Football365

Heung-min Son admits Rodrigo Bentancur “made a mistake” but knows his Tottenham team-mate meant no harm when he made “a very bad joke” that actually just sounded racist.

Bentancur apologised to the South Korea international and Tottenham captain for the “joke” he made on Uruguayan television.

Bentancur had been asked by the host of the Canal 10 show for a Spurs player’s shirt, to which he replied: “Sonny’s? It could be Sonny’s cousin too as they all look the same.”

Bentancur swiftly wrote an apology on Instagram after the clip went viral on social media. He said: “Sonny brother! I apologise to you for what happened, it was just a very bad joke!

“You know I love you and I would never disrespect you or hurt you or anyone else! I love you, brother!”

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Despite this, discrimination charity Kick It Out said a “significant number” of reports had been received by the organisation.

A statement from the charity read: “Kick It Out has received a significant number of reports about Rodrigo Bentancur’s comments regarding his Tottenham team-mate Son Heung-min. These reports have already been sent to the club and relevant authorities.

“We recognise Bentancur has acknowledged the offence caused, however it highlights a wider issue that heavily affects East Asian and wider communities.

“We will be seeking to address these broader issues in the coming season.”

Both Tottenham and Son published statements on Thursday morning, with the latter confirming he has spoken to Bentancur, who “would not mean to ever intentionally say something offensive”.

“I’ve spoken with Rodrigo Bentancur,” the Spurs captain said. “He made a mistake, he knows this and has apologised.

“Lolo would not mean to ever intentionally say something offensive. We are brothers and nothing has changed at all.

“We’re past this, we’re united, and we will be back together in pre season to fight for our club as one.”

Spurs said in a statement: “Following a comment from Rodrigo Bentancur in an interview video clip and the player’s subsequent public apology, the Club has been providing assistance in ensuring a positive outcome on the matter. This will include further education for all players in line with our diversity, equality and inclusion objectives.

“We fully support that our captain Sonny feels that he can draw a line under the incident and that the team can focus on the new season ahead.

“We are extremely proud of our diverse, global fanbase and playing squads. Discrimination of any kind has no place at our Club, within our game or within wider society.”

According to reports, Tottenham Hotspur have had a £40m offer for Manchester United target Ivan Toney ‘rejected’ by Premier League rivals Brentford.

Toney is attracting interest from several Premier League clubs and is expected to leave Brentford during this summer’s transfer window.

Toney to Spurs or Man Utd?

The England international scored 20 Premier League goals for Brentford last season, but he missed most of the 2023/24 campaign as he was serving a nine-month ban for breaching betting rules.

The Brentford forward made his return at the start of this year. He struggled during the run-in as he only scored four goals in his 17 Premier League appearances.

So Toney was somewhat fortunate to be included in Gareth Southgate’s final 26-man squad for Euro 2024, but he is presumably behind Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins in the pecking order.

Toney has been heavily linked with Man Utd in recent days and it’s been suggested that the 28-year-old has become their ‘priority target’.

Man Utd need to sign a striker to take some pressure off of Rasmus Hojlund, but they could miss out on Toney as they face competition from Premier League rivals in the race to sign the forward.

Tottenham did not sign a natural replacement for Kane last summer after he left his boyhood club to join Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in a deal worth around £86m.

Spurs instead spent around £50m to sign Brennan Johnson. The Welshman and Ange Postecoglou’s other attacking options coped pretty well without Kane, but they are in the market for a new forward this summer.

Toney is an attractive option as he is proven in the Premier League and available for an affordable fee as his current Brentford contract will expire in 2025.

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According to a report from Football Transfers, Tottenham have ‘had a bid rejected’ by Brentford, but Toney has ‘agreed terms’ with the London club.

‘Sources reveal that while the England international has accepted a wage offer, Spurs’ £40 million bid was rejected by the West London club. Brentford are asking for a fee of £65m but it is understood that an offer of £55m would secure the deal.

‘We are told that Spurs have the financial capability to outbid any competitors for the Bees hitman. However, the available funds will need to be carefully managed, as the Lilywhites plan to bring in five new signings to boost their chances of securing Champions League football next season.

