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Weeks away from the opening of the January transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur supporters should honestly be hearing optimistic words from a Spurs front office that sold them dreams of superstar transfer targets, major investment, and competition for the biggest trophies in the aftermath of firing Daniel Levy.

But as the days go by, Tottenham fans have to feel that sinking feeling that they are being sold a false bill of goods again. The only top target the have been concretely linked to going into January, Antoine Semenyo, now appears to be pretty much off the table and much more close to the likes of Manchester United and Manchester City than he is to upgrading Spurs dire left wing situation.

The Semenyo transfer blows are the least of Spurs concerns now, though, because it looks like Tottenham are on the precipice of sealing themselves as one of the big losers of the January transfer market before business even officially opens.

Tottenham are about to suffer a brutal loss

That's because Relevo transfer insider Matteo Moretto is reporting that Serie A giants Fiorentina have been pushing hard to hire away Tottenham Hotspur executive Fabio Paratici, even though the former Juventus man had only just rejoined Spurs after serving a suspension.

Fiorentina have been the biggest disappointment, by far, in European football. If you think Spurs are doing poorly, which they are, the Viola are ten times worse. They are literally the worst team in Serie A and cannot buy a win to save their lives, going from one of Europe's big breakout stories in 2024/25 to an utter joke in 2025/26.

Per Moretto, Paratici and Fiorentina are now actually in "advanced" negotiations, and Fiorentina are pushing hard for Paratici to accept a whopping five year deal to become the new boss of the club and right this sinking ship. There are "constant contacts", per Moretto, and Fabrizio Romano's good friend also warns Tottenham fans that a "breakthrough" in the talks could happen soon.

If Tottenham lose Paratici, they are in huge trouble. He is the one guy Spurs fans can trust to make the right personnel decisions when it comes to the big transfers, because he is the only guy with a track record consistently over the years of spending big money wisely and finding stars. When he was gone, Tottenham made some terrible moves, and without him, Spurs would cede a very wise eye for talent - and not just in Italian football either.

Tottenham Hotspur are in need of one more major attacking upgrade to boost their squad in the January transfer window, and while there are a few options available for Thomas Frank and Co. to try and pursue, there is no question that the most popular among them is Antoine Semenyo.

The Bournemouth star winger was already on Spurs radar this past summer transfer window, but Spurs were lukewarm about signing him for upwards of 70 milllon pounds. But after taking yet another big leap forward in 2025/26 and adding more goals to his resume now as a left winger, Semenyo is an even more enticing transfer target for Tottenham with a release clause of 65 million pounds set to kick in for the beginning of the month of January.

Tottenham have been consistently named as one of the teams most interested in Semenyo over the last several weeks, but so have other Big Six Premier League rivals in Manchester City, Liverpool, and Manchester United. Spurs biggest rivals, Arsenal, were also mentioned a while back, but Semenyo's favorite childhood club have been lukewarm in their pursuit more recently, which initially gave Spurs high hopes that they could make a successful swoop.

Tottenham are nowhere near now

Now, though, it looks like Tottenham are nowhere near the picture despite seemingly being one of the favorites at some point. Per another crushing report, this time from Mark Doulgas and Peter Hall for iPaperSport, Tottenham Hotspur are not one of the favorites to sign Antoine Semenyo. In fact, the news cycle has now shockingly flipped from Liverpool being favored to Manchester City to now, per Douglas and Hall, Manchester United being placed No. 1 to sign the Bournemouth star.

Since Semenyo has a flat release clause that is the same for any team that wants to sign him in January, the entire transfer battle is going to come down to wages paid and the project presented to the player. Tottenham would seem to have an advantage in terms of the role Semenyo would have, as he would be an essential starter on the left wing. Meanwhile, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Liverpool already made major summer signings who can play on that side of the formation or would otherwise crowd Semenyo out.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters are getting frustrated with their club promising better and never ever delivering. This past summer transfer window, Spurs brought in a new manager in Thomas Frank after Ange Postecoglou finished a historically poor 17th in the Premier League despite winning the Europa League. They signed marquee players like Randal Kolo Muani, Mohammed Kudus, and Xavi Simons. And then they fired Daniel Levy before promising more investment and bigger and better things in the future.

