Cartilage Free Captain

Tottenham Hotspur’s Asia tour concluded in Seoul today, with a defeat to Bundesliga side Bayern Munich.

With two sides, the match started with a high level of intensity which told as a terrible giveaway by Spurs playing out from the back gifted a goal to Bayern, courtesy of Gabriel Vidovic. The Germans doubled their tally soon after half-time, with Leon Goretzka taking two goes to beat Guglielmo Vicario after a quick break found Goretzka through on goal. Spurs fought back, though, and Pedro Porro hit a stunner of a shot from range to beat substitute goalkeeper Sven Ulreich.

There were plenty of minutes once more for a number of Spurs’ younger players, with the likes of Will Lankshear, Mikey Moore, and George Abbott seeing the pitch, but they were unable to overturn the deficit in sweltering Seoul conditions.

Here are my top 10 talking points from the match.

Both sides named strong starting XI’s, meaning a great test for both teams. It was on the defensive side where both teams were probably a bit less experienced, though it showed less off the ball and more on it as the greener back fives at times struggled to progress the ball. The contest, however, was played at an intensity belying the match’s friendly status, especially first half, with the match a serious step up from what had gone before.

Bayern and Spurs both pressed extremely high from the off, and it paid dividends for the Germans as Spurs struggled to get out of their defensive third. A poor pass from Guglielmo Vicario was seized upon by Serge Gnabry, and Gabriel Vidovic was the benefactor as he stroked home the rebound from Gnabry’s saved shot. The giveaways from Tottenham continued, and Bayern were probably unlucky not to score more. At the other end, Spurs’ press was also excellent, but unable to create anywhere near the same volume of chances.

Spurs were well below par in the first half, with the likes of James Maddison and Archie Gray especially so. With a triple change made at half-time, you could say that this was just standard preseason rotation... but it felt like something more. Maddison and Gray were two of the three pulled, and it felt like a statement of sorts from Postecoglou, as Spurs improved nearly immediately after changes.

There’s a lot of hype around Lucas Bergvall, and we’re starting to see why. Coming on as one of the aforementioned half-time substitutes, he made an immediate impact to the Tottenham midfield. His calmness, vision, use of space, and physicality were all plain to see, and he did not look out of place at all against a high-quality opposition. Could he start the first match of the season?

Perhaps lost in the ‘return of Harry Kane’ furor was the fact that another ex-Spurs player was to line up against his old club. Eric Dier was greeted warmly by his former teammates, and though he didn’t start he saw significant minutes in the second stanza. Elements of his performance would have been all too familiar as well, with a trademark errant pass creating a huge chance for Spurs upon which the Lilywhites were unable to capitalize.

Emphasis on the question mark. Though it’s important to remember the context of playing out of position against possibly Bayern’s best player in Serge Gnabry, to say Djed Spence had a mixed night would probably be generous. He was perhaps slightly culpable for Bayern’s opening goal, and though he had some decent defensive moments and a couple of driving runs forward, he struggled on the ball where his lack of technical ability was all too plain to see at times.

Porro szn? The fullback is so key to this Spurs side, and he appears primed for a huge season, playing big minutes all through season. He continued his goal-scoring ways as well, hitting an absolute rocket of a goal. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of those in the coming months.

It’s hard to build anything when every time you have a chance of a break you’re fouled. As is typical of a Guardiola disciple, Vincent Kompany’s side appeared well versed in the dark arts, regularly disrupting any Spurs momentum. It got to the point where the referee could have arguably started handing out cards, even though it was a friendly.

To quote Dustin, anyway. Obviously, Bayern made a number of substitutions, and this was a preseason match; but the younger players on the travelling Spurs squad did not look at all overawed by the occasion. I’ve mentioned Will Lankshear, Jamie Donley, and Mikey Moore a couple of times this preseason, but it was Alfie Devine who really impressed me today, with tidy passing and intelligent play. Hopefully we can get him a good (read: better) loan.

