Cartilage Free Captain

Manor Solomon pretty clearly isn’t a part of Ange Postecoglou’s plans this season. I’m not going to rehash the whole “situation” around Solomon, but the reality is that Tottenham Hotspur are limited as it is in terms of registering foreign players for Europe - and Solomon is well down Spurs’ depth chart, with even the likes of youth talent Mikey Moore playing ahead of him through preseason.

With his future thus determined to be elsewhere, the only question remaining was one of where.

Dustin wrote a couple of days ago about potential interest from various clubs, with Championship club Leeds United apparently leading the way, according to Israeli media. This interest appears to have now escalated, with reports now coming out that Solomon is very close to completing a medical ahead of a loan to Elland Road.

Fabrizio Romano and Paul O’Keefe have both posted that the medical should happen today, and Joe Donnohue at the Yorkshire Evening Post had some further details of the deal, in which it looks like Leeds are covering at least a chunk of Solomon’s wages, which is a bit of a win for Spurs:

There are more details in Donnohue’s report, including Solomon’s preference to remain in England, which has also been backed up by Alasdair Gold, amid interest from the likes of Marseille and Getafe (who, according to Romano, Solomon rejected) - which is a choice. The Championship over Ligue 1 or La Liga? I guess Solomon got a taste of injury last year and has decided he’d liked to get kicked a bit more instead of enjoying the sunshine on the continent.

Let’s see where this one goes, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it wrapped up by the start of the week.

This morning, Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou gave a press conference where he announced that new club record signing and striker Dominic Solanke will miss tomorrow’s home opener against Everton after picking up an ankle injury in the opening stages of Spurs’ 1-1 draw vs. Leicester. However, he gave further comments, embargoed until this evening, where he provided additional clarification on Solanke’s injury, and gave some hints about Richarlison’s fitness.

First, Solanke’s injury isn’t as serious as it could be, and Postecoglou said he fully expects he’ll be ready to go after the international break, when Spurs host Arsenal in the first NLD of the season on September 15. And possibly earlier.

“It’s not serious enough to keep him out for five weeks, he’s still got a chance for the Newcastle game. That’s the extent of it, it’s just about how quickly he recovers. Every story is written differently. They’re not all fairy tales where you come and make your debut and score a hat-trick. He was very good for us at Leicester and we’re disappointed because it was really exciting to see that he is going to fit in really well with what we’re doing.

“I’ve no doubt about that. It’s just a small hiccup. He misses a game or two, it’s game one of 50-plus games. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to recover from that. For me the exciting bit was just watching him in the team last week. I can just tell he’s going to be a really good fit.

“It’s all good. We didn’t sign Dom for one match and he knows that. He’s here hopefully for a long time to have a real impact at this club and bring success to it. I was excited with what we saw last week and this is just a small bump in the road. I’m sure he will be looking forward to getting back out there.”

Postecoglou also spoke highly of Solanke’s likely replacement in the lineup, Richarlison, and stressed the importance of having two solid strikers at his disposal for just this sort of situation.

“Yeah, absolutely. Richy is not going anywhere but if he did leave, I’d definitely sign another striker,” said Postecoglou. “We had that issue last year where we were really short in that area. To be fair, the whole pre-season we played without a striker. I was playing Deki Kulusevski through there the whole pre-season because we hadn’t signed Dom and Richy was out.

“It makes a difference to how we play having a striker in there. It’s really important to us to have two recognised strong strikers in the team.”

But that brings up a big question — Richarlison clearly isn’t fully match fit after missing the entire preseason while recovering from a surgical procedure; the first we saw of him was his brief cameo against Leicester where he flashed a potential game-winning header wide of the post. So what’s the plan?

“That’s the thing with Richy, it’s trying to get him fit. Obviously we have to be a little bit careful with him because he hasn’t played for quite a while. I’ve said before, whenever he’s been fit and available, I’ve always chosen him because he’s a handful for oppositions. He’s a real physical presence in the box, he’s a good finisher, he works hard for the team.

“But hopefully now getting Dom in, the whole idea is that we can share that workload and not be so reliant on one player. I think he’s still at a good age, Richy, where he can still play some fantastic football for us and we’ve got to make sure we keep him fit and manage his workload so we can get the best out of him.