Well, what Tottenham have done in this 2025/26 Premier League season is lose game after game, including getting completely embarrassed by top rivals Arsenal and Chelsea in head to head competition. Their latest game? A 3-0 blowout loss to a Sean Dyche coached Nottingham Forest, of all teams to get blown out by.

Tottenham are expecting real changes and real attacking upgrades in the coming January transfer window, but it looks like even one marquee attacking signing is too much to ask from Tottenham at this stage.

Tottenham are out of it

In his latest transfer news update on his YouTube channel, Fabrizio Romano has reported that Tottenham Hotspur are no longer advancing for Bournemouth superstar left winger Antoine Semenyo in the latest cruel transfer blow for Spurs supporters to absorb.

This sudden transfer report from Fabrizio about Spurs being all but totally out of the race for Semenyo comes in stark juxtaposition to both his previous reporting and everything else everyone else was reporting about Semenyo and Spurs. Tottenham were seemingly one of the candidates to sign the Ghanaian star with as good of a chance as anyone - Manchester City, Liverpool, and Manchester United being the other main candidates - to sign Semenyo.

Now, it looks like Spurs have either been roundly rejected by Semenyo and have thus pulled out of the transfer race, or they are moving on to other options with no interest in competing in a wage bill bidding war with the elite of the elite in the Premier League - or they have simply resigned themselves to losing to another transfer target.

It is a tale as old as time itself. Spurs show interest in an elite transfer target all the big boys will want, and then once things get serious and the big boys start throwing around big boy numbers, the Tottenham brass turns into little puppies and run away with their tail between their legs. Same old Tottenham, no matter what the goons in the front office tell the fans, and the same fake fans posing for social media likes will lap it up and tell you these players were never good anyway while watching Spurs finish outside the top four yet again.

As Tottenham Hotspur prepare to face defending Premier League champions Liverpool, there is a sense that this is the chance for Spurs to finally make a real statement by taking advantage of a Reds side that is undeniably talented but also reeling with even more controversies than they are after the latest Arne Slot, Mohamed Salah, and Jamie Carragher situation.

Spurs do not have their ducks in a row themselves, of course, and they are coming off a truly embarrassing performance against Nottingham Forest, losing 3-0 amidst another combination of a Thomas Frank and a Guglielmo Vicario disaster class against one of the least talented teams in the Premier League.

Tottenham do not have as many injury excuses, though, as most of the team has a clean bill of health. James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski are, of course, out with long term injuries, but all the other guys with nagging issues will be out there, such as Randal Kolo Muani at striker.

Where is Dominic Solanke?

But the other striker, Dominic Solanke, is the one guy with nagging issues that should not be long term who is still yet to be available. Solanke has appeared in just three games this season, all off the bench, and he has done absolutely zero to help Tottenham. Worse yet, the bloated 65 million pound signing from Bournemouth has no real time table for a return.

At the pre game press conference before Tottenham Hotspur face Liverpool in the Premier League, Spurs manager Thomas Frank delivered another fake optimistic bit of injury news on Dominic Solanke. Frank told reporters, via Chris Cowlin, Everyone is doing fine. Last game, it's the same players available. No one new is available in the squad. He (Solanke) is progressing forward..."

"Progressing forward". It is laughable at this point. Progressing where? Progressing to what? Progressing in comparison to how he has been? Solanke is totally missing in action at this point, and the surgery and aggravated foot injury are clouding such a shadow around the player that Spurs supporters might as well count Solanke out for the season.

He is becoming an expensive enigma and an albatross on the club. Tottenham can not count on him, nor can they plan for him. All Spurs fans have are vague, non updates on Solanke that ring out a sense of pseudo positivity, because while Frank is seemingly giving a positive update that Solanke is doing well, without any tangible signs of progress or a concrete time line, they are just empty, almost mocking words from the coach.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters have a lot to be frustrated about, and no single individual has been drawing more criticism from the fan base than manager Thomas Frank. The negative results continue to pour on Spurs, and although wins over lowly Brentford and Slavia Praha served as a brief reprieve, Spurs were really hammered badly last weekend in the Premier League by Ange Postecoglou's most recent club, Nottingham Forest.

