Sport Witness

According to a claim in the Turkish media, Galatasaray are showing interest in Tottenham Hotspur defender Ben Davies.

With just five days left of the Super Lig transfer window, the Turkish champions are still looking to add to their squad and the Tottenham veteran has emerged as a target.

Takvim today report Galatasaray are looking to switch to a back five after the arrival of Victor Osimhen from Napoli, and the Wales international is seen as an ideal candidate to play in this system.

Originally arriving as a left back from Swansea City in 2014, Davies has been used at times as part of a back five.

With his lack of games so far this season, Takvim say Galatasaray are looking to take advantage of the situation of the player’s situation with the Premier League side. With Davidson Sanchez also at the club it’s hoped Davies can link up with him again.

Last season the 31-year-old made 19 appearances for Tottenham but has yet to feature in this campaign. He’s contracted to the English club until June 2025.

Two months ago, we covered claims from Italy that Tottenham Hotspur made contacts for US Lecce’s Patrick Dorgu. The Premier League side didn’t make take further steps to sign the left-back in the summer window.

Spurs continue to have the 19-year-old on their radar if the latest reports from Italy are to be believed.

Quotidiano di Puglia, a newspaper local to Lecce, points out Tottenham looked at him in the last window.

The fullback scored on his debut for Denmark in their 2-0 win over Switzerland in the UEFA Nations League last week.

When discussing interested parties, Ange Postecoglou’s side are mentioned. It’s claimed they are ‘ready to launch an attack’ to secure his services.

The report indicates it may be ‘too late’ if Tottenham or any other interested club to wait until the end of this season. Therefore, these clubs ‘will act right now’ to start negotiations with Lecce for the Dane.

Quotidiano di Puglia states Lecce technical director Pantaleo Corvino will need at least €30m for Dorgu.

Granit Xhaka and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg are no strangers to having midfield battles, with the pair locking horns multiple times whilst at Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

Xhaka left Arsenal just over a year ago and has since enjoyed great success with Bayer Leverkusen, picking up trophies in his first season with the club. Hojbjerg departed Tottenham this summer, heading for what he hopes is more prominence at Marseille and a fight for titles.

There was an opportunity for old Arsenal-Tottenham rivalries to get another airing as Denmark played Switzerland on Thursday evening.

The two midfielders were big features in the game, with Xhaka getting sent off for a second yellow card after 87 minutes, and Hojbjerg then scoring Denmark’s second, to make the game safe, in injury time.

Xhaka was furious after the match. It was an altercation with Hojbjerg which saw him sent off, and then he had to see his rival score.

Quoted by Swiss website 4-4-2 after his side’s 2-0 defeat, Xhaka accused the Danes as showing no respect during the game: “In football, the word respect is very important. But what the Danes showed today has nothing to do with respect. We behaved in an exemplary manner in the first half. When a Danish player was on the ground, we kicked the ball out. In the second half, the Danish players see that Breel Embolo is on the ground. But they don’t play the ball out and we concede the 0:1. The rest is history.”

Xhaka was shown a yellow card for his protests after Denmark captain Hojbjerg didn’t tell his team to kick the ball out of play, and a few minutes later he was cautioned again after a late challenge on midfielder.

You can take the boy out of the North London Derby, but you can’t take the North London Derby out of the boy.

It’s become the general tradition that when a footballer joins a new club, is promoted to the first team, or makes their first squad appearance for the national side, that they’re often expected to put on a show.

Now just on the pitch, but off it too. Singing initiations have increasingly become the norm, and the poor player involved has to stand on a table and belt out a song whilst all his new teammates usually laugh at him.

It was no different for Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Bergvall. Having agreed a deal to join Spurs earlier, the Sweden international arrived this summer and was presented his turn with the stage.

Unfortunately for the Tottenham youngster, it didn’t go well at all.

Speaking to Aftonbladet, the 18-year-old said: “I sang Abbas’s “Dancing Queen”. It was really, really bad. I was booed afterwards.”