“He’s fit to start the game [against Everton] because he’s training but can he play 90 minutes? No. So that’s where the decision lies. He came on last week, but match fitness is different and he hasn’t played a minute in pre-season. It’s where we give him his minutes.”

With Will Lankshear also out for a couple of weeks with a minor hamstring injury, that leaves Spurs once again thin up top. Previously, Postecoglou had said he had no plans to revisit the idea of playing Dejan Kulusevski as a false nine, despite playing him there all preseason. Big Ange seemed to walk that back slightly.

“It’s an option. I don’t think it’s his best area but through pre-season and at least one game at the end of last season, he’s such a hard worker, he runs the line really well, can link up with the rest of the team in the build-up. I think he can do a job for us there, but I don’t think it’s his best position.”

This makes me think we might see Richy start the match, but make way in the second half for Deki, or perhaps Son Heung-Min or even Brennan Johnson, will deputize at striker for a bit tomorrow.

Finally, Postecoglou addressed the other elephant in the room — Yves Bissouma. The Malian central midfielder is set to return from his one match club-enforced suspension for posting a video on social media of him inhaling nitrous oxide. Postecoglou suggested that Bissouma is now available to start, but that the culture of trust he referenced in his earlier comments is very much still a work in progress.

“You know what it’s like when you punish your child and they do everything right for the next two days? He’s first in the meetings, he’s doing everything right but there’s always temptation down the road, so we’ll see. I’ve always believed in opportunity for redemption and learning. We’re still in that space at the moment with Biss.

“But obviously that door closes after a while if there’s repeated (indiscretions). He’s been good but I would have been surprised if he wasn’t. It’s always the key with Biss is consistency. The consistency of behaviour, what he does… it’s not that he’s doing a lot of bad things.

“Obviously the last transgression was very serious but it’s the little things along the way also. I think sometimes that manifests in his game where he’s really good and he’ll have a moment when he’s not. I think it all correlates. From our perspective it’s about trying to continually guide him, but it’s up to him. He’s got to continue to try to be the best version of himself that he can possibly be.”

I’m not especially wild about the tone of Ange’s comments here about Biss — it feels a little purile, as though Bissouma really is a small child caught with his hand in the cookie jar instead of a grown-ass man who is fully able to make his own choices, or the suggestion that Yves needs hand-holding to make sure he stays on the straight and narrow. That said, I do appreciate Ange’s willingness to be redemptive and forgiving of transgressions and do believe he has all of his players’ best interests at heart. I also hope that this is the last we hear of any issues surrounding Bissouma’s behavior this season.

Remember Jack Clarke? Tottenham Hotspur signed the promising attacking midfielder for a then-eye popping €10m from Leeds United back in 2019 when he was 18 and he was tipped for big things at Spurs, but he never quite panned out. Spurs initially loaned him back to Leeds but he was on the outside as Leeds had eclipsed their maximum number of loans so he barely played at all and was recalled midway through the season. He later had loans at QPR and Stoke City before heading on loan to Sunderland in 2021-22, and he joined the Black Cats permanently the following summer.

You can argue that Spurs abjectly failed with Clarke’s development while at the club, and it’s hard to argue against that point. Clarke has certainly blossomed while at Sunderland, to the point where he’s now close to finalizing a lucrative £20m transfer to newly-promoted Ipswich Town.

So why are we talking about a player who hasn’t been at Spurs for two seasons and who only made one senior appearance? Because the one smart thing Spurs did when they sold him to Sunderland was include a 25% sell-on clause in exchange for a lower transfer fee. That means Spurs are due a £5m windfall when Clarke finalizes his transfer to Ipswich.

£5m isn’t a lot, but consider it’s most of what Spurs initially paid for Clarke back in 2019, so that makes it a pretty great deal all in all. You can argue that it might have been better to stick with Clarke and then we’d actually have a decent young player on our hands right now instead of £5m and a small loss on the books, but hey, this is better than a poke in the nose.

I guess if nothing else we’ll get a good look at Clarke in the Premier League to see if, now that he’s 23 years old, he’s got the goods. Then we can decide whether we want to cry in our beers over how we let his young career stagnate while he was at Spurs. The £5m is still nice, though.

OK, let’s get this out of the way first since I somehow managed to NOT make the most obvious joke-reference the last time I talked about Ash Phillips: I guess we’re going to find out if he can do it on a cold, wet Tuesday in Stoke.