In that game, Frank displayed all of his worst tendencies yet again with no lessons learned. And in goal, the other man that Spurs fans are quite upset about, goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, delivered a disaster class of his own with two more inexcusable errors to essentially doom Tottenham to another devastating defeat.

As you would expect, Frank and Vicario have been standing arm in arm, with the Danish manager incessantly defending Vicario's woeful errors, even if it means throwing a younger player completely under the bus.

Guglielmo Vicario is a mistake machine now

Ahead of a vital fixture in the Premier League against defending champions Liverpool, Thomas Frank doubled down on his bizarre defense of Guglielmo Vicario in the pre game press conference, once again blaming Archie Gray for one of the mistakes while completely absolving the veteran Italian shot stopper of the other.

Frank said of Vicario, via The Spurs Express, “It's two completely different situations, one is a missed clearance which happens, the other one is more on Archie, he knows it's one-touch bounce. It's a situation we've seen a thousand times in England and across Europe.”

At this point, Frank's lack of accountability for certain veteran players is appalling. It seems like no matter how many errors Vicario, Richarlison, and Rodrigo Bentancur make that cost Tottenham points in the table, they will always be defended vociferously by Frank and played without any thought to the continued dropped points in the table.

Vicario has his positives and is a great pure shot stopper, and he honestly is not even one of the top five biggest problems at Tottenham right now. But he is a problem in comparison to the standards Spurs want to set going forward, as his mistakes are untenable and not at all replicated by the goalkeepers at the other top clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester City - the very same clubs Johan Lange and Co. tell the fans that Spurs want to start competing with. As the excuses rain down on the fans, the supporters have to wonder if Frank and the players are half as serious about winning as they are.

Tottenham Hotspur are expected to be one of the big buyers of attacking talent in European football this coming January 2026 transfer window, because they have a serious dearth of goals born out of the loss of club legends Son Heung-min and Harry Kane in the last few summer transfer windows. Their striker situation is not settled by any means, and their left wing remains vacuous in terms of consistent attacking output under new manager Thomas Frank.

As Tottenham begin to fall away from Antoine Semenyo - the most coveted left wing transfer target available on the winter market - they must ponder the alternatives. And they must also consider the players who will leave the attack in order to clear out squad space for an incoming transfer who can make a bigger impact.

The main candidate to leave Tottenham this winter is Brennan Johnson, who has been rendered fully obsolete on the right wing by the much more hard working, well rounded, and productive new signing Mohammed Kudus.

Tottenham are open for business

According to a report from Bobby Manzi of Give Me Sport and the South East London News Shopper, Tottenham Hotspur are indeed shopping Johnson actively this winter transfer window, and local rivals Crystal Palace are indeed among the clubs gunning for the Welsh international. Per the top Crystal Palace beat reporter, Tottenham are open for bids, and a price of 35 million pounds is expected to be the offer that it takes to get Spurs to trigger a sale.

Crystal Palace have been the only team concretely linked to Johnson thus far, and they seem very interested in the young forward, who was the hero of the Europa League Final in Bilbao against Manchester United. But aside from those sorts of opportunistic goals, Johnson is not offering much at all to Spurs.

Tottenham paid a hefty 47.5 million pounds to sign Brennan Johnson from Nottingham Forest a couple of years ago, and Thomas Frank over at Brentford was among the candidates Spurs outpaid in order to sign the young forward. There was thus an expectation that Frank would take a liking to Johnson and try to get the most out of him, but the funny thing is that Johnson has been even worse under Frank, discarded almost entirely and played way away from goal - and even on the left wing.

