Hotspur HQ

Just days ago, Tottenham free-agent-to-be Ben Davies was expressing frustrating at a lack of clarity on his future at the club, and he seemed to be assuming that his future lay outside of North London.

As a player on an expiring contract above the age of 30 and without a defined role on an increasingly younger team, Davies's pessimism wasn't exactly misguided. His main issue was the fact that Tottenham weren't communicating anything about his future to him, leaving him in a state of limbo not unlike the one Ange Postecoglou experienced before being fired on Friday.

Well unlike Postecoglou, Davies hasn't been fired, but rather extended. The 32-year-old officially received a contract extension on Sunday, as Tottenham agreed to pick up the one-year option on his current deal, meaning he won't be a free agent until the end of the 2025/26 season.

On the surface, the Davies news appears to be a sudden about-face towards a player who was very much on the periphery of the squad and whom most Tottenham beat writers were reporting would be on the way out this summer.

Daniel Levy only care about profit

The thing is, Davies's contract extension isn't the end of the story here. According to a report from The Daily Mail's Simon Jones, Wrexham are still intersted in signing Davies, and the recent contract extension may not change Tottenham's intention to let Davies go. The extension may merely be a means for Spurs to sell Davies for cash instead of letting him go for free.

Although Tottenham won't get much money for Davies - other than a few million pounds - since he is at the level of a lower-league team like Wrexham than one in the Premier League, Daniel Levy has always operated under a profit-driven mindset.

The gesture of keeping Davies for one more year after leaving him in the dark for weeks (months, even) may not be an unselfish one from Levy. After all, even Levy has to know that Davies has no future at the club and is simply taking a spot from a younger center back - not to mention up taking wages on Levy's "valuable ledger".

So it's more likely that Levy's isn't misguidedly keeping Davies around for the nostalgia, but, rather, stringing him along like he usually does, except now he's trying to find a way to pinch a few extra pennies out of a player who already gave a lot to this club in his career. Tottenham could have told Davies they didn't intend to keep him before the season ended and let him find a club like Wrexham as a free agent. Instead, Levy is likely playing a cruel game with Davies, too, extending him just to sell.

Tottenham still haven't felt the full ripple effect of Daniel Levy's decision to can highly popular manager Ange Postecoglou on Friday night, waiting weeks to come to the conclusion that Spurs were better off without a beloved manager who had delivered them the Europa League title.

Now, there were valid reasons for firing Postecoglou - many of them tactical - but Spurs could have either made the decision sooner or handled it better. And because of the manner in which he was fired, the close bond he had with the players (particularly a few of them), and the clear outpouring of support for him in public before and after the dismissal, there's a worry among Tottenham supporters that big-name players could follow Postecoglou out the exit door.

The most prominent and likely of those departures is Cristian Romero, and it was actually reported about a week before Big Ange's exit that Cuti's future at Tottenham would be closely tied to Postecoglou's. Known for a close relationship with the Australian manager, Romero was said to be more likely to stay if Postecoglou were to stay and more likely to go if not.

Romero had been the subject of intense transfer links to Atletico Madrid before those died down after his heroic Europa League performances, especially in the Final against Manchester United. Named the best player of the entire Europa League tournament , Romero's future is now worryingly uncertain, and Spurs fans have picked up on the highly concerning sign of his suspicious silence after the devastating blow of the Postecoglou firing.

Son Heung-min could leave Tottenham as a champion

Losing Romero would be a huge blow to the quality and leadership at Tottenham, and the same can be said about the prospect of losing star left winger Son Heung-min. Even though, at this point in his career, losing Son is more of a sentimental loss than a sporting one, he still tied James Maddison for the Tottenham team lead in Premier League goal contributions last season - and that was an all-time down year for the South Korean legend.

Already, troubling transfer news has been shared on Son's future status at Tottenham in the immediate aftermath of the Postecoglou dismissal. After finally winning a major trophy with Spurs, Son could seen this season as an opportunity to leave with his head held high, and he may see the Postecoglou firing as a sign that it's time to go before things potentially get ugly.

Tottenham have been fielding offers from Saudi Arabia for Son for months, as he's the exact kind of player and profile the Saudi Pro League would love to recruit. Most Tottenham fans won't want to see him go, but Levy's profit-driven perspective may differ.