‘Toney is manager Ange Postecoglou’s priority target to replace the departed Harry Kane, so Tottenham are expected to continue talks in the coming weeks.’

Manchester United and Tottenham have both indicated they are willing to pay the £60m release clause in Eberechi Eze’s Crystal Palace contract.

Eze, 25, is available for that price plus future payable add-ons and several Premier League clubs have been linked with a move for the player.

The former Queens Park Rangers man, who moved to Palace in 2020 for less than £20m, enjoyed a superb season, scoring 11 league goals with four assists in just 27 games.

Man Utd and Tottenham circle for Eze?

That form convinced Gareth Southgate to select him for the England Euro 2024 squad, and he is currently in Germany preparing to begin the tournament against Serbia on Sunday.

He is in contention to start on the left of midfield after doing so in the first England warm-up match, a 3-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina at St James’ Park on June 3.

According to Football Insider, both United and Spurs believe the clause in Eze’s contract is worth paying and have joined the race to tempt him away from Selhurst Park.

Palace enjoyed a strong end to the season under manager Oliver Glasner after the German replaced Roy Hodgson in February.

The Eagles went on to finish 10th, and after a 4-0 win over United at the back end of the campaign, Glasner made it clear he didn’t want to lose either Eze or Michael Olise, who has also been linked with a big move away, without a fight.

“It’s the job of the club to keep all the players. I know they’ll try everything possible,” he said.

“You never know how your squad will look when the next season starts. They’re amazing players, this is an amazing group.”

Big changes are expected at Manchester United in the first summer under part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new approach to football operations. But Eze would face serious competition were he to make the move to Old Trafford, with Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford operating in similar areas.

Mason Mount, who endured a difficult season with injury after a big-money move from Chelsea, will be looking to make an impact next year.

While at Tottenham, Ange Postecoglou has spoken about big changes to his squad, and the signing of James Maddison from Leicester City last summer was a huge statement of intent. Adding Eze could be a really exciting prospect in North London.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur has apologised to team-mate Son Heung-Min after saying all South Koreans “look the same”.

Bentancur has been criticised after making a racist joke when asked about Son during a recent appearance on Uruguayan TV.

“I apologise to you for what happened…”

After an interviewer asked Bentancur for Son’s short, the Tottenham midfielder said they should take the jersey from the cousin of South Korea star Son as “they all look the same”.

Bentancur has since apologised to Son over social media. He said: “Sony brother! I apologise to you for what happened, it was just a very bad joke!

“You know what I love you and I would never disrespect you or hurt you or anyone else! I love you, brother!”

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Son grabbed 17 goals and ten assists in his 36 appearances for Spurs across all competitions during the 2023/24 season but his future is in doubt as his contract is due to expire in 2025.

The 31-year-old has been heavily linked with Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce of late and he admits he “feels uncomfortable” with his “situation” at Tottenham.

“I have not had any exchanges with the club,” Son said.

“I don’t have anything to say at this point. I feel a little uncomfortable with the situation.

“I am going to keep doing my best for Tottenham. I still have terms left on my contract. Money is not important to me.

“The most important thing is to play in a league that I enjoy playing in. I have so much more I want to accomplish in the Premier League.”

Mourinho got the best out of Son when they worked together at Tottenham and the experienced manager is convinced that the forward “could play for the best teams” in the world.

“I don’t look at Son as a Korean player,” Mourinho said. “I look at Son as one of the best players in the world. Maybe Tottenham supporters aren’t going to be happy with what I’m going to say, it’s not disrespectful.

“He could win titles, he could play for the best teams. He could be playing in England for Man City, for Liverpool, for Chelsea. It could be abroad playing for one of the top teams.

“He has that modern mobility of the attacking players. He can play through the middle, from the sides, wide to coming inside.”

New Fenerbahce manager Jose Mourinho has reportedly identified Tottenham midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg as one of his first transfer targets at the club.

Fenerbahce will be Mourinho’s 10th different assignment as a manager. And given the success he’s had at bigger clubs, it would be no surprise if he were to dominate in Turkey.