Now he knows it’s going to have to happen with Sweden as well, being a new boy for the national team. He’s plainly not looking forward to it, but at least he’ll have Dejan Kulusevski there to look after him.

Tottenham’s Lucas Bergvall is quickly making a case for being one of the best youngsters in the Premier League.

He played for the club during pre-season and impressed Ange Postecoglou to the point that he’s featured in all three league games so far this season.

Bergvall has shown glimpses of his ability to move the ball forward and beat the opposition press. His reliance on those abilities recently led to an on-pitch verbal volley from Spurs teammate Guglielmo Vicario during the club’s 1-1 draw against Leicester City.

In an interview with Aftonbladet, Bergvall was asked about the incident and didn’t seem too concerned about it.

“Sometimes you do worse things, sometimes you do better things. We had 1-0 and a fairly comfortable lead. We conceded for 1-1 and that’s what happens. All is calm now. We have talked about it. Vicario said that there are hot feelings and things like that that happen.”

The youngster further said: “Everyone makes mistakes,”

Bergvall had given the ball away in a dangerous area in the build-up to a Vicario and that is why the Italian wasn’t too happy with his younger teammate.

Vicario received a little criticism after the match, with some feeling he went too far considering Lucas Bergvall is just 18-years-of-age and finding his feet at Spurs and in English football.

The youngster himself doesn’t appeared bothered by it at all, indeed he doesn’t appear to be fazed by anything.

Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United all ‘came knocking’ for RB Leipzig’s Lois Openda this summer, with a future transfer very much on the cards.

That’s according to SportBILD, who start the hype for the Belgian today after his impressive performance in the 3-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen.

The newspaper explains that Openda ‘almost singlehandedly’ took down Leverkusen with two goals in the game, which ended Leverkusen’s year-long run without a defeat in the Bundesliga.

It was a real statement of intent from Leipzig and a demonstration of Openda’s abilities, which have already been noticed in Europe.

SportBILD say he is already ‘on the wish lists’ of Europe’s richest clubs and Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United all came knocking this summer.

They were turned away by the striker as he made it clear he didn’t want to move this summer. That could change if his ‘performance curve’ continues on an upward trajectory though.

Any club that wishes to buy him will need in excess of €75m to do so as there’s no release clause in his current deal and he is therefore ‘freely negotiable’ as far as Leipzig are concerned. But the Germans would welcome a ‘mega sale’ of that nature to balance the books.

That means there’s a deal there to be done at some point and Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United have already shown an interest according to SportBILD.

That might just be a case of SportBILD throwing Premier League names into the mix to build up hype at this point, something they’re happy to do a lot of the time for their clubs, but Openda is certainly a name to keep an eye on moving forwards, particularly if he continues scoring.

Lucas Bergvall has enjoyed a good start to his Tottenham Hotspur career, after arriving at the north London club in the summer.

The 18-year-old has made three appearances in the league this season. He’s received praise from Ange Postecoglou and a section of the English media, and is a growing favourite for fans.

Bergvall has stated he wants to use the Tottenham manager’s praise as a motivation to improve his game.

He’s currently at the Sweden camp, preparing for the UEFA Nations League games against Azerbaijan and Estonia. The midfielder had a chat with Aftonbladet, specifically about a recent social media issue.

Last month, there were some accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, impersonating the Sweden international. Tottenham issued a statement about these “fake accounts” and acted quickly to get them banned from the platform.

The teenager doesn’t have an account on X, and has now said that he only uses Instagram. Bergvall says the drama hasn’t impacted him and he gave an insight into how the Premier League side dealt with this case.

“Not really [affected him], actually. Tottenham solved it quickly. I know it’s not me, they know it too and have reported it,” he said.

“I saw that they had brought it up and they asked me if it was me. I also posted on my Instagram which is the only social media I really use. They saw that someone had posted some pictures and then they deleted it.”

