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Tottenham have a long offseason ahead of them, because even though Spurs are riding high from winning the Europa League title and qualifying for the Champions League, they will have to figure out how to compete in their Champions League return with a squad that finished a mere 17th in the Premier League last season.

Before all that, Tottenham need to sort out their manager and sporting director situation, but while that is ongoing, Spurs need to think about which key players they want to keep and which players they want to sell in order to sign better players who can help them reach the knockouts of the Champions League next season.

One of the most interesting situations belongs to star center back Cristian Romero, who seemed to be on the outs a few weeks ago. After publicly declaring his interest in heading to LaLiga, Romero was being closely linked with moves to Atletico Madrid and even Real Madrid.

Daniel Levy is stepping it up

Now, though, Tottenham fans are pushing harder for the club to keep Romero after his decisive performances in the Europa League led to both Spurs hoisting the trophy and Romero himself being honored as the official Player of the Tournament.

According to new information from top footballing insider Fabrizio Romano on his YouTube channel, Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy will now do his best to keep Romero at Tottenham this summer. While both parties have not started official negotiations on a new contract, Spurs now want to keep Romero more than before because they have secured Champions League football.

The Champions League helps the case for Romero to stay in two ways. Not only does it make it more important for Tottenham to keep a big-game, top-class center back for such an important competition rather than selling him for potentially less than market value, but the Champions League also increases Romero's interest in staying due to the level of competition.

At this point, it's a no-brainer for Tottenham to at least sit at the bargaining table and try to hammer out something with Romero to convince him to stay. And if Romero is still open to leaving, Tottenham can have more leverage with clubs like Atletico Madrid instead of taking obvious lowball offers for a player whose stock is absolutely on the rise after this Europa League tournament.

It still seems about 50/50 for Romero to leave Tottenham this summer, and Levy keeping a key player has to be seen before it is ever believed. But 50/50 is a lot closer than what the odds seemed like for Romero's future with Tottenham just a month ago.

Even though Ange Postecoglou brought the Europa League title - and thus Champions League football - back to Tottenham Hotspur, his future has never been fully predicated upon his success in the continental competition due to Tottenham's horrible Premier League record this season - among other things.

But Postecoglou has bought himself some goodwill with the fans and a more than fair shot at keeping his job for the Champions League season to come. He did his end and brought the trophy to Tottenham, but, now, Postecoglou's future is entirely out of his hands.

According to a report from insider Fabrizio Romano, via Spurs Connect, bringing back executive Fabio Paratici to the Tottenham front office is still one of the priorities for the club in the summer 2025 offseason.

Ange Postecoglou doesn't control his own future

Paratici's future and impending return are as big of a storyline as the questions around Postecoglou's future, and they are absolutely interrelated. Tottenham's Europa League title triumph has more of Paratici's fingerprints on it than Postecoglou's when you look at the quality of players he brought in and how important they were in bringing this trophy home for Spurs.

So Daniel Levy and Tottenham have a lot of trust in Paratici and what he thinks. Paratici isn't stupid, and he knows exactly what level of success to attribute to Postecoglou and where to blame him for this historically woeful Premier League season. Unlike fans and writers like me, Paratici is going to be objective with how he assesses the managerial situation at Tottenham.

But he's going to be subjective in one sense, if brought in as the sporting director again. He will get plenty of say and privilege from Levy in order to be convinced back, and he will know that he has the opportunity to pick whichever manager he wants from those available. And that could end up being the most decisive factor in what leads to Postecoglou's dismissal or retention.

It could all be in Paratici's hands. Most of the speculation has focused on Paratici hiring someone new or being a part of the decision-making team IF Postecoglou is fired, but even before a decision is made on Big Ange, if Tottenham are indeed prioritizing Paratici's return and are actively working to bring him in right at this second, then there is no doubt that they are having two-way conversations about Postecoglou and if Paratici sees a future with him working alongside the current Tottenham boss.