Finally, Rodrigo Bentancur is the last big name on Tottenham who could be more likely to go after Postecoglou's exit. He also shared a close bond with the coach, and while he has been expected to remain with Spurs and sign a new contract, his importance to the squad and status as a possible captain may be diminished without Big Ange.

Like Yves Bissouma, Bentancur has one year left on his contract. Unlike Bissouma, Bentancur is expected to stay, but that could all be out the window without Postecoglou. His status has gone from "likely safe" to "up in the air" after Friday night's news.

Tottenham Hotspur are going to have to be buyers in the summer 2025 transfer window, whether Daniel Levy likes it or not. Their Europa League-winning campaign under Ange Postecoglou was a clear sign that Spurs are capable of so much more with a full squad that can handle the rigors of a full campaign, and with Champions League football back on the horizon, Spurs have another reason to want to retool their thin squad.

As much as Levy hates doing this, he has to support the next manager in order to avoid further embarrassment, more vociferous fan protest, and maybe even his own dismissal (unlikely as that sounds to many).

It's all about finding market opportunities and signing (relatively) young players who are good enough to get significant minutes now and have enough potential to become legitimate stars in the future. After missing out on the big prize, Rayan Cherki, Tottenham have another market opportunity worth watching in terms of playmaking, left-footed right wingers.

According to a report from Sky Sports Germany's top international insider Florian Plettenberg, Real Sociedad star Takefusa Kubo, linked to Bayern Munich, is one of the players to watch around Europe in the summer 2025 transfer window. The 24-year-old Japanese international is reportedly leaning towards a transfer to the Premier League, and multiple teams have already inquired La Real about their most valuable transfer commodity after Martin Zubimendi's apparent move to Arsenal.

Tottenham could benefit from more dynamism on the wings

Kubo could be signed for just 35-40 million euros despite being one of the biggest names in LaLiga. He had a down year in 2024/25, but so did a few other players on the team. Kubo, even with just five goals in LaLiga, still made his presence felt as a dribbler with more than four combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per game.

Formerly of Real Madrid, Kubo took LaLiga by storm starting in 2022/23 when he was transferred to Real Sociedad. His elite dribbling ability in tight spaces, dynamism on the ball, and eye for the key pass or goal made him one of Spanish football's best players.

Kubo has suited the exciting attacking style of Real Sociedad well, and while there will be concerns of how he translates physically to the Premier League due to his small frame, those who watch him play know that he is stronger and tougher than he seems at first glance.

Although Kubo isn't a slam-dunk target for Tottenham, he's definitely worth keeping on the radar due to his special skills on the ball, explosiveness, historical success with a good club in La Real, and friendly price tag for a young talent.

Tottenham Hotspur had a 25 million euro release clause especially for them to sign young Real Betis and USMNT midfielder Johnny Cardoso this summer - and this summer only. But that clause has now been mooted, as Cardoso has made it abundantly clear that he dreams of a move within LaLiga to capital club Atletico Madrid with no intention of moving to Tottenham (or ostensibly the Premier League at all, for that matter).

The release clause for Tottenham was inserted as part of the transfer that sent talented playmaker Giovani Lo Celso back to Real Betis, where he dominated in the first half of the 2024/25 season before having his campaign derailed by injury. In total, Cardoso's snub means that Tottenham sold Lo Celso for a meager five million euros, and Cardoso has now become a frustrating symbol of Daniel Levy's ill-advised maneuvering on the transfer market.

But ultimately, it doesn't seem like most Tottenham supporters feel all that bad about losing out on Cardoso. His final price to Atleti won't be much more than 25 million euros, and Spurs fans have more things to worry about after the way Ange Postecoglou was fired by the club. Moreover, many fans feel that Cardoso isn't up to snuff anyway, and they may feel vindicated by a play on Saturday.

Johnny Cardoso isn't better than Tottenham

In a friendly against Turkey, Cardoso made a ghastly error early in the game to erase the United States national team's first minute goal. Cardoso inexplicably drifted with the ball in his own box lacksadaisically before essentially smashing the ball right into Turkish star Arda Guler's knee out of sheer panic. The ball ricocheted off Guler and into the back of the net. Cardoso's USMNT would go on to lose that game 2-1 after Turkey scored the go-ahead goal quickly after his error, too.

