Inside Futbol

Ricardo Moreira/Getty Images

Tottenham Hotspur face needing to improve their offer for Santos star Souza after they had a €10m bid knocked back by the Brazilian side.

Spurs are swinging into action in the January transfer window and have just offloaded Brennan Johnson to Premier League rivals Crystal Palace, bringing in around £35m.

Young defender Kota Takai has been loaned to Borussia Monchengladbach, delighting the German club’s sporting director, while Manor Solomon has vowed to keep Fiorentina in Serie A after swapping Villarreal for the Italians on another loan.

Tottenham also want to do incoming business and they are keen to land Santos’ left-back Souza.

Now Spurs have solidified that interest by putting in an offer for Souza, of €10m, which has been turned down by the Brazilians.

Spurs face needing to improve their offer as, according to Spanish journalist Eduardo Burgos, Santos ‘will not accept’ any offers below €12m to €15m.

Santos are ‘counting on’ Souza and are not keen to offload him, but ‘more offers are expected’ and are likely to test the Brazilian side, who appear to have an idea of the level at which they would do business.

Souza came through the youth set-up at Santos and broke into the first team in 2024.

Left-back Age Souza 19 Gonzalo Escobar 28 Kevyson 21 Vinicius Lira 18 Santos’ left-back options

He helped Santos to a finish of 12th in the Brazilian Serie A last year and further burnished his credentials.

The defender also has interest from AC Milan, who have also tried to reach an agreement to secure his signature.

Tottenham can deploy their superior financial firepower if needed and it may be a question of how badly Spurs want to take the Brazilian to north London this month.

Souza, who is due to turn 20 years old in June, chipped in with two assists and a goal in Brazil’s Serie A last year.

He has been capped by the country at international level, appearing for Brazil’s Under-17s earlier in his career.

Julian Finney/Getty Images

Fixture: Tottenham Hotspur vs Sunderland

Competition: Premier League

Kick-off: 15:00 UK time

Thomas Frank has picked his Tottenham lineup vs Sunderland for this afternoon’s Premier League contest at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The former Brentford boss is continuing to come in for criticism and a dull 0-0 draw away at his old club last time out did nothing to dampen it.

There are concerns that Frank could well be unsuited to the Tottenham job and the draw at Brentford provided his critics with ammunition.

Frank has shrugged off worries over the style of play and insists that Tottenham remain in transition.

He has also made a big call by selling Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace, with the Wales international having regularly provided an attacking threat for Tottenham.

Spurs cult hero Jurgen Klinsmann though has somewhat backed up the decision by explaining in his view, Johnson will not be prolific.

Now Frank must steer Tottenham back to winning ways against Sunderland, a side he feels have ‘done fantastically’ in the Premier League this season, noting their solid backline.

The two sides last met in 2017, playing out a 0-0 draw.

Guglielmo Vicario is between the sticks in the Tottenham lineup vs Sunderland, while to keep things tight at the back, Frank picks Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Ben Davies.

In the centre of the pitch, Tottenham look towards Rodrigo Bentancur and Archie Gray, while Wilson Odobert, Mohammed Kudus and Mathys Tel support Richarlison in attack.

Frank has options off the bench if he needs to change his Tottenham lineup vs Sunderland today and they include Kevin Danso and Lucas Bergvall.

Tottenham Hotspur Lineup vs Sunderland

Vicario, Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Davies, Bentancur, Gray, Kudus, Odobert, Tel, Richarlison

Substitutes: Kinsky, Dragusin, Danso, Palhinha, Bergvall, Spence, Kolo Muani, Scarlett, Williams-Barnett

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Tottenham Hotspur winger Manor Solomon has expressed his optimism about contributing with quality at Fiorentina and claimed that La Viola will survive in Serie A.

On Friday, the London-based club confirmed that they had recalled Solomon from his season-long loan spell at Spanish club Villarreal, where he made five goal contributions in eleven appearances.

Solomon was then sent out to Fiorentina, a club under new sporting director Fabio Paratici, with the move being seen by the Italians as ‘an important first signal’.

At Fiorentina, Solomon will be entrusted with the job of pulling the club out of the dire straits they currently find themselves in, at the bottom of Serie A.

The Florentine club have work to do to pick themselves up, something the Tottenham-contracted man wants to assist with.

Assuring the fans via his first interaction with them, Solomon insisted that he is positive about contributing to the team with his quality.

“I haven’t seen much recently, I’ve just watched a few clips of recent matches”, Solomon told Fiorentina’s media.

Team Points 14th – Cagliari 18 15th – Parma 18 16th – Lecce 17 17th – Genoa 15 18th – Pisa 12 19th – Hellas Verona 12 20th – Fiorentina 9 Bottom of Serie A

“I know the team are going through a tough time, the club want to get out of it, and I’ll try to contribute with quality. I’m sure we can do it.