There are some positives to take away from this match... and some lessons as well. With the start of the season two and a half weeks away, Spurs’ fitness has been well and truly tested, and you can see the patterns of play taking shape. There are though still some question marks, with the defense in transition coming under the spotlight today, as well as the fit of some players to Ange-ball. The team, the coaching staff, and the front office are all going to need to keep working hard over the next few weeks if Spurs want to turn this new era into tangible success.

Screw it, we’re gonna win the league.

Tottenham Hotspur’s preseason tour continues in South Korea, and now things take a step up: Spurs take on German giants Bayern Munich for the first of two friendlies before the commencement of the 24/25 season.

These fixtures were apparently agreed as part of the Harry Kane transfer, and it’ll be an excellent yardstick for Spurs’ progress. Up to this point, they have been playing teams that are below Premier League standard; with the obvious caveat that Vissel Kobe and the K-League All Stars are in the middle of their season, so were carrying a level of fitness and match readiness that challenged Tottenham.

It’s another quick turnaround, meaning there could be rotation once more with some new faces involved: specifically, Destiny Udogie will potentially make his return from the quadricep injury that ruled him out of the latter part of last season. Unlike the large travelling squad Ange Postecoglou has to select from, however, Bayern Munich are struggling somewhat for senior players. The likes of Harry Kane, Leroy Sane, and new signing Hiroki Ito are all injured and some of their international representatives are only just now reporting back from their breaks.

It’ll still be a fascinating match-up, one I’m looking forward to.

COYS!

Lineups

How to Watch

Bayern Munich vs. Tottenham Hotspur (friendly)

Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul, South Korea

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Time: 7:00 a.m. ET, 12:00 p.m. UK

TV: Not televised in USA or UK. Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: Paramount+, SPURSPLAY

Match thread rules

The match thread rules are the same as always. To any visitors coming here for the first time, welcome! We’re glad you’re here! Wipe your feet, mind the gap, and be sure to check out the other pages at this outstanding site. While you’re here, though, we have a few rules and regulations:

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Have fun, and COYS!

Want a fresh transfer rumor? You know you do, and I’ve got you covered. Today, there’s a rumor from Telegraph reporter Mike McGrath that Tottenham Hotspur are interested in a potential move for 23-year-old Burkina Faso and Manchester City fullback Issa Kaboré.

Kaboré spent last season on loan at a pretty bad Luton Town team that got relegated back to the Championship, but Kaboré himself wasn’t awful at his job. If you’re an FBRef green bar junkie, his stats don’t exactly pop — good tackle and progressive carrying numbers (inverted fullback klaxon!) but his passing looks pretty uhhhhhhhhhhh.

That said, his £12m price tag is reasonable and considering Luton were a bad team last season there’s cause to cock your head, squint, and convince yourself that he could be serviceable depth at the right back position, should Tottenham sell Emerson Royal to AC Milan as expected.

OK, I hear you shouting at your screen BUT WHAT ABOUT DJED SPENCE and you’re absolutely right about that — the Djedessance seems to be in full effect and he’s done better than anyone had any right to expect from a player that Antonio Conte dismissed as a “club signing” a few years ago. But hear me out — it could very well be that this rumor is emerging because the club hasn’t quite decided whether Spence is good enough for what Ange wants out of the position. If that’s the case, then keeping options open for a serviceable right back who has proven to be a Premier League caliber footballer is probably a smart idea.

I’d like to see Spence be given the chance — he’ll have a good opportunity starting next week to train and play with Spurs’ first choice defensive line, and that plus the second Bayern friendly at the Tottenham Stadium should be illuminating. Financially it’s better to use the resources you already have and we have a Djed Spence at home — but if for whatever reason Ange Postecoglou takes a good hard look at him and thinks he’s not the guy then it’s a really smart idea to have a backup plan in place.

So keep this one in your back pocket for now, because it looks like some dominos are being set up, at least contingently.