As expected, Tottenham Hotspur have completed an agreement with Championship side Stoke City to send young central defender Phillips, 19, to his second straight loan to the English second division.

Phillips had a fantastic loan with a very bad Plymouth Argyle side last season, where he helped keep them from relegation and was named Argyle’s Young Player of the Season. This time he’s staying in the same division, but with a (slightly) better team — Stoke isn’t very good, but that probably just means that he’ll be able to get a lot of minutes, and that’s exactly what he needs right now.

I know some fans are side-eying this loan because it leaves Tottenham (at present) light in defensive cover, but central defenders typically don’t hit their peak until at least their mid-20s. Ash has got plenty of time to learn his craft and get better. Maybe he becomes a Tottenham regular in a couple of years, maybe he doesn’t. But sending him out to get regular playing time is better than him sitting on Spurs’ bench at age 19, so I’m all for this.

Good luck, Ash! Go lock down that position, and for god’s sake don’t forget to pack your umbrella, you’ll need it.

Why can’t Tottenham Hotspur have nice things? Spurs striker Dominic Solanke, the club’s record signing who made his debut on Monday against Leicester City, never missed a single match last season at Bournemouth, picked up an ankle injury in his first Spurs game and will miss tomorrow’s home opener against Everton.

You can’t make this stuff up, I swear.

Ange Postecoglou tried to minimize the injury, saying it didn’t look particularly serious and that Dom would be back soon, just not in time for tomorrow’s match.

“Dom picked up a knock in the last game. He got through the game but it flared up the day after and he’ll miss the game tomorrow. It’s an ankle injury, he copped it really early on, someone went across his ankle. It just depends on his recovery [when he returns], obviously we’ve got the international break. but it’s not serious.”

So I guess we all need to hope that Richarlison is back and at least close to full fitness, because he’s almost certainly going to be starting against his old club tomorrow. Richy had a cameo appearance at the end of the Leciester game where he flashed a header wide of the post, but that was his first appearance in a Spurs shirt since last spring when he picked up an injury of his own and later had surgery.

Normally this might provide an opportunity for Will Lankshear to potentially make his season debut if Richy isn’t 90 minutes fit, but he’s also out after picking up a mild hamstring injury while playing for Spurs’ U21 team this past week. Football.London is reporting that the injury will cause him to miss a couple weeks of action, but wasn’t serious enough to keep him out long term.

Additionally, Rodrigo Bentancur will also miss out on the Everton match under the Premier League’s concussion protocol after a head-to-head clash against Leciester, but this was expected and reported several days ago. Yves Bissouma is an option to return from his club-imposed suspension for whippets use to start in midfield, but Postecoglou seemed to suggest that he’s not the ONLY option tomorrow and we might see a surprise.

“Biss is available but we’ve got some options there. The whole idea of trying to bulk up the squad is for these situations. He’s available for selection. The bridge building continues.”

What does that mean? Boy, you got me, but it probably involves either Lucas Bergvall or Archie Gray making their first Premier League start.

Tottenham’s newest signing, Wilson Odobert, has secured his work permit and is now available for selection. Postecoglou didn’t get drawn in to whether we’d see Odobert in action tomorrow, but this was his first opportunity to talk about Wilson and what Spurs fans might expect from him.

“We went through the same sort of processes. He’s one that we identified really early on in the summer. It’s no secret we were looking for a wide player and Wilson was one of the ones we highlighted. We had to go through certain steps to get these things done. They’re not as straight forward as saying ‘that’s who we want, go and get them’. Obviously getting big Dom in was very important for us and we spent a lot of time working on that deal but once Dom was done there was one target and that was Wilson and that happened really quickly.

“I really like the way he plays in the wide areas. He’s different to our other wingers. He’s a dribbler, he likes to get into the front third. He can play either side, he can play central. He’s had a really good development if you look at his trajectory from PSG as a youngster to Troyes, playing in Ligue 1, and France and Premier League football before the age of 19. I think he ticked all the boxes for us and he’s a fantastic young bloke as well, so really happy to get him in.

