because, well, it's just not going to happen, is it? Sky Germany's Florian Plettenberg has already put a dampener on things, reporting that the rumours from Spain are "wide of the mark". The player's salary is the big issue, with Capology listing his wage at £276,000 a week.

That would, of course, make Rodrygo Spurs' highest earner by a considerable margin. However, those who are desperate to see a shift in approach from those up top would argue that it's the sort of financial gamble the club must take to bridge the gap with the Premier League's best and help realise the supposed newfound ambition of ENIC.

Although Richarlison did score his fourth goal of the 2025/26 Premier League season for Tottenham Hotspur in an eventual 2-2 draw with Manchester United, the Brazilian international's deflection off his back was far from representative of the torrid afternoon he had against the Red Devils.

Richarlison was chasing shadows, missing easy opportunities, and not getting into the box while leaving the left flank a vapid void of creative activity. It was another lackadaisical and outright sloppy performance from a veteran player who has looked no closer to justifying his price tag as he was last year at this time when struggling through injury.

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank came into the season hoping that he'd coax the best out of Richarlison, who was once one of the biggest stars in the Premier League as the savior of Everton. Now, he's the chief reason for Spurs attack not meeting expectations, and when he is able to get into the box, he misses so many clear cut chances that he is skewing the actual extent of Spurs attacking troubles.

While Richarlison is far from the only player on Tottenham, attacking or otherwise, who isn't playing well enough, he's certainly been the most disappointing over the last few weeks, again, given the fact that you'd expect him to be playing well vs. players like Djed Spence or even Brennan Johnson.

Richarlison is hurting his own rep

As Tottenham enter the November international break, Richarlison is doing damage to his reputation internationally, too, as Carlo Ancelotti and the Brazil national team can't be looking at his performances in Lilywhite and thinking that this is the kind of player who should be representating the Selecao attack at the World Cup when he's busy falling over himself.

The harsh reality for Richarlison is that he doesn't give Spurs a better chance of winning than a healthy Randal Kolo Muani or Dominic Solanke. And as Mathys Tel showed the world against Leeds and Man United in one smooth motion, Richarlison isn't better than the young Frenchman right now either. Funnily enough, he may not be better than Dane Scarlett.

Even when Tottenham play well as an attack, such as in their 4-0 win over Copenhagen, Richarlison isn't able to distinguish himself positively. That tells you all you need to know about how far his stock has fallen, and with a pause in club play, Richarlison has to sit there and face the reality that he has played himself to the very bottom of the Tottenham depth chart, in a position so irredeemably low that even the optimistic Frank may be on the precipice of giving up on him for good.

Tottenham Hotspur head into this November international break on less positive terms than they did last month following their 2-1, Mathys Tel fueled win over Leeds United. Because while Tel again was good in front of goal with a lovely strike to give Spurs hope against Manchester United this past Saturday and fellow young forward Wilson Odobert seemingly helped the team on to a win, Spurs simply collapsed in the waning moments to drop more points in a game they should have won.

That's been the story of the 2025/26 season so far for Spurs, and while they are clearly in a better spot this year under Thomas Frank than they were in the 2024/25 Premier League season under Ange Postecoglou, there's still a lot of work to be done.

There are three players, in particular, who need to step up more as we take stock of the entire Tottenham squad heading into this natural break point at the November international fixtures. And all three of them were unsurprisingly horrid in the 2-2 draw with Man United.

The worst of those players this season has been Brennan Johnson. Tottenham were forced to start the right winger against Manchester United with Mohammed Kudus injured, and, once again, Johnson proved to be only a fraction of the winger that the Ghanaian international is.

Brennan Johnson is on the verge of being booted out

His clutch goal in Bilbao against the Red Devils will forever live in Tottenham hearts, but this most recent performance against Man United was, unfortunately, more reflective of the player. Johnson has not blossomed under Frank as many had hoped, but, rather, he's been even more exposed as a one dimensional player who will likely rapidly play himself out of Tottenham entirely once Dejan Kulusevski is back from his injury to more adequately back Kudus up.

Richarlison has been just as poor and perhaps even more disappointing overall, given what we have seen from the Brazilian in the past. Like Johnson, Richarlison came to Tottenham with a high price tag, and while he does have his moments, his four goals and two assists this season have been more down to fluke than skill, as evidenced by his deflected goal against Manchester United.

The 28-year-old has not been strong all-around for Tottenham, and the sooner Thomas Frank discards him entirely from the Tottenham forward rotation, the better off this team will be in so many ways.