With Dejan Kulusevski set to come back within months, Johnson will only fall further down the pecking order. Palace could use a player lke Johnson with his eye for goal, and the Eagles have less pressure around them than Spurs. Johnson could be a good fit at significantly less than what Spurs paid to Forest for him.

For the better part of the past month, all the rage on the Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumor mill has been news regarding star left winger Antoine Semenyo, who swapped flanks and burst out as an even bigger breakout star in the 2025/26 Premier League season for sleepers Bournemouth - the same club Spurs plucked record striker signing Dominic Solanke from in the preceding summer transfer window.

Semenyo and Spurs are no strangers to each other as far as transfer links go, because Tottenham were among the clubs interested in the Cherries star forward this past summer window, alongside the likes of powerhouses including Manchester United. And these same clubs are, of course, still interested in Semenyo now that the Ghanaian international is putting up even bigger numbers for Bournemouth in 2025/26.

Tottenham were listed among the favorites for several weeks, but it looks like their grip on the transfer battle has slowly faded into the background. According to the latest information from journalist Jamie Jackson of The Guardian, Tottenham Hotspur are not even among the top choices for Antoine Semenyo at this stage. Semenyo is said to favor Liverpool the most, which does conflict with other reports that Manchester City are now the favorites. But the Citizens are not far behind, ranking second behind the Reds in the chase. And then Manchester United slot in at third in the hierarchy to sign Semenyo for 65 million pounds this winter.

Tottenham are left in the dust

That leaves Tottenham nowhere to be found. Spurs were once among the pack interested in Semenyo and seemed to stand as good of a chance as anyone, including Liverpool and Manchester City, to sign the young standout.

And that was likely because of the combination of the countryman connection with new star right winger Mohammed Kudus, as well as the clear and obvious path to playing time on the left wing at the N17 whereas Semenyo would have more competition at the other top Premier League clubs.

But the harsh reality is starting to set in that Spurs are not real competitors for Semenyo because they just are not good enough. As ever, Spurs do not have quite the same clout as a Liverpool or a Manchester United, and they are certainly not playing as well as Man City - not this season or in the last several. Spurs are closer to the bottom half of the table than the top half, and their lack of sporting success over the years is a big reason why they can't win these sorts of targets.

Tottenham Hotspur are going to be one of the more active teams in the winter transfer market, because they have been playing pretty poorly so far in the 2025/26 Premier League season under Thomas Frank and are at serious risk of not even qualifying for European football at all next year. They are currently in the Champions League, but that is only by virtue of winning the Europa League; they finished 17th in the English top flight last season under Ange Postecoglou.

And yet instead of taking steps forward, it feels like Spurs are treading water or even actually moving backwards under Frank in 2025. The summer signings of Randal Kolo Muani, Mohammed Kudus, and Xavi Simons have all been important to varying degrees, and yet the Spurs attack still feels wholly incompetent and quite disjointed under the new manager.

Tottenham need to sign a player who can bring more goals to the table, and they are zeroing in on the left wing position as their biggest need. And so far in December, the main transfer target linked to Spurs has been Bournemouth breakout superstar Antoine Semenyo, who was already a target for the Lilywhites in the summer market.

Tottenham are fading fast

But Spurs are fading fast in the battle for Semenyo. According to the latest information from talkSPORT transfer reporter Alex Crook, while the battle for Antoine Semenyo is heating up, Tottenham Hotspur are the ones cooling down. Manchester City have been holding direct talks with the Ghanaian winger, while Manchester United and Liverpool are "very keen". Meanwhile, Tottenham are suddenly reportedly seen as the "outsiders" in the transfer race, which was not the case weeks ago when they were mentioned as favorites alongside the likes of Man City and Liverpool.

It appears the transfer race has been turned on its head, per the rumor mill. Man City are gunning harder and harder after Semenyo as they look to flip the script on Arsenal in the Premier League title race, while the Gunners themselves appear to be nowhere near the Semenyo chase. And despite their big summer signings in the attack, Man United appear to be highly interested in Semenyo, moreso than the surprisingly struggling defending Premier League champions Liverpool.

