Cartilage Free Captain

Well, there goes that dream. Tottenham Hotspur took a swing for the fences to get their preferred No. 10 in the door, offering €70m (£61m) for Como midfielder Nico Paz, only to see their offer rejected. €70m was the number said to be what Como was asking to receive to sanction a move for Paz, but it sure seems like the player doesn’t want to go.

Say what you want about Fabrizio Romano, when he states something it’s almost always accurate (Morgan Gibbs-White saga excepted). In this case this feels pretty unequivocal. Paz’s previous club, Real Madrid, has a 50% sell on clause in Paz’s current contract, AND a buy-back clause of €10m next summer, a ridiculously low number for a player that good. It sure seems like Paz has his heart set on a return to Real, and Romano’s assertion that Real was planning to “match any proposal in any case” means there was little to no chance that he was going to leave for anywhere except back to Madrid.

So whatchagonna do? In this case, say you tried and move on to other targets. Maghnes Akliouche is still out there. Bilal El Khannouss is waiting to be gazumped. There are even spurious reports about Tottenham interest in West Ham’s Lucas Paquetá. Eight days left, Johan Lange. The clock is ticking.

Tottenham Hotspur are starting to make waves in the transfer market with just over a week to go, and we should probably expect a bunch of lightly sourced stories connecting Spurs with a bunch of different players.

Like this rumor! Gianluca DiMarzio writes on his website that Spurs have upped their intended offer to €50m (£43.3m) for Como attacking midfielder Nico Paz. This, according to DiMarzio, is an improvement over a previous €40m (£34.5m) bid that was rejected a while ago. It is still not a ton of money, and DiMarzio says there is currently no agreement with Como, nor with the player.

Paz is a good target and would make a lot of sense for Spurs, but his current contract is complicated. His previous club, Real Madrid, own both a buy-back clause of just €9m next summer as well as a 50% sell-on clause in his contract, so any attempt to sign Paz will no doubt involve dealing with Madrid. No idea what that would look like, but I do know that a 50% sell-on clause, which is WILD, will complicate any negotiations significantly. Spurs might need to spend additional money to buy out Madrid’s clauses, if they’re serious about landing him… or alternately agree to something like a reasonable buy-back clause to Madrid in his Tottenham contract. That’s if they can come to an agreement at all. DiMarzio doesn’t give much of the game away (probably because he doesn’t know anything more).

Meanwhile, according to the Daily Mail (lol yes I know) Tottenham are also ramping up their interest in Manchester City’s Savinho, reporting that Spurs held further talks this weekend with City officials to try and get a deal over the line. The report states that Spurs are willing to make a bid of “over £60m” to land Savinho, with the player eager to be a Premier League starter to boost his chances of making the Brazil World Cup team. No agreement yet, but the Savinho deal definitely doesn’t seem as dead as what it did about a week ago.

After failing in bids to land Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze (and boy, isn’t that latter one starting to feel like we dodged a Sol Campbell 2.0 bullet right now), Tottenham are still planning to be active in the window. It might go down to the wire, but hey, we’re Tottenham fans — we should be used to that by now.

Death, taxes, Tottenham Hotspur beating Manchester City at the Etihad. One year after dismantling Pep Guardiola’s team in Manchester, Spurs returned with a new manager and a similar result. City looked threatening for much of the first half, but Tottenham got goals from Brennan Johnson and an unlikely rebounded effort from new signing Palhinha, and Spurs escaped Manchester with a 2-0 win. It’s only the second time in Pep’s entire career that he’s suffered successive home defeats to the same opponent. I love this bit, it’s so good. Long may it continue.

It was a dramatic week for Tottenham in the transfer market, but you can’t argue with the results on the pitch. Thomas Frank’s Spurs are now unbeaten and un-scored upon in their first two matches of the new season, and doesn’t THAT feel good?

Here are my match reactions.

Match Reactions

Tottenham Hotspur beating Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City is still the funniest ongoing bit in sports.