“It will be a great challenge for me, but also for the team.

“As I said, it’s a tough time, but we’ll bounce back, I’m sure of it.

“We can do much better than this; the team are strong and have an excellent coach, we can do much better in everything.”

Solomon shone brightly for Leeds United last season as he helped the Whites to win the Championship title and earn promotion to the Premier League.

The winger was linked with a return to Leeds in the summer, but no move came about and instead he headed to Spain.

His performances left such an impression on former Leeds manager Simon Grayson that he insisted that opposition defenders felt clueless about how to stop Solomon.

Now the winger will want to help Fiorentina to preserve their Serie A status before then considering his future next summer.

Koji Watanabe/Getty Images

Borussia Monchengladbach sporting director Rouven Schroder has hailed Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Kota Takai for his physicality and speed.

The north Londoners had some defensive issues last season, with the likes of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven spending time on the sidelines due to injury issues.

They also lost Radu Dragusin, but brought in Kevin Danso in the winter transfer window.

Despite having a number of centre-backs on the books, Tottenham still signed young Japanese centre-back Takai from Kawasaki Frontale, after the clubs agreed on a £5m deal for him.

Given the number of options Thomas Frank has to choose from, Takai has not been likely to get the game time needed.

And now they have sent him on loan to Bundesliga club Borussia Monchengladbach for the rest of the campaign.

Die Fohlen’s sporting director, Schroder, has welcomed the 21-year-old Spurs centre-back, who he believes will be able to help the German club immediately.

The 50-year-old is impressed with Takai’s big stature in the backline, as he stressed that the Japanese has good pace to recover balls.

Centre-back option Radu Dragusin Kevin Danso Cristian Romero Micky van de Ven Ben Davies Archie Gray Tottenham’s first team centre-back options

“Kota is a tall, physically strong centre-back who also possesses good speed”, Schroder told Die Fohlen’s official website about the Japan international’s arrival.

“He has what it takes to help us soon.

“We are looking forward to our new number 14.”

The Japanese defender has travelled to Germany to link up with Die Fohlen and trained with his new team-mates.

He will the number 14 shirt for the German top-flight outfit during his loan spell.

Another Spurs defender, in the shape of Luka Vuskovic, is also on loan in the Bundesliga at Hamburg, and he has been receiving praise from his team-mates for his performances.

Vuskovic is very highly rated by the north Londoners, who do not want to sell him permanently; now, he will come up against Takai.

Takai will look to clock regular game time at Die Fohlen, as he will surely aim to be part of Hajime Moriyasu’s Japan squad for the upcoming World Cup.

Koji Watanabe/Getty Images

Bundesliga club Borussia Monchengladbach do not have any option to buy Tottenham Hotspur talent Kota Takai at the end of his loan spell, and talk suggesting otherwise is ‘wide of the mark’, according to journalist Sam Tabuteau.

Tottenham agreed a fee to sign the 21-year-old defender from Kawasaki Frontale last summer and the Japanese is regarded as an exciting prospect for the future in north London.

With Spurs unable to give him enough first team minutes, they have decided to let him head to Bundesliga side Gladbach on loan for the remainder of the campaign.

It has been suggested in Germany that Eugen Polanski’s team have an option to buy Takai at the end of the loan, which would give rise to the prospect of Takai’s leaving Tottenham without having ever kicked the ball for them on the pitch.

However, Tottenham have not agreed to include an option to buy in the loan deal.

Talk otherwise is ‘wide of the mark’ and Takai, 21, will be playing for Gladbach as part of a simple loan agreement.

It remains to be seen if Tottenham are open to extending the loan next summer in the event that Takai makes an impact in Germany with Gladbach.

Game Competition Hannover Friendly Augsburg (H) Bundesliga Hoffenheim (A) Bundesliga Gladbach’s next three games

At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Takai finds himself down the pecking order with the likes of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven being ahead of him.

Takai, a Japan international, will be keen to play as much as he can to keep his international ambitions firmly on track.

Having played for Japan from Under-15 level, Takai has long been marked out as a player who can make a difference for the Blue Samuari.

He joins a Gladbach team sitting in 12th spot in the Bundesliga and hoping for an improvement in the second half of the campaign.

Gladbach are due to host Augsburg on 11th January in their next outing.

Carl Recine/Getty Images

Everton and Sunderland were keen on landing Brennan Johnson from Tottenham Hotspur, but Crystal Palace successfully fought them off, according to the News Shopper.

The Wales international has completed a £35m move to Crystal Palace from Spurs, handing Oliver Glasner another attacking weapon.

Johnson, who could now make his Eagles debut against Newcastle United this weekend, did have other options though and could have headed elsewhere.

Everton boss David Moyes was keen to take him to Merseyside, while Sunderland wanted to put Johnson at the disposal of Regis Le Bris.