Thus far, Tottenham Hotspur have been making do in preseason without any of their regular central defenders, thanks to this summer’s European Championship and Copa America tournaments. Spurs have been forced into playing 18-year-old newcomer Archie Gray and Oliver Skipp as makeshift central defenders at times since Cuti Romero, Micky van de Ven, and Radu Dragusin all were taking a well-deserved break after the conclusion of their competitions.

Dragusin has since returned to training and played in the second half of Spurs’ 4-3 win over the K-League All-Stars on Wednesday, and Ben Davies is also back from an early injury to feature some in the later stages of preseason. And now, in a press conference ahead of Sunday’s friendly against Bayern Munich in Seoul, Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that the remainder of Spurs’ wayward sons — Romero, Van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur, and (presumably) Giovani Lo Celso — will return to the fold on Monday.

“I don’t think it’ll be too challenging [to get the returning players fit] because, you know, they’ve only both of them sort of had three weeks off and you know, both Micky and Cuti and Rodrigo will be back all this week.

“They’ve had good preparations coming into it and we know they’ll be looking after themselves and we’ve still got two weeks before the season starts. So that’s a still a fair chunk of time for us to get them ready for the start of the season and beyond, because it’s not just about the first game, it’s about the games after that.

“We’ve seen how the guys who maybe have come in a bit later, like Radu came in this week within a few sessions they’re back up to speed and I expect the other guys to be the same.”

That’s good news! Preseason matches are about fitness and not about performance, but it’s often hard to get a real sense of how this Tottenham team is going to perform this season without its starting back line. And we still won’t get a good sense of that until the NEXT match against Bayern Munich — the Visit Malta Cup match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next weekend.

THIS match against a Harry Kane-less Bayern Munich will presumably feature Dragusin and Davies, with some of the kids like Ash Phillips or Jamie Donley rotating in or out as needed or requested by Ange, and of course, that’s completely fine.

Elsewhere, Spurs are still training in a hot and steamy Seoul, with daily temperatures expected to peak in the mid-90sº F while Spurs are there. We saw that the heat and humidity took a toll on the team in Tokyo, and I’d expect similar conditions in tomorrow’s friendly at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. Ange acknowledged that the weather conditions have been and continue to be a challenge, but the team is looking at it as an obstacle to overcome and to improve their overall fitness in extreme conditions.

“You’re right, it is a challenge at this time of the year. I’ve experienced it myself working in Japan, but at the same time, I think it’s a good challenge for the players and mentally as much as anything else to adjust the conditions to still work hard, to train and still try to play our football during the practice games we’ve had.

“So I think at times it’s been really difficult but they’ve pushed through and I think we’ll get the benefits of that when we get back to London. And, you know, they’re having a heat wave now and it’s 24 degrees. So my boys will be pretty relaxed about that.

“And I think mentally we’ll come out of this stronger knowing that in tough conditions, they still manage to work hard and the games have shown that we can still perform at a good level.”

Tottenham’s match against Bayern Munich kicks off at 8:00 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET / 12 p.m. BST). The match will be streamed on SpursPLAY, Tottenham’s in-house premium streaming service, but also will be televised on CBS Sports Network in the United States.

Well, this is a nice surprise! Tottenham Hotspur are set to see their revenues increase, with the club announcing today that Haringey Council have approved a proposal allowing Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to host up to 30 non-football events:

Up until now, Spurs have been permitted to host 16 events, so this resolution nearly doubles that number. The stadium has been hugely successful as a multi-purpose venue, with concerts, NFL, rugby, and boxing (among other events) all being hosted, garnering international attention and exposure.

There are some details of the report submitted by the club to Haringey Council through the link, quantifying extensive benefits to local businesses and residents, as well as the London economy. This followed extensive consultation with locals, who aren’t being forgotten, with a 24-hour priority purchasing window and complimentary event tickets for local organizations popular schemes that are continuing.