To do that, the legendary boss is looking into the signings of some big names, and he’s looking back to one of his old clubs for one of them.

Mourinho wants Hojbjerg reunion

Indeed, reports suggest Mourinho has identified Tottenham midfielder Hojbjerg as one of his first transfer targets as Fenerbahce boss.

While rivals Galatasaray are also apparently keen, Mourinho wants to battle them for the midfielder’s signature.

The manager is clearly a big fan of Hojbjerg, as he was the man who signed him for Tottenham from Southampton in 2020.

The Dane has since racked up 184 Spurs appearances, but might have played the last of his games in north London. Indeed, after a deal for him to leave fell through last summer, Atletico Madrid are once again in the mix.

And they are said to be hopeful of securing a deal for the £15million-rated midfield man.

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But that he’s top of Mourinho’s list at Fenerbahce, it seems the Turkish side will put up a good fight to hijack the Atletico move.

And the midfielder himself is seemingly keen on playing under his former boss again. Indeed, it’s said the prospect of reuniting with Mourinho is one that appeals to him.

As such, it might well be that Fenerbahce are able to get past the competition and snare the Tottenham man given all they have going for them in the pursuit.

Tottenham Hotspur have been slammed by Shakhtar CEO Serhiy Palkin, with the Premier League side accused of “taking advantage of the war” in Ukraine.

Manor Solomon, 24, left Shakhtar Donetsk to join Tottenham on a free transfer during last summer’s transfer window.

“They have taken advantage of the war…”

This transfer came about after he impressed for Fulham during his loan spell at Craven Cottage during the 2022/23 campaign.

Solomon was contracted to Shakhtar until the end of 2023 but Spurs were able to sign him on a free transfer after FIFA gave all non-Ukrainian nationals playing in that country permission to suspend their contracts amid the ongoing war with Russia.

Shakhtar feel Spurs should have at least added a sizable sell-on clause in the deal for Solomon so the Ukrainian side can be compensated for his exit at a later date.

Injuries meant Solomon only made five Premier League appearances for Tottenham during his debut season, but Palkin has hit out at Ange Postecoglou’s side in a fiery interview with The Telegraph.

Palkin “feels very bad towards Tottenham” as he has accused the Premier League outfit of “taking advantage of the war”.

“I am feeling very bad towards Tottenham,” said Palkin.

“I cannot believe this kind of club with a huge history – not just European level, world level – that they can behave like this. From my point of view, it’s not acceptable behaviour. They have taken advantage of the war.

“Maybe if this was a very small club in Europe with not much money or whatever, maybe I could understand it. But Tottenham? Tottenham. How is it possible?”

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“It’s very strange that everybody says we are one football family, when one of the top clubs receives a player free of charge and the market value of this player is up to €25 million (£21.15 million). We invested in this player and developed this player for this kind of value.

“I even said to Tottenham: ‘Guys, I don’t need money for him now. Let’s have some kind of sell-on fee in the future like 30 or 40 per cent. That would be enough for us.’ But they said: ‘No, no, we cannot give you. We’ll give you 10 per cent.’ I said: ‘Guys, that’s not serious.’ Giving us 10 per cent is not respectful. You behave not like the football family. You behave like a robber on the road. It’s not correct. Therefore, at this moment we will see the next steps.

“We have stopped any negotiations with Tottenham. We are concentrating on a court case against Lyon and we will see the result of that and after that, we will make a decision about what kind of steps we will take against Tottenham.”

Palkin has also compared Spurs with Real Madrid as the La Liga champions did not “want to play dirty games”.

“We have two sides, a legal side and a moral side,” said Palkin. “The court will decide the legal side. About the moral side, when I talked with Tottenham, I talked about the moral part of this case.

“We have some players, Vinicius Tobias at Real Madrid and Maycon at Corinthians. Those clubs, they wanted to take our players, but they came to us and said: ‘OK, we can take them for free but we don’t want to play these dirty games.’

“Instead, they offered to pay us for loans. Real Madrid took our player and paid us for two years. Corinthians did the same. You see the difference between Real Madrid and Tottenham? The management of Real Madrid behaved themselves and how did Tottenham behave?”

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