Johnson wanted to stay in London, which joining Crystal Palace has ensured, while he is also keen to play in the club’s Conference League campaign.

Neither Everton or Sunderland could offer European football and their attempts to land Johnson fell on deaf ears.

Scoring goals on a consistent basis has remained a real issue for Everton, with in December, Richard Keys bemoaning how blunt the Toffees were looking.

Landing Johnson could have boosted Everton and it remains to be seen where else they might now look during this month’s transfer window.

Sunderland have lost a number of players to the Africa Cup of Nations, but Le Bris’ side still picked up a point against Manchester City on New Year’s Day.

Le Bris has insisted Sunderland will be opportunistic in the transfer window and the Black Cats boss looks to have seen Johnson as an opportunity.

Despite Sunderland sitting a lofty seventh in the Premier League standings, just a place and a point above Everton, their goal difference is just plus two.

With only 20 goals scored, Sunderland have managed the same number of goals as Moyes’ goal-shy Everton side.

It is also a total which is a whopping ten fewer than the next nearest scorers above them in the Premier League table and is likely to be viewed as an improvement area by Le Bris.

Even third from bottom West Ham United have found the back of the net more times than Everton and Sunderland have this season.

The Hammers are also in the process of adding to their attack in this month’s window.

Naomi Baker/Getty Images

Tottenham Hotspur ‘do hold an interest’ in tenage Santos left-back Souza, according to journalist Tom Barclay.

The north Londoners endured a difficult last season in the league, despite winning the Europa League under former boss Ange Postecoglou, which booked a Champions League ticket.

The Australian was sacked for Thomas Frank, but already one former Tottenham star thinks the ex-Brentford boss is not the right fit.

Spurs signed the likes of Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus in the summer window, while completing key loans of Joao Palhinha and Randal Kolo Muani.

However, they are struggling with proper left-back options, as Italian star Destiny Udogie has not been able to get rid of his injury issues consistently.

Experienced Welsh defender Ben Davies can also play as a left-back, but the ageing star is being looked at by Nice.

Frank has played England defender Djed Spence at left-back, while young versatile star Archie Gray has been deployed in a makeshift left-sided full-back role.

Left-back option Destiny Udogie Djed Spence Ben Davies Archie Gray Tottenham’s left-back options

Spurs currently sit 12th in the league table, and are looking to do some business this month; they started the window by selling Brennan Johnson, who is expected to play against Newcastle United this weekend.

It remains to be seen if they will look to replace the Welshman this month, but they are keen on bringing in a new left-back.

And now it has been confirmed that the north Londoners ‘do hold an interest’ in teenage Brazilian left-back Souza.

The 19-year-old full-back plays for Brazilian Serie A club Santos, where he teams up with Neymar.

His talent has been recognised for a while in Brazil, as he featured for Brazil’s Under-17 side, making 12 appearances for his nation.

In the recently concluded Brazilian Serie A season, he featured for the first team and for the Santos Under-20 side; he has played 38 senior games for Alvinegro Praiano.

Souza’s contract runs until the end of 2028 and it remains to be seen if Spurs will look to make a move for the 19-year-old this month.

Michael Steele/Getty Images

Tottenham Hotspur winger Manor Solomon is ‘arriving in the city’ as he is set to join Serie A strugglers Fiorentina under their new sporting director Fabio Paratici, with the move viewed by the Italians as ‘an important first signal’.

The Israeli winger made his name on loan at fellow Premier League club Fulham and joined Spurs on a free transfers in the summer of 2023.

However, he did not make any impact at the north Londoners, as in more than two and a half years on Tottenham’s books, Solomon has just six senior appearances for them.

Last year, he was on loan at Leeds United in the Championship, and played a key part in helping the Whites get back in the top-flight, scoring ten goals and providing 12 goals in the league.

His performances in the Championship were hailed by a former Leeds boss, who stressed that Solomon’s trickery left Championship defenders clueless.

Last summer, Crystal Palace were interested in the Israeli who also had interest from Marseille, but he ended up going on loan to Villarreal; Leeds were also keen.

Solomon, though, could not break into Marcelino’s Villarreal team, as he clocked a little more than 350 minutes at the La Liga club, scoring only once.

Country Israel Ukraine England Spain Countries in which Manor Solomon has played

And now he is ending his loan spell at the Yellow Submarine, as he is set to join Serie A strugglers Fiorentina on loan for the rest of the campaign.

Paratici, who left Tottenham recently for La Viola, is set to make Solomon his first signing to help Fiorentina stay up.

And, he is expected to arrive this morning in Italy to join Paolo Vanoli’s La Viola, according to Italian journalist Dimitri Conti.

Paratici’s arrival at Fiorentina has been expected to be a ‘revolution’ for the relegation-threatened La Viola, who are taking early steps to keep themselves safe.