Let’s be honest, though: Spurs aren’t doing this to benefit the community. That’s just a nice little side-benefit. This is about $$$, and Tottenham’s commercial and event revenues have skyrocketed in recent years. It’s what has allowed the club to continue to spend freely on players, free of sanctions due to PSR, and this additional cashflow will likely (at least partially) feed back into further investment on the football pitch.

Maybe let’s make a sneaky little signing to celebrate?

good morning !

We’re almost a week into the Olympics now, and it’s already brought about some great moments. Like Simone Biles and Leon Marchand dominating, that one surfer in the picture, the athlete sponsored by Gene Parmasean cheese.

As a tennis fan, it’s a bit of a sombre one. We had to bid farewell to the careers of not one, but three future Hall of Famers: Angelique Kerber, Andy Murray (and probably Rafael Nadal). But they all left with some great moments on the clay.

I guess now it’s about watching all the different sports, all at once. It’s too many, sometimes. Like, how can a person choose between fencing and archery? Especially when the fencing venue is this?

There are some sports I always need to watch: handball, canoe, kayak (which is similar to canoe I think), swimming, archery, fencing (which makes choosing between archery and fencing so difficult).

And then, of course, there’s the marathon. The grandest event of all. But more on that next week.

Anyways, there’s plenty of sports to watch this weekend. What will you be watching?

Fitzie’s track of the day: Funky Kingston, by Toots & The Maytals

And now for your links:

Jack P-B ($$) on Tottenham’s search for ‘an energetic No. 8’

It’s been a quiet day in Tottenham Hotspur-land, probably because the club is currently in South Korea one day after playing a friendly and the news just takes a while to fly back from Asia. But here’s something: according to an Argentine sports journalist, Fiorentina are expected to make a formal offer for Tottenham’s 20-year old striker Alejo Veliz.

So there’s some confusing, likely idiomatic Spanish in that tweet that talks about “a high percentage,” but I’m given to understand that this is probably referring to a bid to purchase Veliz permanently, with Tottenham including a sizable sell-on clause in the deal.

Veliz, whom we at Carty Free Towers affectionately dubbed “Big Lumpus” in internal chat, is 20 years old and was signed last summer as a “Paratici special” from Rosario Central for ~£15m, a fee that now feels pretty ridiculous. He’s a big lad and there were thoughts he could’ve filled a Richarlison-like void as a Big Physical Dude in the Box in certain situations.

He was kind of a weird signing because while he had an interesting profile and some good physical benchmarks, he wasn’t an obvious fit for Postecoglou’s tactics and hasn’t really done much to justify his place in the team, much less his price tag. He played just 50 total minutes of game time in the Premier League (with one goal in a 4-2 loss at Brighton). Veliz then was sent off on loan to Sevilla where he barely played because the manager was beefing with the club ownership and didn’t want or especially need him. He played just 35 minutes while on loan in the spring.

We haven’t seen much from Veliz this preseason either — he had a brief second half appearance in Spurs’ first friendly against Hearts, during which he promptly tripped and got a bloody nose after which he was subbed off for Dane Scarlett. He also had another brief stint of play against QPR, but while he was taken on tour to Asia, he has yet to play a single minute. There are suggestions he’s behind both Will Lankshear and Scarlett in the pecking order, so maybe this rumor is starting to make more sense?

IDK man. Veliz does seem like a player whose stature suggests he could make an impact in Italian football, but Fiorentina’s likely not going to want to spend a ton of money for him, hence the report of a possible sell-on clause. He’s under contract until 2029 but at this point it’s hard to see him actually breaking through at Spurs, so maybe Tottenham are ready to cut bait on him for whatever they can get. I would’ve expected him to go on loan again, but maybe a quick sale and a high percentage sell-on is better for his development and Spurs’ budget.

Or maybe this is all Bat Country. Guess we gotta wait to see.

good morning !

Finally, finally - Tottenham Hotspur football is BACK!

After an eternity away, Spurs will be playing meaningful matches again this month. We’ve had plenty of friendlies, and still have two more to go, but the Premier League again will soon kick off.