Obviously, this is just one play and can't be used to make sweeping commentary about Cardoso's quality as a player, but it was a horrible error and the kind of error Tottenham are sick of making after watching similar ones happen all season long, including at the very end in Liverpool's title-sealing romp against them.

What the goal is a reminder of, though, is that the notion Cardoso is too good for Spurs is beyond laughable. He's a decent player, but he's not even a proven top midfielder for Betis in LaLiga. Cardoso works hard and is a good athlete, however, he, like so many players produced in the United States, is very lacking in tactics and technique, which can be painfully observed in this intolerable error.

Tottenham will have much better players to go after on the transfer market, including midfielders who are more refined and more ready for the rigors of the Premier League. Cardoso could get exposed in Spain at a bigger club like Atleti, and while he should go on to have a decent career, Spurs should also be aiming higher anyway.

Tottenham Hotspur will have to prepare for yet another "new era" at the club after the Lilywhites unceremoniously dumped Ange Postecoglou onto the unemployment line on Friday night weeks after he had brought them the Europa League title.

Postecoglou won't remain unemployed for long, and it doesn't look like Spurs will have a vacant manager's seat for long either. They have been accelerating their interest in Thomas Frank, who, by all accounts, looks like the clear best option available due to his track record of success at Brentford and, in all honesty, improved tactical ideas in comparison to Postecoglou.

With Frank, there's a real hope among Tottenham supporters that the Brentford coach will be able to convince his star man Bryan Mbeumo to jump ship with him in North London instead of going to Manchester United. Although Tottenham have showed legitimate interest in the 25-year-old breakout right winger, Mbeumo made it clear that Man United is where he wants to go.

As Manchester United continue to haggle with Brentford over the final asking price, Tottenham could swoop in and make a change if they are able to hire a new manager soon enough and if that manager is both willing and able to convince Mbeumo to change course. After all, Spurs did beat Man United in the Europa League Final.

Tottenham need to start going for premium players

According to a report from The Mirror's Darren Lewis, Frank has told Tottenham during his talks to become the club's next manager that he is indeed interested in trying to bring Mbeumo to Spurs. He is hoping to take Mbeumo with him from Brentford as a centerpiece player for his project at Tottenham and wants Spurs to pay the roughly 60 million pounds it would take to sign him.

Mbeumo won't come cheap, but he shouldn't either. Brentford and Frank turned Mbeumo into a machine on the wing, as he scored 20 goals with 7 assists to rival all the best players in the Premier League in terms of importance to his team and overall attacking output.

He is fully legit. Mbeumo can score goals from anywhere and turn just about any situation in or around the box into a dangerous one. He is a special athlete, a solid dribbler and progressor, and an underrated creator all while being as good of a goal threat as most strikers in the Premier League.

Whether or not Frank can actually convince Mbeumo to join, let alone Daniel Levy to spend, is another thing entirely, but perhaps both of those parties can give him some assurances before a move to Tottenham is complete for the Brentford manager. But at least he's willing to try, and Tottenham need to start signing players the caliber of Mbeumo in order to truly compete.

In the immediate aftermath of firing Ange Postecoglou on Friday night, Tottenham Hotspur were already significantly linked to Brentford manager Thomas Frank, who was shooting up lists of manager targets in the weeks before the 2024/25 Premier League season ended.

At this point, it would be an upset if Frank didn't become the next Tottenham manager, and he's perhaps the only credible option who could conceivably prove to be an upgrade over Postecoglou, given his tactical body of work at Brentford over the last couple of seasons.

But Frank isn't the only high-profile manager Tottenham have approached in the days around their decision to fire Postecoglou. According to a report from Fabrizio Romano, before reaching advanced negotiations with Frank, Spurs actually made an approach to hire Marseille's Roberto De Zerbi, formerly of Brighton, but the manager rejected Tottenham outright in order to stay at OM.

