What Tottenham’s spending spree tells us about new-look Spurs under Thomas Frank
As Thomas Frank gave his first thoughts on the Tottenham team he has taken over, the temptation was to assume his initial recruitment drive would be focused on the defensive half of his new side.
"They've clearly shown over the last two seasons that the ability to score goals is fantastic,” he said; the numbers showed Tottenham scored as many times in finishing 17th in the Premier League as Chelsea did in coming fourth. “I know the ethos and the history of the club is massive on attacking football, and I think there's so much attacking talent in the squad.”
A month on, there seems to be rather more attacking talent. Frank’s first major signing, albeit after a loan that meant he was part of the squad the Dane inherited, was Mathys Tel. His second – albeit after the £5m acquisition of the young Japanese defender Kota Takei – was Mohammed Kudus. His third, despite Nottingham Forest’s complaints about Spurs’ approach and suggestions of legal action, could be Morgan Gibbs-White. It would amount to a £150m overhaul to Tottenham’s creative contingent; a £150m upgrade, perhaps. At 20, 24 and 25, they look the shape of Spurs’ future.
They also connect with the past in a way that Frank referenced. It can be too easy to brand every flair player a footballer in Tottenham’s truest traditions. There are nevertheless reasons to feel that Gibbs-White and Kudus are; they seem to bring a promise of excitement. Tottenham teams are – famously – not all winners, but they have a duty to be watchable. Without a game being played, the early evidence is that Frank’s side will be.
The newcomers have grounds to believe Frank is a manager to bring the best of them. If he knows Tottenham’s scoring statistics, it may be from studying his own. In 2023-24, when Brentford finished 16th, they only scored one goal fewer than Manchester United, who were eighth. Last season’s tally of 66 was the fifth highest in the league and notable for having three players in double figures, in Kevin Schade, Yoane Wissa and 20-goal Bryan Mbeumo.
Gibbs-White, a terrific footballer whose influence sometimes is not reflected in his goal return, may see particular scope for improvement, even if the more relevant comparison may be with Mikkel Damsgaard, Brentford’s creator in chief. Kudus was more mercurial than magnificent last season – some may see a tradition of inconsistency that could make him fit in at Spurs – but he has a capacity to be devastating.
And yet, and while the much-admired Mbeumo preferred a move to Manchester United as his former manager instead signed another left-footed right winger, perhaps there is something refreshing about Frank’s recruitment drive. A question about every manager who trades a smaller club for a bigger one is if they can raise their horizons. Roy Hodgson did not when, after leaving Fulham, he signed Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen for Liverpool. Frank is demonstrating that give him a bigger budget and the carrot of Champions League football and he will target a type of signing he could not make at Brentford.
Yet flair is married with realism and pragmatism. A release clause made Gibbs-White attainable; the deal for Kudus was concluded quickly. There is a hard-headed logic to weakening rivals and Spurs are set to become a second of the big eight to raid Forest for a star player, following Newcastle’s move for Anthony Elanga. After some of Spurs’ recent arrivals were acquired when very young, Kudus and Gibbs-White are nearer their peak.
The start of a reign feels like an end for others. Last season brought signs of decline from Heung-Min Son, that the 33-year-old’s pace may be going. Tel is far from the only other option to operate off the left. James Maddison is younger and, as vice-captain, could look a potential heir of the armband. But a flagship signing of Ange Postecoglou’s first summer looks supplanted by Gibbs-White, as though there are few ways of accommodating both. It was already hard to fit Maddison in with Dejan Kulusevski. Then there is the question of Brennan Johnson, the top scorer last season, the man whose goal won the Europa League and a player Frank wanted to take to Brentford. Perhaps he is destined to spend more time on the bench now.
Because – and while it will be intriguing how and where Frank uses the excellent Kulusevski – one possible scenario is that the trio of newcomers form the three in a 4-2-3-1 formation; with Dominic Solanke up front, that would be an attacking quartet who cost over £200m in a year.
If it comes when some would have committed more of Spurs’ resources to a high-class defensive midfielder or felt that, after the worst excesses of Angeball, Frank’s priority ought to be addressing the goals-against column, rather than the goals-for, and dragging it back from a total in the sixties to one in the forties, that overhaul has been funded in part by Ange Postecoglou’s Europa League final win and the prospect of Champions League millions.
Tottenham’s wage bill can be relatively low – the statistic that it was 42 per cent of turnover became so well known it became lazily parroted – but chairman Daniel Levy spent more on transfers than his critics acknowledge. That Frank’s first forays into the market have been for attack-minded players says something about his instincts and his idea of football. He may already be in tune with the historic Tottenham ethos.