First, though, two matches against Bayern Munich.

And then Harry Winks reunites with the Tottenham boys for the first day of the season. I can’t think of anything better than watching Winks and Spurs again. The question is, should I wear my Winks kit? (Probably not)

After that it’s the home opener versus Everton. Ahh, Saturday football. We’ve missed you so.

And who knows, maybe there’s still some transfer activity to be had. After all, the transfer window does close on 30 August so we know there has to be some outgoings (and incomings?).

Whatever it is, it sure is exciting to watch the football again.

Tottenham Hotspur men’s schedule: Bayern (3 August, friendly), Bayern (10 August, friendly), at Leicester City (19 August), Everton (24 August)

Fitzie’s track of the day: Birth In Reverse, by St Vincent

And now for your links:

Football London on what transfer incomings Spurs should be hoping for

The Athletic’s ($$) takeaways from Tottenham’s 4-3 win over Team K League

If you watched today’s friendly between Tottenham Hotspur and the K-League All-Stars in Seoul — a thrilling 3-4 Tottenham win that provided a lot of excitement for the fans in attendance — you also got your first chance to see their newest signing in action.

But if you’re reading this, maybe you weren’t able to wake up early enough to watch the match, so online comp videos are all you have. Well, I’m here to tell you that after watching Yang play in the first half, I saw enough to justify Spurs’ €4m purchase, and think he has the potential to be very, very good.

The comp video is embedded in the article header above, and you should watch it. Here are some of my takeaways.

He doesn’t look out of place physically.

Yang’s a young guy, but unlike some of Spurs’ youth signings he looks like he can physically handle himself against real competition. That’s a good sign — the Premier League is a physical league, and he’s gonna get kicked a LOT when he actually starts getting minutes; probably just as well that he likely won’t for a while yet.

He’s got some pretty impressive skills already.

Some of the reactions I get from watching Yang play is that he’s a) quick, and b) has an instinctive sense of where and when to run. Those are super important, especially in an Ange-Ball system that likes to get in behind and stretch defenses. He’s also got some good ball-handling and dribbling ability — most on display when he turned (and pretty much embarrassed) Emerson Royal in midfield. I don’t know too many of Tottenham’s current offensive players who could make that turn in that situation! Yang also shows for and receives the ball well; he blazed his best scoring opportunity over the bar but he did very well to run past his man and into position to receive the pass.

He’s pretty raw, especially with his initial touch and passing.

While his running and ball-carrying look pretty good, a lot of Yang’s passing was ROUGH, either a foot behind or a foot ahead of his intended target. It’s a little hard to parse out how much of that is because he’s playing on a cobbled-together all-star team that likely hasn’t trained much together and how much is that he just may not be a very good passer right now. At this stage it probably doesn’t matter much — he’s young enough that his passing can improve with time; running and carrying ability isn’t as easily taught. Yang also had some particularly heavy touches when receiving the ball that didn’t serve him well; better initial ball control might have opened Spurs’ defense a little more in that first half.

Yang also looks a little one-footed, which again — that can be trained. He’s less one-footed than, say, Archie Gray at the moment but it was pretty clear when receiving the ball that he preferred his left foot to his right. (That said, that turn on Emerson was done almost exclusively with his right, so what do I know?)

CONCLUSION

This is a super small sample size in a preseason friendly match in oppressive heat. Yang’s a teenager who has only played top level football in Korea for a season and is getting ready to move to a top club in the best league in world football. It’d be irresponsible to suggest that he’s ready to make an immediate impact based on what we saw today.

What I saw from Yang was a kid who wants to impress, has a floor of “competent winger,” and a ceiling that could be very, very high with time and training. He looks like someone who can embrace Ange’s tactics and would fit in well with the way Postecoglou wants to play. There’s a lot to like in that video, just as there’s a lot of room for improvement and that’s to be expected. That said, I see why people are excited by him but he’s going to be a work in progress for a while, and that’s okay. Spurs have a bunch of those in place, and I didn’t see anything to make me believe Yang’s not worth at least what Tottenham paid for him right now.