Aftonbladet reports the Tottenham midfielder felt the saga wasn’t ‘unpleasant’ but nothing to be really bothered about.

Tottenham Hotspur’s Alfie Devine is set to join KVC Westerlo on a loan deal.

That’s according to Gazet van Antwerpen, who state Spurs have ‘reached an agreement’ with the Belgian club for the 20-year-old’s transfer.

Westerlo can sign the Tottenham player as the transfer window in Belgium closes on Friday.

In September 2023, Spurs agreed a deal with Hajduk Split for Luka Vušković to arrive in north London in summer 2025.

The Jupiler Pro League side took 17-year-old on loan from Hajduk Split in July. They had also held talks with Tottenham for the Croatian. It’s claimed the two clubs are in contact every week and a Spurs scout has been following Vušković’s development at Westerlo.

Since then, Westerlo have maintained a ‘good relationship’ with the Premier League side, which has helped them find an agreement for Devine. The attacking midfielder will have to undergo medical tests and sign the contract for the transfer to be made official.

The Spurs official who has been following the Croatian, will soon have another player to keep an eye on at Westerlo.

The England U20 international was on loan at Port Vale and Plymouth Argyle last season. His deal at Spurs lasts until 2027.

Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Bergvall has told Göteborgs-Posten that Dejan Kulusevski has helped him settle in quickly in north London.

Back in February, Spurs agreed a deal with Djurgårdens IF for the 18-year-old midfielder’s transfer. Kulusevski had earlier revealed that he played a role in convincing his compatriot to join Tottenham.

Bergvall and the forward are currently with the Sweden national team, preparing for the UEFA Nations League fixtures.

The youngster has adapted well at Tottenham and revealed that the former Juventus man has played a role in this.

“He has helped me a lot on and off the pitch. A good person and an incredibly good footballer,” he said.

Tottenham’s summer arrival has also had a chat with Fotbollskanalen, where he has talked about the support he has received from the 23-year-old.

“I have received an incredible amount of help. He’s a fantastic person and player, who has helped me get into the group and everything around it,” Bergvall explained.

When Fotbollskanalen asked Bergvall about the most important advice he received from his compatriot, he said: “Haha, I don’t know, more generally an extra support if you have a tougher training. It could be a gym session or exercises. He helps, it can be anything.”

There were suggestions that a move from Djurgårdens to Tottenham would be too big a step for the youngster, and he would be sent out on loan this season. That didn’t happen and he made his way into Ange Postecoglou’s plans.

“You don’t know that beforehand. There was a lot of speculation, and it didn’t turn out that way. I feel like I’ve settled in well in the group and have gained the confidence of the coach,” the Swede said.

Tottenham will receive €5m plus another €1m each year for the next four years for Giovani Lo Celso, if Real Betis qualify for the Champions League.

That’s according to journalist Alonso Rivero, who provides details on the transfer today and how much Tottenham will actually receive for the Argentine.

Lo Celso completed a return to Betis on deadline day last week, bringing an end to a miserable spell at Tottenham following his move from the Spanish side in July 2020.

He had been linked with a move away from Tottenham throughout the summer as he was in the final year of his deal and not a part of Ange Postecoglou’s plans. Betis’ financial situation meant they played the long game, though, waiting until the end of the window to get Lo Celso for a fee they could afford.

There has been a difference in the reporting in Spain and England on the financials of the deal, with reports in the former keeping the fee low, around €5m, while the latter have Tottenham getting closer to €10m.

Rivero now explains that both are technically true, reporting that Betis have paid Tottenham an initial €5m fixed fee for the Argentine midfielder.

However, the Spanish side will have to pay €1m each year that they qualify for the Champions League for the next four years, although is dependent on Lo Celso playing at least half of the games.

So, they could end up paying €9m in total if they qualify for the Champions League in each of the next four seasons and Lo Celso plays in half of the games.

Thus, it seems, both fees are correct, although it will take an impressive four-year spell for Betis if Tottenham are to get the latter.