Behind him on Saturday against Man United, Djed Spence was equally poor, and he's been as bad as any fullback in the Premier League this season. He's not a left back at all, which is obvious, but you'd still expect more from any starter in the Premier League than what Spence is offering going forward. His defending isn't as good as he'd like people to think either, and Spurs have to seriously consider if he's even a good option to back Pedro Porro on the left either.

Tottenham Hotspur's attacking situation is far from settled. Aside from new right winger Mohammed Kudus, none of the positions in the front three are truly set in stone, though at least young forwards Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert have shown enough spark and indeed game changing ability to make Spurs think that they can be short term - as well as longer term - solutions for the attack.

As Tottenham continue to weigh their attacking options and await returns to health for talented strikers Dominic Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani (who was injured again this weekend vs. Manchester United), they may want to keep an eye closely peeled on a forward who didn't quite make the roster cut this past summer transfer window.

After struggling to find a transfer suitor for him - and initially toying the idea of having him around as left wing depth - Tottenham were able to send Manor Solomon to a pretty prestigious club in Villarreal, who are actually in a great position to make the Champions League in La Liga this season.

Unsettled at the club

But with Villarreal playing well, Solomon has fallen further and further out of favor in the team, and it is getting to a point where he already wants out of Spain just mere months into his one year loan spell with the Yellow Submarine.

El Periodico Mediterraneao's Ismael Mateu reports that Solomon is already unhappy at Villarreal, and the Yellow Submarine have thus quickly found a suitor for the Israeli international. In fact, London rivals West Ham United have reached out to Villarreal about a possible transfer in January to take Solomon off their hands.

Now, the final say goes to Tottenham, of course. Spurs are the ones who can decide if they want to change the loan, and if they were to do so, they may not want him back in the Premier League. But given Solomon was actually supposed to join Crystal Palace before the Eagles pulled the rug from underneath Spurs and rejected the loan move at the last second, Spurs may not object to Solomon playing in London, especially since the Hammers are actually worse than the Eagles anyway.

There have been a few weaknesses holding Tottenham Hotspur back this season, and while the biggest ones are the lack of goals and overall lack of attacking quality, Spurs continue to have issues with their midfield, too.

While some of that would be fixed by Thomas Frank trusting young gems Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, and even Pape Matar Sarr more, Tottenham already knew last summer transfer window that they needed to sign a top young deep lying playmaker. Hence why they had interest in Adam Wharton, who will likely end up being priced out of Spurs range, regardless of the refrain the club want to give about being willing to spend more with Daniel Levy gone.

So Tottenham are going to have to look at alternatives who may be cheaper. According to a report from TEAMtalk's Dean Jones, Tottenham Hotspur are circling back to 22-year-old Bournemouth center midfielder Alex Scott as a transfer target in 2026. They were previously in on Scott in 2023 but did not sign him for 25 million pounds, which was the final fee Bournemouth paid to bag him.

A younger option for Tottenham, too

Scott has since gone on to become a success for the Cherries, and he is now joining Antoine Semenyo as a player Spurs could look to sign from them to fill a key need in 2026. Now, Scott will likely cost substantially more than what Spurs could have gotten him for in 2022, and it would not be surprising if he goes for double 25 million pounds. But that would still be half of what Wharton would go for.

This season, Scott has been great for Bournemouth in their bid to surprise for European football. He is averaging nearly two tackles per game with around 0.5 dribbles allowed per match, averaging 1.6 fouls drawn per game to boot.

The thing is, he's not really a playmaker, but he is a good box-to-box midfielder who can win possession and build play. He is having a better season than Rodrigo Bentancur and is younger than the struggling Uruguayan international, whom Spurs somehow signed to an extension this season and have been frustratingly praising for the absolute bare minimum in midfield.

Scott isn't a bad player, and he should be on Spurs radar. He is better than Bentancur. But he also doesn't have that world-class "it" factor like Wharton, and Spurs need those kinds of superstars if they really want to compete with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester City in the Premier League going forward.

Overall, Thomas Frank has been more of a positive than a negative for Tottenham Hotspur, and it's easy to forget just how poor Spurs were in the Premier League last season under Ange Postecoglou because of how much the Europa League title triumph emotionally papered over the steady downpour of horrible losses.

Spurs are dropping too many points against opponents they should be beating, though, and so while Frank is more of a positive than a negative, it still feels like he and Spurs are playing well below the standard they should be setting as a club.

There are a few major flaws in what Frank is doing as a coach, but the biggest is the way he's utilizing his young players. Simply put, Frank has a lot of highly promising talents at Tottenham, and he isn't putting them in a position to succeed.