It's not the first time within the last week that Tottenham came away with egg on their face after being rejected in favor of Marseille, as former England national team midfielder Angel Gomes decided to spurn Spurs in favor of a free transfer within Ligue 1 from Lille to Marseille. Given Tottenham are one of the biggest clubs in the world, play in London, and just won the Europa League title, Gomes rejecting them in favor of a transfer to a topsy-turvy club competing for no real silverware was a bit of a slap in the face for Tottenham.

Daniel Levy keeps making Tottenham look like a joke

Getting snubbed by both Gomes and De Zerbi makes Tottenham look like an absolute joke. De Zerbi's biggest job of his career was at Brighton, and he managed to alienate people there, which is a common theme in his career, before bolting to Marseille, where he's been bent on assembling a squad of hooligans and miscreants like Mason Greenwood and Elye Wahi, among others with serious allegations or charges.

For Tottenham fans, getting rejected by De Zerbi is, therefore, a very good thing, considering no reasonable fan wants a manager - who, by the way, already flamed out at a mid-table club in the Premier League - with that kind of "eye for talent" running the show, especially not after firing a high-character coach like Postecoglou.

However, it's the mere fact that Daniel Levy and Tottenham even approached De Zerbi, ostensibly before they officially canned Big Ange, that is so irksome to Spurs supporters. De Zerbi is the exact opposite of Postecoglou, and for as brilliant as he may be tactically, he's nowhere near brilliant enough to make up for all the red flags about him. Spurs considering that switch - and then getting rejected in favor of OM - is yet another low in a situation that has been a trip down to the Mariana Trench.

Tottenham made the highly unpopular decision to sack manager Ange Postecoglou on Friday, exactly two years to the date that he was hired at the club. The move came weeks after Big Ange had brought Spurs their first Europa League title in 41 years, and it came with a callous statement clearly not befitting a manager who had immediately vaulted himself to iconic status with that title triumph.

It's obvious to Spurs fans - and has been for a long time - that the priority for Daniel Levy and the people in charge of the club is purely profits over winning, the antithesis of what it means to be a football club.

The silver lining for Tottenham fans is that the club is at least knocking down the door of the one competent replacement for Postecogou, Thomas Frank of Brentford. Frank has overperformed for the Bees since their arrival in the Premier League, producing some of the biggest breakout stars in the top flight both in the attack and even in goal. Players like Bryan Mbeumo are household names, and perhaps Frank could even help Spurs steal Mbeumo from the clutches of Manchester United.

Although Frank is a much stronger coach than Postecoglou tactically, it will not be easy for him - or any coach, for that matter - to replace the unique bond that Big Ange forged with his players and many of the fans.

Thomas Frank won't be a free hire for Tottenham

Moreover, the cost to hire Frank would be a steep one. The most important aspect of cost, unlike what Mr. Levy may have you think, is well beyond finances. There is a certain human cost and a level of dignity - if there were any in the halls of N17 at this point - lost with the manner in which Postecoglou was dismissed. Unquestionably, Tottenham have lost a lot of goodwill, if there were a lot to begin with, by making the decision that they did in the way that they did.

But even financially, there is a steep cost to this move. Sacking Postecoglou alone has cost Spurs a hefty four million pounds in compensation. And yet that figure is still less than half of what it will take to actually higher Frank from Brentford.

The Bees aren't going to stand in Tottenham's way when it comes to hiring Frank, even though they are technically now rivals in the battle for European places. Part of that is because, per a report from The Telegraph's Matt Law, the release clause in Frank's contract with Brentford is expected to be around 10 million pounds.

That's quite the chunk of change for a manager who, while impressive in his ideas and results at a plucky club like Brentford, will come to Tottenham with no real high-level success to speak of. And he'll be doing so replacing Postecoglou, who is fresh off a Europa League title win at a club that, again, hasn't won a trophy of that caliber in nearly 50 years.

Frank is a good coach and is perhaps the only option with a realistic shot at being a more effective coach than Postecoglou. But many Tottenham fans would feel that the switch was not worth it for both the financial impact of 14 million pounds in total and, most importantly, the emotional and professional cost of what Spurs did.

Even though Ange Postecoglou kept his promise that he would finally bring a trophy back to Tottenham Hotspur after 17 years, it wasn't enough. Spurs callously fired their beloved coach on Friday night after stringing him along for weeks, giving the fans who grew to appreciate him and the players who were in his corner 100 percent a massive letdown.