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou is now the hottest topic around the grounds after Spurs secured their third ever Europa League title, securing Champions League football for the 2025/26 season despite finishing a lowly 17th in the Premier League this year.

While Big Ange certainly isn't without his detractors, who were in full force after another humiliating loss in the Premier League over the weekend, there has been an unsurprising warmth emanating from the supporters towards the former Celtic boss after Tottenham's 1-0 triumph over Manchester United in Bilbao.

Already, Postecoglou seems to be acting as if he is a manager leaning more towards staying than going, even as Daniel Levy remains tight-lipped and insiders can only conjure up guesses as to what is happening behind the scenes.

Ange Postecoglou is already looking at the Champions League ahead

Via The Spurs Express, Postecoglo recently told reporters that he believes Tottenham need to sign veteran players in the summer 2025 transfer window with the Champions League on the horizon. His comments come as rumors have stated that Tottenham will not change course from their current strategy of focusing on young players.

Although Spurs were putrid in the Premier League this season, their focus on signing young stars was actually crucial to them winning the Europa League. Brennan Johnson, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Pedro Porro, Destiny Udogie, and Lucas Bergvall were not experienced players when Tottenham bought them, but within just a few seasons they were the core of the team that triumphed continentally in 2025.

Even so, Postecoglou's comments aren't wrong, but, rather, interesting since they represent a strong philosophical difference to a strategy that Tottenham is working on; it's a strategy that does require long-term adherence and has already paid off some short-term gains despite Tottenham's outright futiliity in the Premier League.

Postecoglou may not stay to even influence what Tottenham do on the market, and even if he does secure his job for another season, it will be on such a short leash after this debacle of a Premier League season that Daniel Levy and the real Powers That Be at the Tottenham offices may not listen all that much to Postecoglou's more over-arching wishes than binary "Player X or Player Y" questions to him.

Nonetheless, there are definitely fans who agree with Postecoglou that Tottenham need a veteran signing or two to buoy the young players in a competition like the Champions League, especially if Spurs move on from veteran players like Richarlison, Yves Bissouma, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Cristian Romero (among others) this summer.

Although the meltdowns after a dismal Tottenham Hotspur loss to Brighton in the Premier League this weekend would seem to indicate otherwise, the widespread admiration from Spurs fans for Ange Postecoglou was palpable after the controversial and embroiled manager delivered the club's third ever Europa League triumph and their first title of any kind in nearly two decades.

Postecoglou's future with or without a Europa League title has always been murky, and there's a school of thought that says that Tottenham should make their decision based on the competition with a bigger sample size, especially a bigger sample size of facing high quality opposition. Manchester United, for example, rued their decision to keep Erik ten Hag based on winning the FA Cup.

But the Europa League title is a bigger deal than the FA Cup; the FA Cup is what leads to Europa League qualification, which is how Manchester United got to be the team that Tottenham beat in order to win the Europa League and Champions League.

Tottenham could lose a star player with Big Ange

More importantly, there are more reasons to keep Postecoglou than just philosophy or emotions. According to a report from the Evening Standard's Dan Kilpatrick, keeping Postecoglou possibly increases the chances of Tottenham keeping center back Cristian Romero, who has a close relationship with the coach. Romero's future and willingness to remain with the club could end up being tied with the future of Postecoglou.

At one point, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Romero would leave Tottenham. He was openly flirting with a transfer away from the club, and there was even one rumor stating that he had already agreed to terms with Atletico Madrid.

After his big-game performances in multiple knockout-swinging ties in the Europa League and his status as the competition's literal Player of the Season, there's been a bigger push from Spurs supporters to keep Romero in town, and if that's the case, then those same fans should then have more of an inkling towards keeping Postecoglou, too.

It's hard to be 100 percent Big Ange out, because even if the results in the Premier League have been alarmingly bad and he has serious tactical flaws, he still won the Europa League and has close ties with key players like Romero. Are there any coaches out there better enough than Postecoglou that it is worth losing Romero? Should Tottenham say "screw it" and replace both men? These are the questions Daniel Levy is going to have to answer in the coming days.