Let's start with the midfield. Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray are two of the most talented young midfielders on the entire planet and have played well whenever given a chance in their preferred roles. Frank has almost never given them starts, with Bergvall's casting aside being particular unforgivable when you look back at how amazing he was in the 2024/25 season - his first as a Spur.

Tottenham's young attackers deserve better

Even Pape Matar Sarr has been cheaped off. The Senegalese international looked like Spurs biggest breakout star to start the season. Now, he's struggling for starts, too, even though, like the others, he's great when he does play. And the Spurs midfield isn't exactly flourishing without him.

Further up, there are still issues. Xavi SImons has been continually screwed over by Frank, forced to the periphery of games because nobody in midfield can get him the ball in dangerous situations. And that, funnily enough, goes back to Frank not playing Gray or Bergvall in the middle of the park. Simons looks like a transfer bust because he's a playmaker with nobody to hook up with, and Frank's surprsingly cowardly tactics are not doing Simons any favors either.

Forwards Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel came up huge recently, bailing Frank out of what would have been a humiliating loss to Manchester United. They were impact subs and have been the best left winger and striker, respectively, on the team this season. Yet they remain fighting for starts with Frank preferring Richarlison, of all people, to seemingly both.

Positives have been few and far between for Tottenham Hotspur lately, as their injury crisis has only deepened over the past week. Just as Cristian Romero returned from his multi-game injury, another crucial player to Spurs success, new right winger Mohammed Kudus, went down for multiple games with an injury of his own.

Kudus could not play on Saturday against Manchester United as Spurs stumbled to a 2-2 draw with Ruben Amorim's men. But the good news is that there is optimism Kudus will be out there in two weeks against arch rivals Arsenal in the North London Derby after getting the full international break to rest away from the Ghanaian national team.

The Kudus injury news isn't the only positive for Tottenham to track. On Saturday, star striker Randal Kolo Muani had to leave the game at half time with a jaw injury. At first, Spurs fans were told it was much ado about nothing, but, of course, the smart and cynical ones didn't listen, knowing full well this team is cursed.

Tottenham get a positive twist

Well lo and behold, the previously spotlessly healthy Kolo Muani had suffered a jaw injury requiring potentially months on the sideline, thus sending the already tenuous Tottenham striker situation into an outright tailspin.

Yet it appears things may not be so bad after all. Top Tottenham beat reporter Alasdair Gold of Football.London is now reporting that a specialist has stated that Kolo Muani did not, in fact, fracture his jaw. In a positve twist, Kolo Muani will not require surgery to repair his jaw, so the initially reported timeline of six to eight weeks for a return is inaccurate. Kolo Muani can be expected to return sooner than that, though the situation remains fluid and an exact return date is unclear.

Now, it would not seem reasonable to expect the French striker to make his return to the Tottenham lineup for the North London Derby, but maybe a return in less than a month isn't off the table. Tottenham have already missed Kolo Muani for several games in his first season - and potentially only, given he is just here on loan from Paris - due to a dead leg.

But when Spurs have watched Kolo Muani play, he has clearly looked a cut above Richarlison at the striker position with the sort of fluidity and passing and dribbling ability up front that the team have been missing. It will be huge to have him back sooner than later.

There's a lot of time - nearly two weeks, in fact - until Tottenham Hotspur face Arsenal FC in the North London Derby on Nov. 23 at the Emirates Stadium, but, as of right now, Spurs will be coming into that matchup as major underdogs.

Once again, Spurs couldn't get the job done this past weekend in the Premier League, dropping more points with a 2-2 draw against Manchester United. Although Man United have improved markedly over the past few weeks, this was a game Spurs should have won. They had even come back after inspired performances off the bench from young forwards Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel, but a brief moment of madness and poor marking in the final minutes doomed Spurs.

That said, Odobert's and Tel's strong displays in the last half hour will be key takeaways for Frank and the club to bring with them into the derby. These two stepped up when the others didn't in the absence of Mohammed Kudus, who has quickly become the second most important player on the team after world-class center back Cristian Romero.

Tottenham can't lose him vs. Arsenal

Kudus has been sorely missed these last couple of weeks with an unspecified injury, and with Randal Kolo Muani now likely out for a few weeks with a jaw injury, Spurs doubly can't afford the Ghanaian to be out for the North London Derby.

According to Thomas Frank himself, via The Spurs Express, he is "very confident" the young right winger will be out there for Tottenham next, next Sunday against Arsenal, ready to be available and fully recovered from this ailment.