And now Tottenham are falling behind the rest, perhaps already rejected by Semenyo or simply not as serious in the player anyway - maybe even sending the inevtability of losing out on another highly sought after Premier League transfer target.

Xavi Simons has had to fight for every inch since joining Tottenham Hotspur, and there was even a stretch of four games in which manager Thomas Frank discarded the Dutchman on the bench. The decision by the Danish manager was met with wide spread derision by the Spurs faithful, and Tottenham did not win a single one of those four games in which Simons was thrown to the subs.

When he came back, Tottenham immediately improved offensively, and, if anything, the time Simons spent on the bench and the issues that have remained even with him on the pitch as a No. 10 have exposed the true extent of a rotten issue eating at the core of Spurs and their inability to truly push the Champions League level sides in the Premier League.

Tottenham are closer to the bottom half of the Premier League table than the top, and there is a serious dearth of goal scoring weaponry and attacking fire power. Simons gets the slack, but he only has three assists between the Premier League and Champions League despite actually playing well because of how poor the players in front of him are.

Tottenham know what they need to do

Besides new striker Randal Kolo Muani, who has not been able to feature much due to injury, and young left winger Mathys Tel, who barely plays because of Frank's poor personnel decsion making, there is not much to write home about as far as the goal threats at Spurs. Richarlison leads the way with six goals, but he misses way more of those chances and has been awful, as any true Tottenham fan will readily attest.

As Tottenham enter the January 2026 transfer window, it is clear and obvious that the Lilywhites need to sign more attacking talent, specifically someone who can go out there and score goals and link up with the talented No. 10 who has been left to feed off scraps with mostly Richy to try to assist. And that's not going well.

The fact that Simons barely has any assists despite showing real spark and technical quality is down to the personnel around him, and it only underscores how badly Tottenham need to go after a player like Antoine Semenyo and continue to feed Tel and Kolo Muani, especially, more minutes. They are not going to find a great striker option in January, but they have a ready made left winger who can score double digit Premier League goals in Semenyo available. And a player like that can really open the offense for Simons to improve his assist totals and overall output.

Europa League champion James Maddison was unable to help Tottenham Hotspur take Manchester United down in Bilbao, Spain in May, but there is no question that the top class English playmaker played a crucial role in Spurs winning their first major European trophy in 41 years during the time he was healthy.

Maddison was one of the team leaders in goal contributions and the best overall chance creator, as the Leicester City man has proven to be every bit as good as advertised since joining Tottenham. While the injury woes have indeed reared their head as a member of Spurs, the positives outweight the negatives for one of the few veteran leaders on Tottenham and easily one of the most likable Premier League players.

Unfortunately, Maddison has not been able to play in the 2025/26 Premier League or Champions League seasons yet for Spurs due to a devastating ACL tear he suffered towards the end of the preceding 2024/25 campaign.

Will James Maddison play this season?

Updates on Maddison have been hard to come by, but the freelancing commentator has finally delivered a tangible injury update for Spurs fans. James Maddison recently opened up to ITV News about his injury status, stating that he is high unlikely to be in contention for the 2026 World Cup for the Three Lions due to the time table of his injury. However, he dropped big news that he should be able to return for Tottenham towards the end of the 2025/26 season.

The man known as Madders said, "When I realised, obviously, I was going to be out for the majority of the season, if not the whole season, that kind of crushed that dream of going to the World Cup. It was a tough one to take. That's the cons of football and one of the negatives of missing out through injury. It's about dealing with that mentally. And that's partly why there's been some dark days. You want to represent your country, you always want to be in a position, especially off the back of a good season last year. Personally, with good numbers, I felt like I was close with Thomas Tuchel coming in. The first and foremost thing for me is just to come back safely and be fit. It's such a long injury. There are so many ups and downs that I just want to be in a place, returning and having a smile on my face and being fit for Tottenham Hotspur, whenever that is. It's going to be towards the end of the season, so the World Cup is probably going to be ruled out, if not definitely. So, it's one of them things. As I said, I'll take it on the chin and, yeah, it's one of those things that will drive me going forward."