Final xG: City 1.51 — 1.02 Spurs, with City having 61% possession. lol…lmao

Gotta say I really expected a back three like what we saw when Spurs played PSG. Frank’s decision to go with a back four means he at least intended to press-and-squish City, mostly bypassing the midfield, but the first half was spent mostly playing out of the back.

This is the first time we’ve seen Sarr ostensibly playing as a 10 with Palhinha and Bentancur behind him. It’s an interesting experiment though I’m not sure how successful it was. Sarr has plenty of industry but had a harder time linking the ball to the offensive players. EDIT: This was my first half bullet on Sarr, but he really played well on balance, again just was everywhere in the second half. Editing my remarks because it really did come off as overly harsh (although I maintain that I don’t like him at the 10).

Credit to Spurs for defending stoutly against what already looks like a fairly polished City offense. Spurs absolutely are a better defending team than last season, and that’s not nothing. It’s not GOALS, but it’s not nothing.

Tottenham’s goal really was the Brennan Johnson Experience™ - does virtually nothing for the majority of the half, frequently lazy getting back from offside positions, and then makes an amazing run to one touch a goal in transition. No pass, no dribble, only shoot. The Lionel Messi of Nacer Chadlis. (Subsequent discussion in Slack also mentioned baseball’s Adam Dunn)

I have no idea how the ref didn’t call a foul and DOGSO on James Trafford for the incident against Kudus near the end of the first half. That was one billion percent a foul, even if it happened outside the box.

Palhinha is exactly who I thought he is: a really good tackler and defender but my word that guy just cannot pass the ball. Spurs were trying to play out from the back and Palhinha was like a black hole of possession. If we’re going to play him, and we will, my god do we need a midfield passer in this squad.

BUTTTTTTTTTT what if he can just score goals? Like that one?

I have to appreciate Tottenham’s low-key attempts to take the air out of the ball in the second half. At one point Mohammed Kudus wasted 35 seconds before taking a standard free kick. Dark Arts.

The match official was garbage today — blew several calls including an obvious foul on James Trafford that could’ve been a DOGSO — but at least he was consistently garbage on both sides of the ball after failing to call a Micky van de Ven foul in Spurs’ box.

Kudus continues to impress. That guy’s motor is just unreal, and he had quite a few nice moments in possession. I was wrong, he’s worth every penny Spurs spent on him.

Wilson Odobert had a nice little shift today, looking bright on the left and getting free for a few half chances despite my attempts to loan him to Roma this week. He seems to be ahead of Tel at the moment.

Outstanding defensive performance today. Both central defenders were well up for this match, and Guglielmo Vicario made some wonderful saves.

Next two matches feel very winnable — home to Bournemouth, away to West Ham. Feeling pretty good today, fam.

Eberechi Eze — who needs him?

If you are the kind of person who is optimistic that things will turn out for the best, then this might be a story for you. There has been a bunch of background muttering about Tottenham Hotspur’s bid to purchase Savinho from Manchester City maybe not being as dead as what it seemed like last week, and now Fabrizio Romano is in to confirm it.

Do the math and €70m comes out to just shy of £61m. That’s a lot for a 20-year-old who hasn’t broken out in the Premier League, but less than what Spurs were willing to pay for Morgan Gibbs-White or Eberechi Eze, and if I’m honest less than what I thought it might take to actually pry him out of Manchester.

Savinho is good. Like, I think potentially transformational good, especially if he continues to improve the way he has. If €70m is City’s asking price, then Spurs should pay it. If the asking price is actually higher than that, then Spurs should pay whatever that asking price really is. What I’m saying is: I like Savinho, Spurs should make him a priority signing, and then we figure out the 10 spot afterwards.

There’s that pesky matter of the City executive who has put a veto on the idea of Savio leaving, but everyone likes money and so my informed opinion is that Spurs should spend some money and bring in Savio. Because he’s cool and fun and I want to see him play in a Tottenham shirt for Thomas Frank this season.

That’s it. That’s the post.