As Spurs scramble to find a replacement with even a fraction of the heart of the big Australian lest they derail their transfer window even further, supporters of the club are left to wade in the muck of another deplorable PR campaign headed by the odious Daniel Levy.

Perhaps no sporting figurehead is as universally despised by those inside and outside the club as Mr. Levy, who has earned the utmost distaste of two of the most legendary modern-day managerial figures in Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho before this latest devilish decision to fire Postecoglou.

Firing the manager wouldn't have been so bad if Tottenham did it a few weeks ago and if Levy had some sort of a public statement with reasoning on why the move was made for sporting reasons. Instead, Tottenham waited weeks to make a heartless statement on Postecoglou, alienated just about everyone in the process, and probably won't even hire a better coach anyway.

Daniel Levy is selling what no Tottenham fan will buy

But what really rubs salt in the wound is how much Tottenham are going out of the way to feed utter bile to credible media members about why they fired Postecoglou or what transpired in the months before his poorly-handled sacking.

Take, for example, a report in The Athletic in which Spurs sources tell a reporter that they wondered during the season if Postecoglou's management and playing style were responsible for the rash of injuries in the squad. Similar information was presented to BBC's Sami Mokbel in his report, including friction between both the strength and conditioning team and the coaching staff and the medical team and the coaching staff over injuries.

It's the typical generalized hogwash that circulates around the press after a manager is sacked as a means of helping the club save face amidst an unpopular decision. Nobody is buying this. What Tottenham is selling to fans is about as believable as an eight-year-old child claiming to their teacher that they could not complete their assignment because their laptop spontaneously combusted. The only people gullible enough to believe this are Levy's lackeys in N17 who concocted this story themselves.

Even more laughably, it is claimed in these reports that Postecoglou was observed becoming more distant from the rest of the club. Apparently he wasn't having breakfast with the rest of the team and would have his usual order - ham and cheese - delivered to his room. The report from BBC Sport goes on to say that players would then go to other members of the staff instead of directly to Big Ange if they had issues.

This level of detail can only be provided by people within the club, and it's easy for them to distort the narrative. If all of this were indeed the case, you don't think people within Tottenham wouldn't have been eager to leak it all during the rough patches when Tottenham were dropping points left and right in the Premier League without the truly increased optimism of a Europa League title?

Postecoglou had his problems, but nearness to the players was clearly not one of them. The outpouring of support from so many in the locker room, from captain Son Heung-min to new signing Kevin Danso, speaks volumes to the fact that Postecoglou's attachment to the locker room had never wavered. The Europa League title itself is the most obvious evidence of that bond. No amount of Levy-driven PR drivel leaked to the papers is going to get Spurs fans to bite.

As if Tottenham Hotspur supporters didn't already have sufficient reason to loathe chairman Daniel Levy for all that he's done to undermine the club since his iron-fisted rule began in 2001, they received one of the most compelling reasons possible on Friday night with the not-so-swift decision to dispose of manager Ange Postecoglou.

The move has come as a crushing blow to Tottenham supporters and the players, who had been publicly supporting Postecoglou quite loudly amidst the uncertainty surrounding the coach's future.

Although there are valid sporting reasons for not keeping Postecoglou, as highlighted by a rival manager, if tactical concerns were the case and were still not dispelled by the Europa League title, then Tottenham and Levy could have made their decision a lot sooner than they did.

Instead, Levy undermined the club from every angle. He undermined their professionalism and public perception by treating Postecoglou poorly from a human level. Here they had their Europa League winning coach - someone who should have at least went out as a hero for the club - waiting through a holiday with his family with uncertainty about his own future direction and strung him along for weeks.

Daniel Levy hurt Tottenham at multiple levels

They could have just as easily given him clarity sooner, but they instead waited until a Friday night to drop the news without any sort of a public quote or comment attributed to Mr. Levy himself in the official release. It was a callous dismissal typically reserved for a miscreant or nuisance, not a manager who led a club to a major title win on a club that rarely experiences that pinnacle of success (for reasons almost entirely of their management's doing).