Spurs will be going up against an Arsenal back line that is so good it is approaching historic levels, and without their most dynamic threat and wide creator, it could be a long day. Tel, Odobert, and maybe even Xavi Simons are capable of cooking some quality, but against a team like Arsenal, no Kudus would be almost akin to showing up to lose, given they've had matches in the past approaching 0.00 xG.

Tottenham fans remember that 0.05 xG performance the previous weekend against Chelsea in their first real derby (apologies West Ham) of the 2025/26 season under Frank, and repeating that kind of performance against Arsenal would be an embarrassment almost beyond reproach. So Spurs fans getting word from Frank that Kudus is in line to return is massive, because it's a sign of hope.

Tottenham's injury woes have failed to disappear despite the change in manager, and it looks like Thomas Frank will be short-handed in attack for a gauntlet run after the international break.

The third interval of 2025/26 arrives at a pretty good time for Spurs, given their litany of absences, but it remains to be seen how many of the currently stricken stars will be back fit for the North London Derby in two weeks.

Our bitter rivals, meanwhile, are projected to have the bulk of their injured players available for the Lilywhites' visit.

The likes of Cristian Romero, Destiny Udogie, and Wilson Odobert have shaken off minor knocks recently and made their respective comebacks, but Spurs seemingly have a quota of injuries they must fulfill at any one given time.

The latest to succumb is Randal Kolo Muani, who could be out for the rest of the calendar year.

Randal Kolo Muani suffers jaw fracture and could miss two months

Kolo Muani is yet to score for the club since joining from Paris Saint-Germain on loan, but the Frenchman has impressed in recent outings with his efficient hold-up work and associative play.

He was starting to build some momentum in Lilywhite, having missed a few weeks at the start of the season with a dead leg. However, the versatile forward is poised for another frustrating absence after fracturing his jaw in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Manchester United.

Kolo Muani earned a third consecutive start but was forced off at half-time because of the problem, which Fabrice Hawkins describes as "more serious" than initially thought. He could be out for as long as eight weeks.

Kolo Muani has already missed more games through injury at Spurs than he has his entire senior career, and the talented Frenchman will sit out for significant clashes after the break against Arsenal, parent club PSG, Newcastle, as well as Liverpool in December. We may not see him again until the new year, which is a big blow for Frank's Spurs.

The Dane is hopeful that Dominic Solanke will return before the year draws to a close, while Richarlison will hope that his stoppage-time header, which somehow proved not to be the winner, proves reinvigorating after a barren run.

Tottenham Hotspur can't go into the November international break thinking their last showing against Manchester United, a 2-2 draw, was a positive one. These are games Spurs should be winning if they want to start pushing into Premier League title contention, and their inability to play a complete game or have week to week consistency remains alarming.

That being said, Spurs did have some key silver linings to take away from the draw with Manchester United, particularly the game changing substitutions of Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert. Tel scored and Odobert directly caused the second, as both young men showed their quality and ability to help elevate the team against quality opposition.

So when the Premier League returns after the November international break and Tottenham have to go up against hated North London rivals Arsenal, who are clearly the best team in the Premier League right now with a historically strong defense, Thomas Frank knows who he has to turn to.

Randal Kolo Muani injured his jaw against Man United and is out. Richarlison is beyond awful. Brennan Johnson is pretty much just as bad as Richarlison. Mohammed Kudus is the guaranteed starter on the right wing and will be back. Xavi Simons is still the solution at the No. 10.

A young man with real quality up top

The left wing and striker positions are the ones up for grabs, or, at least, they were. Because right now, especially with Kolo Muani and Dominic Solanke injured, the jobs are clearly for Odobert and Tel to seal.

If Tottenham want to have even a prayer at beating Arsenal, then they have to start Tel at striker and Odobert on the wing. Have to. Odobert has been a bright spot on the wings despite getting little mainstream fanfare, and he's showing Spurs fans that he has the tools to be the star they envisioned when they signed him from Burnley last year

Meanwhile, Tel has shown real quality as a No. 9, again, despite not getting much national praise. His goal against Manchester United was full of individual class, between the touch and the finish. Tel and Odobert offer a different level of technical quality and athleticism to their competition, and Tel, in particular, has had some real fine moments in front of goal when trusted as a striker, between the win over Leeds and the draw with the Red Devils.

Arsenal will be favored, but Tottenham can surprise them. Key to their ability to get an upset win will be trusting these two young players, who just showed Frank that they are the best men for the job right now.