One down, 37 to go. Obviously a home victory against a newly promoted side is not exactly a guarantee of future dominance, but given how difficult everything was for Tottenham Hotspur last season, the opening weekend was refreshingly convincing. I suppose not everything was a loss for Spurs domestically in 2024/25, as one (hilarious) tradition continued on.

That is, of course, the club’s inexplicable success against Manchester City. Despite Pep Guardiola’s ridiculous squad, Spurs are 6-2-4 against them in the past six league seasons. Form seems to matter very little when these sides meet, though City was arguably the most impressive club to kick off the year, thoroughly dismantling Wolves. It might be another new Tottenham manager, but Thomas Frank must carry on the torch.

Match Details

Date: Saturday, August 23

Time: 7:30 am ET, 12:30 pm UK

Location: Etihad Stadium, Manchester

TV: USA Network (US), TNT Sports 1 (UK)

Table: City (t-1st, 3 pts), Tottenham (t-1st, 3 pts)

So yes, there are plenty of fun moments to choose from. Relevant to Saturday, three of the last four trips to the Etihad have been ones to remember. In 2021/22 it was Harry Kane putting on one of the greatest Premier League performances ever. Two years later, Dejan Kulusevski equalized in the 90th minute to cap off an amazing back-and-forth. Meanwhile, last season’s fixture was arguably Spurs best domestically, a 4-0 drubbing behind a James Maddison first-half brace.

Three Big Questions

Will Frank deploy another back three? Frank’s two real matches in charge have featured two disparate lineups, largely due to opposition. Against Burnley, Tottenham used a 4-2-3-1 formation that felt like it could be the squad’s default this season. However, the Super Cup set up in a 5-3-2 to protect against PSG’s lethal attack, and it pretty much did the job (emphasis on pretty much).

Given City’s attackers and Frank’s willingness to be versatile, another back three feels like the direction this Saturday. Kevin Danso is proving to be a reliable centerback, and his inclusion gives Spurs the long-throw option, as well as another body to use in set pieces, which is how they scored against PSG. Seeing how the manager chooses to play against this type of opponent will be very telling for the upcoming Champions League campaign.

Can City overcome its Spurs curse? Wolves are relegation candidates, but City looked fully operational last weekend. Guardiola’s side dominated 4-0, with Erling Haaland starting off the season with a brace and Tijjani Reijnders debuting with a goal and an assist. As always, this is an opponent with no shortage of ways to cause harm, and all logic points to the home side scoring multiple times in this one.

Yet, logic has no role here. Every time these teams meet, it seems like City should run away with it, yet somehow Tottenham finds a way to defy the odds each time. Maybe a pragmatic manager will finally break this fortune, or maybe it will actually be the type of performance where Spurs just go and outplay City at the Etihad. This looks to be strength-on-strength and there should be plenty of chances for the visitors’ defense to prove it is capable of hanging with this attack.

Is playing for the counter too obvious? It was time for Heung-Min Son to leave, but this is probably the fixture where his absence will be felt most. Counterattacking is still the best approach against City’s high line, but Spurs will be without their greatest weapon in this regard. There are certainly some speedsters remaining, though none offer the combination of pace and ruthless finishing like prime Son.

This might be the choice that really tests Frank. Should he go with the aforementioned back three, the combination of Mohammed Kudus and Richarlison is not exactly the pinnacle of sprinting on the break. Neither can really be taken out of the lineup, especially given their excellent performance against Burnley, but one has to wonder if Brennan Johnson needs a spot in the starting XI as the classic outlet; otherwise, it will be up to the fullbacks to take advantage on the break.

“Destiny is better and trained with the team twice, full training, just too short to be involved against City. We want him to train tomorrow and get another week. Bissouma is also out. Kulusevski is out for some time and I don’t want to put a time frame on it.”

“I don’t speak about specific players unless they are at our fantastic club. There have been a lot of rumors including players linked when I think that’s interesting because there’s nothing in it. There have been a lot of links and lot of links in the future.

“In general, talking generally, I don’t want any players that don’t want to come to this club and wear this fantastic badge. We don’t want them here and I’m sure the fans feel the same.”