Tottenham won the 2024/25 Europa League to salvage what was a historically poor campaign in the Premier League, and the main protagonists were their nucleus of young talent. Winger Brennan Johnson delivered the lone goal in the final against Manchester United, while the center back pairing of MIcky van de Ven and Cristian Romero were unstoppable in the must-win knockout matches against Eintracht Frankfurt, Bodo Glimt, and Man United.

Spurs have learned over years of underperforming that the key is to invest in a nucleus of young players with the potential to become legitimate top stars in the Premier League. It is better to roll the dice on high-upside prospects like Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall and then whiff on them, rather than bloating the squad with overpaid veterans or players with limited potential.

With Champions League football on the horizon after a 17th-placed finish in the Premier League, Tottenham are facing a very pivotal transfer window in the history of their club. According to a report from Football Insider's Pete O'Rourke, Tottenham aren't going to deviate from their new transfer policy of focusing on young gems with high potential. That will be their focus on the market this summer, and they will not bow down to the temptation of short-term signings even with Champions League football returning for them.

Youngsters can help Spurs short-term more than overpaid veterans

It's a wise strategy. As Van de Ven, Bergvall, and others have shown the Spurs faithful over the last couple of years, these young talents are often more likely to immediately contribute than some of the more hyped and more expensive "name-brand" additions, such as Richarlison and Timo Werner. And whereas the latter end up with diminished value and no place in the team, players like Bergvall can only get better and better.

Tottenham just have to make sure they sign the right players and balance their young signings between talents around the teenage years with high future potential and players around the age of 23 who also have great potential but are more ready to start games for a club of Tottenham's stature and ambition within the next season or two.

As long as Tottenham stay the course and don't get discouraged by a couple of flops here and there, the wins on the transfer market will slowly add up into a cohesive, ascending squad with great team chemistry that can be readily refreshed with tuned-in scouting networks year after a year. It's a process that Tottenham have to learn to trust if they want to truly have a team come together that wins titles like the Premier League or Champions League one day.

Tottenham superstar Son Heung-min didn't have the best season of his career in 2024/25, as his numbers plummeted in the second half of the campaign and he was hobbled by a nagging foot injury that needed to take him out of the action for about a month.

But Son came back and pushed through the pain, playing a key role as Tottenham secured a major trophy, taking home the Europa League title from fellow Premier League strugglers Manchester United in Bilbao to punch an unlikely ticket to the Champions League.

Amidst all of this, Son was the subject of some transfer speculation amidst the rise of young loan signing Mathys Tel and his own injury-plagued and mostly down season. Saudi Arabia had previously shown significant interest in a 50 million euro bid for the 32-year-old South Korean superstar, and that would represent a big investment in an aging player that Tottenham could then turn into transfer capital for a young player suiting their now policy.

Son Heung-min could recover his form next season

At the same time, Son is Son, and even though he is 32 and coming off a bad year, there's a sense that not only are his experience and character important to Tottenham, but, also, his numbers weren't any worse than anybody else at Tottenham; his form could potentially recover with better tactics.

It appears Tottenham feel the same way about keeping Son. According to a report from Football Insider's Pete O'Rourke, Tottenham will not be entertaining any transfer offers for their biggest club legend this summer and will be triggering a one-year extension to keep him through the next season. Spurs believe his experience will be additioinally vital with a return to the Champions League.

This transfer news comes after rumors that Tottenham could replace Son with a younger, ambitious Premier League star in his prime. That doesn't appear to be the case, though Son could always be paired with a big name through the sale of other players to fund a move, including Europa League hero Cristian Romero.

As the celebrations continue after Tottenham's historic 1-0 triumph over Manchester United in Wednesday's Europa League Final, more information emanating from the match highlights just how much the players put it all on the line to give Spurs this victory.