The Florence club are currently 20th in the league table, with one win and ten losses in 17 Serie A games; their only win came recently against Udinese in a 5-1 victory.

Solomon will join La Viola on loan with an option to buy from Tottenham, even though the financial aspects of the buy option are still not known.

His contract ends in the summer of 2028 at Spurs and the London club will look to secure a transfer fee for the Israeli next summer to strengthen their kitty.

Eddie Keogh/Getty Images

Fixture: Brentford vs Tottenham Hotspur

Competition: Premier League

Kick-off: 20:00 UK time

Thomas Frank has picked his Tottenham lineup vs Brentford, as he looks to get the better of his former club on his return to the Bees’ home ground.

The Tottenham boss managed to steer his side to a win at Crystal Palace last time out, but it only came by the most slender of margins, thanks to an Archie Gray goal in the first half.

It was not enough to make sure Tottenham finished 2025 in the top half of the league table and with seven league defeats already, there remain serious questions over whether Frank is the right manager for Spurs.

With the transfer window now open, Spurs are expected to do business and Frank is looking to offload Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace.

The decision has sparked real debate, but one Tottenham cult figure believes Johnson is just not capable of delivering 20 goals a season.

Experienced Spurs defender Ben Davies is also drawing interest, with French side Nice keen on him.

Tottenham beat Brentford 2-0 in the earlier meeting between the two sides this season and if they cannot grab another three points this evening then they would host Sunderland next out under fresh pressure.

Guglielmo Vicario is between the sticks in the Tottenham lineup vs Brentford, while in defence, Frank decides to play Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence.

The engine room is set to be a key battleground tonight and Frank goes with Archie Gray and Joao Palhinha, while Rodrigo Bentancur also plays.

Mohammed Kudus, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison lead the attacking threat this evening.

If Frank needs to chop and change his Tottenham lineup vs Brentford then he can look to his bench, where options available to him include Mathys Tel and Randal Kolo Muani.

Tottenham Hotspur Lineup vs Brentford

Vicario, Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Spence, Bentancur, Gray, Palhinha, Kudus, Richarlison, Odobert

Substitutes: Kinsky, Austin, Dragusin, Danso, Tel, Davies, Kolo Muani, Scarlett, Olusesi

Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Tottenham Hotspur cult hero Jurgen Klinsmann believes Brennan Johnson has talent and potential but has not yet established himself as a proven goalscorer, as Crystal Palace look to prise him away from N17.

Johnson has made 16 Premier League appearances for Spurs under Thomas Frank this season, scoring two goals, while also netting once in both the Champions League and the EFL Cup.

Last season, under Ange Postecoglou, Johnson enjoyed his most productive spell at Tottenham, finishing as the club’s top scorer with 18 goals across all competitions, the only campaign in which he reached double figures for the Lilywhites, and famously netting the Europa League final winner.

Postecoglou was a firm fan of Johnson and stressed he had much growth left in him.

Tottenham are now open to selling the 24-year-old, who joined the club for nearly £50m in 2023, and have accepted a bid from Crystal Palace for him.

Now the ball is in Johnson’s court over if he wants to go, while he also has interest from other sides.

Klinsmann feels that Frank will be keen to get the players he wants in the January transfer window, though it remains unclear which areas of the squad will be targeted.

He stressed the need for the club’s management to back the manager, while warning that competition for top targets will be fierce, with other clubs also looking to strengthen.

Job Reign Germany 2004-2006 Bayern Munich 2008-2009 United States 2011-2016 Hertha Berlin 2019-2020 South Korea 2023-2024 Jurgen Klinsmann’s managerial career

On Johnson, the Spurs cult hero acknowledged the forward’s talent and potential, but questioned his goalscoring reliability, saying he has yet to demonstrate he can churn out 20 to 25 goals a season amid mounting talk of his exit.

Klinsmann said on ESPN FC (37:19): “Yes, I hope for him [Frank] that he gets, you know, whoever he has in mind, that he gets that opportunity to take that player.

“I don’t know who he has in mind, in which part of the team. If it’s a forward, if it’s a midfielder, if it’s whatever he needs, and I hope that the management there is with him and gives him that opportunity.

“But obviously it’s going to be a race for the best out there in January.

“Not only Spurs will go into the transfer market.

“There will be other teams digging a little bit deeper and figuring out a way, maybe, to get one or two real enforcements for their squad.

“But I think, from the outside looking in, it’s very difficult.

“Brennan Johnson, for me, is a player that obviously has a huge potential, has an enormous amount of talent, but he’s not a proven goalscorer.

“He doesn’t give you 20, 25 goals a season, so it will be interesting to see if they move him on.”

If the Welshman moves on, Frank could be better positioned to strengthen his squad with attackers that suit his plans for the rest of the season, possibly targeting a more reliable goalscorer.