“Of course we need to do everything we can. We have six good front players that is very competitive. Kulusevski will come back this season, probably longer term with Maddison, I am also confident we will sign a player before the end of the window.”

“Right now, he is my starting nine. He scored two fantastic goals. He had two top games, he’s Brazilian number nine. He’s a very good player, I’m very happy with him. Richy wants to stay, I want to keep him, there have been no talks about anything else.”

“Rodri and Phil, last game they were out, but for just the reason why was lack of training and rhythym. They were not ready for 90 minutes against Wolves but they are ready for tomorrow. Kovacic, Josko and Savio are the ones who are out.”

This is a transfer news story about Tottenham Hotspur winger Wilson Odobert. But it’s actually MORE a transfer news story about Manchester City’s Savinho… kind of. We know Spurs are interested in bringing in the 20-year-old Brazilian winger from City, we know that Savinho is open to the move to get first team minutes ahead of the World Cup, and we know that Pep Guardiola is okay with the idea of the club selling him to Spurs despite only buying him last summer.

But we also know that the transfer deal is being held up via a veto by someone high up in the City hierarchy, ostensibly because they don’t want a repeat of the Cole Palmer Situation™ whereby City sell a promising youngster to a league rival only for them to turn out to be extremely good. There hasn’t been a whole lot of movement on Savinho over the past couple of days, just a couple of thinly sourced reports that Spurs haven’t given up on the idea and are considering testing City’s resolve with a truly massive bid before the close of the window.

What does this have to do with Wilson Odobert? Well, it’s this — Savinho would likely waltz straight into the starting lineup at Tottenham should he come, Spurs are pretty packed with good players on both flanks at the moment, are looking for additional reinforcements in what’s left of the window, and Odobert is probably the odd man out. So enter the Italian media! Corriere dello Sport writes today that Roma are interested in a move for Odobert, whom Spurs apparently rate at €25m, as an alternative to Manchester United’s Jadon Sancho.

Now — this is the part where I tell you that you should always, ALWAYS be skeptical of the Italian media because the ratio of truth to chaff on the various Italian rumor sites is pretty low. But that said, if Tottenham are able to get Savinho’s transfer from City across the line, this is something that might make a lot of sense for Spurs to consider. It feels as though Thomas Frank has now had a good look at his attacking options and Odobert doesn’t appear to be very high in the hierarchy. To be sure there are plenty of games to come and if he stays Wilson will get playing time either as a substitute or a rotation option in injury and multi-week matches. He’s also only 20 so it feels foolish to give up on him. That said, the signs are pointing towards a reduced role and that’s BEFORE any more potential incoming players like Savinho or Maghnes Akliouche.

Roma apparently would be fine with taking Odobert on loan with a purchase option, but he’s listed in a group along with Monaco’s Breel Embolo (Remembering Some Guys), Chelsea youngster George, and Betis’ Abde Ezzalzouli. So this is probably pretty unlikely already, and even more so if Spurs don’t happen to get Savinho.

In the end this is pretty thin gruel, but that said it’s always good to think of possibilities. It’s also a plausible outcome, if certain dominos fall a certain way. It might even be good for Wilson, assuming he’d come in and compete for first choice minutes at Roma. I’m not saying this is going to happen (it probably won’t) but it’s not the worst idea I’ve heard.

This has been a big week for Morecambe.

For those of you who read the articles here (lol), you’d know that hoddle headquarters has been keeping a close eye on Morecambe as the club teetered towards extinction.

Earlier this week, a Panjab Warriors consortium finally completed its takeover of the club. The Bond Group, which had previously owned the club, confirmed on Sunday that it sold its “majority shareholding” to Panjab Warriors.

The National League’s club compliance and licensing committee said Morecambe’s suspension from the league would no longer be in effect once it had received paperwork of the sale.

It’s been a long time coming for Panjab Warriors, whose takeover of the club was approved by the EFL back in June.

Panjab Warriors had previously accused the club of “being held hostage”, and the Bond Group’s Jason Whittingham had alleged there was a “campaign of social abuse on social media” against him and his family. In the same statement at the time, he also said those people would be investigated “even after the club is sold”. Baffling stuff, really.