There are plenty of things to talk about after Tottenham Hotspur’s thrilling 3-4 friendly win over the K-League All-Stars in Seoul today, part of Spurs’ ongoing preseason tour to Asia. The heat and humidity were by all accounts oppressive, but both teams put together solid performances, and the seven goals gave the 63,000+ fans in attendance an exciting viewing experience.

Son Heung-Min had a brace in his home country with additional goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Will Lankshear, and Spurs continued to give important minutes to young and new players with the Premier League season fast approaching. Spurs fans also got their first real look at new signing Yang Min-Hyeok, who started at left wing for the All-Stars and had some exciting moments in attack against his new team. In addition, defender Radu Dragusin got his first preseason minutes a couple days after joining his teammates in Korea.

One of the notable things to come out of this match was Ange Postecoglou’s decision to start the match with an extremely young central midfield of Pape Sarr, Lucas Bergvall, and Archie Gray. While this is unlikely to be Spurs’ midfield lineup in week 1 of the Premier League, it is probably a glimpse into Tottenham’s future and it especially gave Bergvall and Gray an opportunity to play significant minutes in what we assume will be their long-term positions at the club.

All three midfielders had some good and not-so-good moments during the match. Ange Postecoglou was asked about the midfield three in the post-match press conference, and he seemed to admit that this was about development and not necessarily what we’ll see against Leicester City on August 19.

“Yeah, I thought it worked ok. Obviously they are three very young players in that midfield set up and as you said, the first time they had played together. But yeah, for the most part I thought they handled it pretty well. I think Lucas found it tough physically. It’s a very demanding role in there and it’s going to take us a while to get him up to speed from a physical perspective, but you can see the quality he has when he’s on the ball.

“And Archie, he’s what he’s shown the whole time. He’s been very composed, he seems to understand the game really well and for the most part, I thought he was taking up the right positions. But again, physically I think we’re gonna have to build him up. I thought Pape’s running is just unbelievable. He’s a benchmark for us in that midfield area.

“So, yeah, I think the three of them - considering they’re so young and that’s the exciting bit - if we keep pushing them and improving them, they’re going to be very good footballers for us.”

Postecoglou admitted that he’s worked his players pretty hard in preseason and especially while on tour. The heat in Japan and Korea has been notable, and the players did seem to wilt a bit as the match went on. Postecoglou was caught on a hot mic at one point angrily exhorting to his players to up their intensity at one point late in the first half, as his players seemed to be backing off in the press. When asked about it, Ange said it was about fitness and mentality in harsh conditions.

“Nothing really specific. It was more just about making sure we kept pressing on, because with the conditions the way they are and the training loads been pretty high, I didn’t want us to back off in that moment and really [wanted to] push to half-time just more for our fitness than anything else. We thought it was a good opportunity for us to push on and try to be even more aggressive than we had been up to that point. you guys signed a big young talent in Korea.”

Tottenham led 3-0 at the break, but the K-League All-Stars roared back early in the second half with a fully rotated XI, scoring two goals to cut into Tottenham’s lead. Postecoglou was asked about the defensive let-up, but Ange didn’t want to make too much out of a friendly that was more about fitness and challenge and less about results.

“I thought it was a good game. It’s difficult obviously, you know, the side in the first half I thought still did well against us but the side coming on in the second half are fresh and they’re going to look a lot fresher than our guys who are backing up.

“I think for us all these friendly games, the important thing is that they’re good exercises for us to keep building our fitness and keep building the way we want to play our football. I thought both the teams today in the first half and second half gave us a good test, gave us a push which I want the players to have and we entertained the crowd. I think both teams.

“I think that’s important. We had 63,000 people here today, a great atmosphere. From the moment we arrived, we’ve had people really excited to see us and I think our responsibility is to, to make sure we put on a good game for them and there were some great goals from both teams tonight and I’m sure they enjoyed the night.”