According to Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou, both star left winger Son Heung-min and center back Cristian Romero played through injuries or were lacking full fitness in the Europa League Final, via The Spurs Express. Therefore, neither player will be available for Sunday's final Premier League match of the season against Brighton.

Obviously, the match against Brighton carries no real stakes at this point, as the season has been done and dusted for Spurs for quite some time. So Son and Romero will get some deserved rest, and opportunities will go to players like Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso who should be stars of the future for Tottenham.

Cristian Romero has earned more respect

But the bigger takeaway here is how much spirit is in this Tottenham squad. Son's dedication to Spurs is known to everyone, and he was finally able to fight his way back from a foot injury to play the minutes he needed to in the Premier League before the Europa League Final and then did his job well in the match against Manchester United itself.

In addition to Son confirming that he is one of the most important characters in the history of Tottenham, Romero did a lot to put himself back in the good graces of fans. The vice captain became a magnet for criticism after an interview in which he stated he dreamed of a LaLiga transfer, which was shortly followed up with rumors that he had already agreed to a deal to join Atletico Madrid.

While that transfer hasn't come to fruition yet, there are many who feel that Romero is as good as gone at the club, and Tottenham have already been looking at potential transfer replacements at center back, such as Inter Milan star Yann Bisseck and Bologna's underrated Jhon Lucumi.

But Romero has been so important in the Europa League and was such a presence against the Manchester United attack on Wednesday that he is more difficult to get rid of than some Spurs fans would have liked to think. And by playing so well in these games while at less than 100 percent, Romero is showing that he bleeds for Tottenham just as much as any other player despite the hoopla that was made after his rather unwise interview declaration.

Tottenham are Europa League champions and have salvaged something out of a season that would otherwise have been their worst in club history. Now, the focus for Spurs in the back room turns immediately from the celebrations to an offseason of vital decisions and ruthless execution.

One of the key areas for Tottenham to upgrade is the midfield. Although they've unearthed a real gem this season in 19-year-old Lucas Bergvall and have high hopes for Archie Gray, there isn't enough star power in the middle of the park beyond James Maddison in the playmaker role.

A key transfer target for Tottenham is Real Betis standout Johnny Cardoso, for whom Spurs have a 21 million pound release clause. This clause is specially for Tottenham to use this summer as a sweetener in the deal that brought Giovani Lo Celso back to Real Betis last year.

Atletico Madrid seem favored over Tottenham

The problem is that there has been increasing buzz that Cardoso isn't interested in leaving Betis this summer, which would make the clause null and void, leaving the United States international ripe for a potential transfer somewhere else in 2026.

Now to make matters worse, it sounds like one of those competitors is gaining ground. Per a report from MARCA's Isaac Suarez and David G. Medina, Atletico Madrid are showing even more interest in Cardoso as a transfer target this summer, with Diego Simeone and others at the club highly interested in the young midfielder as a less expensive (in wages) alternative to Arsenal veteran Thomas Partey.

Atletico Madrid are a fixture in the Champions League and frequent title contenders in LaLiga. They hold a lot of cachet in world football and in Spain, and if Cardoso enjoys LaLiga, that could be another reason for the American to wait a year in Seville before moving to the capital in 2026.

Tottenham could be doubly annoyed by a Cardoso transfer to Atletico Madrid, since the Rojiblancos have been a rumored landing spot for Rodrigo Bentancur, who could be someone Spurs seek to move in 2026.

Cardoso seems to have designs on clubs other than Tottenham, and even a Europa League triumph may not sway his decision. Tottenham won't want to lose out on a key transfer target to another European power, especially not a young box-to-box midfielder who is one of the best young players ever produced by the United States. Worse yet, Spurs would lose out on a player who has a release clause with them, so Daniel Levy and Co. need to make a move here quickly to try and change things.

Nobody believed him, but Ange Postecoglou delivered on his promise to bring silverware to Tottenham Hotspur in his second season. Now, he has made another bold statement to the fans.