So where does that leave Morecambe now?

Well first they’ve got a new manager: Ashvir Singh Johal, whois the first Sikh to manage a professional British club.

They also need to fill out the squad, which they’ve bolstered by signing eight players to the first team.

This all comes ahead of their season opener against Altrincham this weekend. And it’s going to be at home - how exciting! But it’s a quick turnaround, and the Shrimps are asking local supporters for help in tidying up the stadium.

They’ve got this fun looking wheel, too. Look!

It’s way too early to say how this season will end for Morecambe. I think it’s realistic to expect they’ll be relegated again (they hardly even have a team, after all).

But they avoided the absolute worst-case scenario, and that means they can at least continue fighting for survival.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), by Talking Heads

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “Tottenham’s Eberechi Eze transfer mess and what it means for Daniel Levy and Thomas Frank”

Jay Harris ($$): “Missing out on Eberechi Eze underlines a sense Tottenham have failed to kick on after Europa League win”

BBC: “‘Reeking of desperation?’ - who could Spurs turn to next?”

London Standard: “Deja vu for dithering Tottenham as Arsenal show how big clubs act with Eberechi Eze transfer coup”

David Hytner: “Battle with Arsenal for Eberechi Eze was a fight Spurs feared they wouldn’t win”

We have long since known that Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder Dejan Kulusevski is going to be out for a while after sustaining a knee injury last spring. The guesstimates for his return have ranged from sometime in the next month to sometime in 2026. Now, according to David Hytner in the Guardian, we have a more firm timetable: next January.

Hytner writes that Deki is set to miss the first half of the season after he collided with Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace (those guys again?) last May 11 and sustained an injury to his patella that eventually required surgery. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to Spurs fans, and this falls pretty close to the median for recovery time for this kind of injury. Of course, the hope was Deki is a fast healer and could’ve come back sooner than that, but you know, we can’t have nice things. That’s been made pretty abundantly clear this summer.

With James Maddison already out for the majority of the season after also having knee surgery sustained in preseason, Tottenham are really in a pickle at the 10 spot. I’m not going to rehash all of the transfer crap that’s happened this summer, but just to put a fine point on the fact that Spurs really really need a 10, or they’ll have to make do with a committee at that position as the Premier League season gets underway.

I suggest going back and looking at those pretty pictures I posted yesterday. They work, honest.

Yesterday was a bad day for Tottenham Hotspur, but while the club failed in its bid to secure Crystal Palace attacking midfielder Eberechi Eze after losing out to an Arsenal gazumping, the club is already briefing that it has other irons in the fire. Reports in both the Independent and the Daily Mail say Spurs are now looking at a variety of players in what’s left in the transfer window, including Como midfielder Nico Paz, Monaco attacker Maghnes Aklioiuche, and Southampton winger Tyler Dibling.

In addition to the above, the Independent’s Miguel Delaney says a hijack approach for Chelsea target Xavi Simons or Leicester midfielder Bilal El Khannous, who recently agreed to move to Crystal Palace. Another approach for past target Conor Gallagher, now at Atletico Madrid, was also mentioned. Tottenham also have seemingly not fully given up on their pursuit of Manchester City’s Savinho.

The fact that two reports have come out at approximately the same time with more or less the same list of targets could be a coincidence or simply logical thinking, but it’s more likely that Spurs are briefing friendly media, trying to get ahead of the embarrassment of yesterday’s Eze failure. Akliouche and especially Paz are seen as the most likely targets, and both are likely going to be expensive. That said, Spurs have already shown a willingness to put down large amounts of money as evident by the pursuit of Eze and Morgan Gibbs-White; the devil, as always, is in the details.

There isn’t a lot of time left in the window and there is an acknowledgement that Tottenham need additional bodies to be as competitive as possible in both the Premier League and the Champions League this season. That said, if Spurs are indeed briefing their targets, at this stage of the window it’s a pretty decent list. Let’s see what emerges in the next few days.