“With all the players we’ve signed, I think irrespective of age we’re signing them because we think they can make an impact. I certainly see that with Wilson. He’s a year older than Archie and Lucas and they’ve already made an impact. We sign players because we’re still in that stage of building a team. I won’t bring players here who I don’t think can meaningfully contribute to us in the short-term and Wilson definitely will.”

Tottenham kick off at home against Everton tomorrow (Saturday) at 10 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. BST. The match is not televised in the USA or UK, but will be streamed on Peacock.

For 30 minutes it looked like this might be a season to remember for Tottenham Hotspur...then came an hour of match time that implied it could be a very long year. In reality, the transformation under Ange Postecoglou is still very much ongoing. There will be more bumps and stumbles along the way, but the impressive start against Leicester shows there will be some bright moments as well, and that certainly might be the case this weekend.

Saturday brings Everton to North London after a rough 0-3 opening weekend against Brighton. The Toffees have been in a rough place recently, but last year’s performance actually would have been enough to finish 12th were it not for the points deduction. Still, not much is expected from Everton (aside from avoiding relegation) this season, so this is a great opportunity for Spurs to quickly bounce back.

Tottenham Hotspur (t-9th, 1pt) vs. Everton (t-13th, 0pts)

Date: Saturday, August 24

Time: 10:00 am ET, 3:00 pm UK

Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

TV: Peacock (USA)

Like Tottenham, it was Everton who looked the better side at first last week, but the tide quickly turned toward the Seagulls who scored all three goals. Ashley Young’s red card did not help the home side’s cause, but the outcome was determined before his sending off. At the other end of the pitch, perhaps it could be time for summer signing Iliman Ndiaye to enter the lineup. The Marseille transfer made a substitute appearance last week, but for a team who had the second-fewest goals in the league last season, there is a huge need for someone to step up in the attack.

Spurs won the home fixture last year, winning 2-1 behind goals from Richarlison and Heung-Min Son. The Brazilian then bagged a brace against his former club in the reverse fixture before Tottenham conceded a 94th-minute equalizer to drop two important points. Despite all of Everton’s struggles, Spurs have actually not done the double in this tie since the 2017/18 campaign.

Picking out spots

Expected goals are an imperfect measurement, but the big takeaway from Monday’s draw was how Tottenham failed to capitalize on its opportunities. Indeed, this is nothing new: after averaging 0.35 more goals than xG over the first 28 matches last season, Spurs finished the season averaging 0.38 fewer goals than xG during the final 10 contests. Against Leicester it was not just an xG issue, as too often the attack did not even yield a shot, but it is clear this team is missing a killer instinct.

The challenge will not be easy to overcome with Jordan Pickford in net this Saturday. Despite a tough opening performance, the Everton keeper was fourth in PSxG+/- last season, which measures how many goals he prevented compared to how many a keeper would be expected to concede. Combining this strong shot-stopping ability with Tottenham’s own struggles in the box as of late could yield yet more frustration. Everton does have issues along the backline with Jarrad Branthwaite still out, James Tarkowski possibly joining him, and Young suspended, but Spurs must capitalize on their chances.

Invertigo

Aside from Archie Gray’s versatility and the apparent revival of Djed Spence, one spot Tottenham did not really address this summer was fullback. Both Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro had positive seasons last year, but much continues to rest on their shoulders. The transition to Postecoglou’s system is perhaps felt most significantly at these spots, and there really is no Plan B should it not work out.

Porro started the season as well as possible, getting on the scoresheet, but Udogie left something to be desired, likely due to an incomplete preseason. But with Spurs’ issues creating chances, as well as too many opposing counters with very little resistance, both of these players need to consistently be playing at a high level for Postecoglou’s strategies to play out. Everton is not a side that should offer a ton of resistance, so both fullbacks can and must be an active part of the build up, and creativity, in the final third this weekend.

good morning!

Hoddle Headquarters is going to do something different for this Track of the Day: We’re going to feature a track featuring a member of the commentariat!.

Today’s Track of the Day comes from the band Radio Free ABQ, lead by our very own COYSinABQ!

The band’s new song Tito (Far Away, Not Lonely) is part of their upcoming record Destination.

The song follows a boy named Tito and his canine Luna, who helps the boy figure out his path as he dreams big. It was only sometime later COYSinABQ realised the song had connections to his own roots as a small-town Kentucky kid who knew there was a bigger world out there somewhere.