Levy also harmed the club internally. Because Tottenham had waited so long to make a decisoin on Postecoglou, many of the players, who had developed a close bond to the coach, had, like the fans, gotten their hopes up that Big Ange would be staying. Everyone was emotionally prepared for Postecoglou to stay and optimistic that the future would be bright as a result of the Europa League triumph. There was a lot of celebration and positive momentum, which Levy has almost entirely squashed.

Finally, Levy injured Tottenham from a sporting perspective. Because they had to wait this long for clarity on the manager front, the club could not negotiate with top transfer targets. Unique opportunities to sign world-class players like Rayan Cherki and Bryan Mbeumo before their true primes have now been discarded, with Cherki close to Man City and Mbeumo already rejecting Spurs for a Manchester United move.

These are the exact kinds of players Tottenham need, and they are the players Tottenham will not be getting for the 2025/26 season. Whereas the team they beat in the Europa League Final, Manchester United, already have the excellent Matheus Cunha sewn up and are on the cusp of another game-changer in Mbeumo, Tottenham don't have a single concrete link.

On top of all that, the pickings are slim when it comes to actually replacing Postecoglou, because Spurs waited long enough that the biggest names on the market, Italian coaches Simone Inzaghi and Gian Piero Gasperini, have already moved in the musical chairs. That leaves Brentford's Thomas Frank as the lone manager available who has a realistic shot of both joining Tottenham and being in any way better than Postecoglou.

Levy has always been viewed poorly by Tottenham supporters for an utter lack of investment in resources in the squad, spending nearly nothing in wages, showing no ambition when given the opportunity to sign potential world-class talent (like Desire Doue), and undermining the team when they do land on great players and managers.

The Postecoglou firing isn't the worst thing to happen to Tottenham Hotspur in the last 25 years, but the way it went down was so unnecessarily cruel at a time when Tottenham supporters finally had a sliver of real joy in their footballing lives that it is truly a rock bottom point for Levy's image and the supporters' faith in the club's leadership.

On Friday night, Tottenham Hotspur ended a totally unnecessary weeks-long gambit of uncertainty around manager Ange Postecoglou by simply giving him the axe. The fact that they waited so long to come to any sort of a decision or offer a public notice of their future intentions left everyone thinking that Postecoglou would stay after guiding Spurs to a historic Europa League title triumph against Manchester United.

Meanwhile, Spurs were stuck in limbo and unable to make any approaches on the transfer market, losing out on top targets like Rayan Cherki while watching the very club they beat on the transfer market sign one of the best players in the Premier League in Mathus Cunha and rule them out of a similar caliber player in Brentford right winger Bryan Mbeumo.

For long suffering fans of Tottenham Hotspur, this is just another June, but, at some point in over 20 years of this charade, the nub on the end of the pencil has been forcefully erased down to metal scraps that are ready to chafe and gnaw at the pages of history.

And the history of Tottenham is as grim as Juventus legends Antonio Conte and Giorgio Chiellini have painted it. In a recent piece, The Telegraph's Matt Law outlined just how little ownership group ENIC and chairman Daniel Levy have invested in the club since taking over the miraculously still-floating ship in 2001.

Tottenham's spending under ENIC is unbelievably miniscule

ENIC themselves have spent just 122.1 million pounds to fund Tottenham since 2001, which averages out to around 5.3 million pounds per season in investment. That is such a paltry figure that there are teams with no Premier League success to speak of that have invested significantly more than that in their football clubs.

The fact that Tottenham have won the Europa League and competed for Premier League and even Champions League titles in these last nearly 25 years of ENIC rule is a testament to the incredible people and fans that have populated the organization's grounds over the years.

This figure paints the most indicting and biting picture possible of the magnitude of the fundamental, long-standing issues that have plagued this club. How can Tottenham compete with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, or even Arsenal and Liverpool with this little spending? Signing and retaining the world's best players is an impossibility under this miserly, miserable model.

The firing of Ange Postecoglou has opened new wounds for Tottenham fans, who have scarcely had time to celebrate a beautiful and historic Europa League campaign. Now, the focus and the ire are turend back to Levy and a club that seems more callous and cruel than merely incompetent.