It has become almost impossible for Spurs to move on from Postecoglou after he delivered the Europa League title in Bilbao — Tottenham's first major trophy in 17 years and their first European championship in 41 years.

The players love him, including captain Heung-min Son, and the energy and love during Tottenham's Europa League parade was infectious. It was there, on stage in front of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Postecoglou delivered another promise to the fans.

"I told them, and they laughed. I told them, and they didn't believe. But here we are," said Postecoglou. "I'll tell you something. I'll leave you with this: all the best television series, Season 3 is better than Season 2."

What a line.

Postecoglou famously said he always wins silverware in his second season, and he plans to follow it with an even bigger third year. But wait, will there even be another season?

Ange Postecoglou's comments all but confirm Tottenham return after winning Europa League

For months, it felt like Postecoglou was on borrowed time. Would we have been surprised if Daniel Levy had moved on after the team's 4-0 EFL Cup exit to Liverpool? After their home loss to Leicester City? After needing extra time to eliminate non-league Tamworth in the FA Cup?

Levy stuck with his man, and Ange repaid the faith.

There's surely no way he moves on now, right? The fans showed nothing but love to Postecoglou during the championship celebrations, just like they sang his name in Bilbao on Wednesday.

Perhaps Ange's comments were designed to force Levy's hand, but it seems unlikely he would make such a public promise without knowing his return to N17 was already guaranteed.

He left no uncertainty. There were no cryptic comments. Postecoglou said nothing about hoping to return, and he didn't even hint at the possibility that this was the end of the line.

Ange made it clear: you enjoyed that? Well, Season 3 is even better.

We don't have a crystal ball, but Postecoglou seemingly does. He boldly (and correctly) predicted he would end Spurs' 17-year trophy drought. Now, Ange may have ended the mystery of his future in North London.

Unfortunately, James Maddison didn't get to play in Tottenham's historic Europa League Final triumph over Manchester United in Bilbao. But even though a knee injury kept Maddison out of the match, the top-class Premier League playmaker was still crucial to Spurs getting that far.

Maddison had a great all-around Europa League tournament with three goals and three assists along with 1.7 key passes and three combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per game. In additon to being Tottenham's best playmaker, Maddison was an important secondary source of goals and ball progression, cementing his status as one of the better 10's in European football and someone still able to start in that role in the modern game.

Maybe more importantly for Tottenham fans, Maddison has proven to be an important character in the dressing room who fights for the kit and has embraced the club. An FA Cup winner at Leicester City years after the Foxes had already completed their miracle Premier League win, Maddison is now hoisting the biggest trophy of his career for Tottenham.

James Maddison got the last laugh

What makes that even sweeter is how everyone doubted he'd accomplish exactly that at Spurs. Maddison remembers it too, and he had this to say to the press after the Europa League Final, via the Spurs Express, “When I joined Spurs everyone made the jokes. ‘Ah he’s retired from winning trophies’. I told my dad and my brother I’m going to lift a trophy for Tottenham."

Well, now, Maddison has the last laugh as a European Champion for Tottenham, just two seasons after joining one of the biggest clubs in England.

As if that quote weren't enough, Maddison dropped another gem at the expense of former Manchester United Roy Keane, one of the biggest Tottenham haters and easily among the crustiest of the decadently rotten pie that it is English football punditry, “I wasn’t gonna do any interviews but I heard Roy Keane was in the studio tonight."

Absolutely, brilliant. As bad as this Tottenham team was in the Premier League - and they were literally historically bad - they were still able to win the Europa League, and a lot of that is down to the self-belief of the players and their ability to get the job done in big games.

Maddison, for example, is a playmaker, but he's not a diva at all, which is the stereotype for these talented and technical attacking midfield players. He's someone wiling to be a leader, work hard, play defense, and stick his neck out for his team and the fans. Although these quotes are just words, they symbolize the mentality, fighting spirit, and tongue-in-cheek moxie a player needs to succeed at a club like Tottenham, where embracing the underdog is imperative.