Radio Free ABQ formed in Alburquerquee, New Mexico, after our commenter moved there. Before then he spent 30 years in Cincinnati leading different bands.

And you can also here our beloved commenter on lead vocals and drums!

The song takes inspiration from the famous Don Quixote quote, “To surrender dreams – this may be madness”.

Now it’s got me thinking that maybe I should pick up the book. It’s a lovely song!

Enjoy this very special Track of the Day.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Tito (Far Away, Not Lonely), by Radio Free ABQ

And now for your links:

Jack P-B ($$): Should Spurs rethink their hunt for a midfielder?

Transfer rumours: Ipswich Town agree fee to sign Sunderland’s Jack Clarke

Transfer rumours, part two: Aston Villa hold talks to sign Raheem Sterling

It sounds like Ashley Phillips is getting ready to head back to the Championship. Adam Leventhal, writing for The Athletic, is reporting that Tottenham Hotspur is in “advanced talks” with Stoke City to send Phillips there for a season-long loan to the English second division.

You will recall that Phillips had a highly successful loan in the Championship last season when he spent the season at Plymouth Argyle (alongside Alfie Devine), and where he won Argyle’s Young Player of the Season award. Plymouth ended last season just outside the relegation zone, and Stoke wasn’t that much better, finishing in 17th with 56 points. Nobody’s predicting Stoke to pull up any trees in the league this season, but they shouldn’t be in danger of relegation, and have been tipped for mid-table, so it seems like a decent enough place for Ash to land and get a bunch of first team minutes. That’s really what he needs if he’s going to progress and eventually crack Tottenham’s first team.

Seems like a good idea to me, anyway. We’ll see what happens.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Manor Solomon doesn’t have much of a future at Tottenham Hotspur at this point, at least not for this season. He was signed as basically a cheap punt last summer from Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donestk in the middle of a eastern European war that was disrupting the Ukrainian Premier League, played a couple of games early last season, and then picked up a big injury that ruled him out for the rest of the year.

Since then, he popped up in a couple of early preseason matches for Spurs this summer but hasn’t really made an impact, and there’s been reporting that Spurs are trying to ship him off on loan since he’s not part of Ange Postecoglou’s plans for the season. Pursuant to that, Israeli sports outlet Sport5il is now claiming that Leeds United are showing interest in taking Manor to the Championship for the season.

This is the first report we’ve gotten about potential loan destinations for Manor, and the fact that it’s appearing in the Israeli media lends it some pretty immediate plausibility. The report doesn’t go into much detail, but says that Solomon has interest from clubs in England and abroad (Italy, Spain, and Germay are mentioned), but that his preference is to stay in the Premier League if possible. Not sure if that is possible, but the Championship would be the next best thing perhaps if he feels settled in England at this point.

I can’t see a situation where Solomon gets registered for Spurs’ Europa League squad at this point and that would pretty much be his best opportunity to get minutes with Tottenham this season, so a loan makes sense. It gets him out to somewhere he can actually play and maybe establishes a market for him at the same time. Who knows if he ends up at Leeds, but it seems clear he’s going to be loaned out SOMEWHERE before the close of the window.

We reported last week that Tottenham Hotspur U23 striker Jude Soonsup-Bell was set to leave the club on a permanent basis, with interest in him coming from both the English Football League and overseas. Well now we know where he’s going — overseas, to Spain.

So going to a club that only just promoted to the Spanish second division after winning their playoff isn’t the sexiest of moves, perhaps, but for a young player who really doesn’t have any first team experience, it’s not a bad gig! Tottenham signed him from Chelsea’s academy for practically peanuts, meaning he was always a player who they were likely to try and flip for a small profit at the earliest possible opportunity. In this case they’re doing a Marcus Edwards-style deal — letting him leave for free but taking a small bet that he’ll improve and eventually be sold for a decent fee and they can recoup some costs down the road with a 40% sell-on clause. Pretty smart, actually.

And about that “not the sexiest of gigs” part — he gets to live in CORDOBA! I mean, come on! That’s a lovely city.

This all sounds good to me, but as always we wait for the official confirmation. And since I’m writing this on Wednesday night and scheduling it for early Thursday morning, there’s a decent chance this gets announced while I’m sleeping and before I get a chance to edit this post to a DONE DEAL article. If that happens — oh well. Edit it in post, I suppose.