Cartilage Free Captain

Miguel Delaney had something of a weird weekend with regards to his reporting on the deal between Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace over Eberechi Eze. Delaney first posted on social media that things were pointing towards a £55m deal plus incentives for the 27-year-old England international to move across town to North London, then followed it up by saying that things had become “difficult.”

Delaney was one of the journalists who suggested that Eze might not start Palace’s first match this past weekend over concern about his transfer, only for him to then start anyway (and score a banger of a free kick that was called back by a controversial VAR decision).

Clearly Delaney has sources, probably from Eze’s agents, who are feeding him information that changes frequently. It’s the nature of the business. His latest, in the Independent, suggests that the hold-up is Palace insisting that Tottenham spend more of the transfer fee up front so Palace can have more flexibility to bring in Eze’s replacement. Palace are now closely linked with Leicester attacking midfielder Bilal El Khannous, also on Tottenham’s list should the Eze deal fall through, but Spurs may be hesitant to front-load the payment too much out of liquidity concerns. Palace also have an interest in Club Brugge midfielder Christos Tzolis.

How accurate is this? Well, check your watch because by the time you read this it might have changed, but it feels pretty reasonable to me. Palace are also at risk of losing Marc Guehi and while they’re getting good money in for the players they’ve sold in recent seasons, they don’t want to be left too short-handed. I’d say it’s a reasonable ask to have a larger down payment, but it also depends on how much they’re asking for and whether there’s any wiggle room. There’s also the possibility that Palace want to hang onto Eze until after their Europa Conference League playoff match against Fredrikstad on Thursday.

I’m still pretty bullish on this deal and think it happens, but it’s not a Tottenham transfer without a little late drama. In the meantime: calma, calma, calma. Alternately, just lie back and think of Savinho.

Last week the Athletic reported that Tottenham Hotspur were in negotiations with Djed Spence for what would be his second contract extension in less than a year. Today, the club made it official, posting the announcement on their social media channels and on their website.

It’s a nice time to make an announcement like this after a solid win in Spurs’ first Premier League match of the season, and one in which Djed played a pretty important role on both sides of the ball. Curiously, Spurs did not mention any contract details in the announcement — you don’t expect them to say what a player’s new salary is, but you would expect them to say at minimum when the contract expires. But we don’t get that, so my guess is that’s it’s a marginal bump in contract length that is more to do with a pay raise than anything else. Spurs do mention it’s a “long-term contract with the Club,” so… yay?

“I’m over the moon, happy to sign. I just can’t wait to start the season and get going. I just want to keep playing well and reach a higher level.

“Everyone has trials and tribulations, but I’m a fighter. I always work hard, try to do my best and come back from everything. It’s been difficult, it’s been a roller-coaster road for every challenge. I’ve been resilient and fast-forward, I’m here now, I’m playing, I’m happy. I’m just over the moon.

I mentioned this in the player ratings piece, but Djed not only looks comfortable in the left, I think he may actually turn out long term to be Thomas Frank’s first choice. Ironic, considering he’s notionally a right back and you’d expect him to be the rotation for Pedro Porro. Maybe he still is that, but so far in this young season he’s certainly making a case to start out left ahead of the currently-injured Destiny Udogie.

The first Premier League weekend is in the books. And what better way to recap it than by going through some of the best pictures across the league? I’m happy to bring back this feature (hopefully on a more regular basis than last year) for the 2025-26 PL season. Okay, let’s get to it:

We should stress it’s difficult to find one or two images/videos from Diogo Jota, who died alongside his brother Andre Silva in a car crash in July. We knew Liverpool’s first home game of the season was going to be an incredibly emotional one. So I’m just posting this one here:

Elsewhere, Jota’s previous club Wolverhampton paid tribute to him with a Tifo of their own:

Jota joined Wolves on loan from Porto in 2017 and helped the club secure promotion before finishing seventh in the Premier League.

Now this is sick.

What a way for Sunderland to reintroduce themselves to the Premier League. Forget the 3-0 win against West Ham (actually let’s not forget that West Ham lost 3-0, lol), this is the highlight of the game:

I did a little digging, and apparently this tifo is in reference to The Lambton Worm, which terrorised the people living around the River Wear.

John Lambton, who had originally caught the then-little worm and then forgot about it, returned to his father’s estate after seven long years to find that it had fallen into disrepair because of the large and angry worm. After conferring with a which, John Lambton confronts the worm and kills it.

Yeah, I’m obviously putting this here.

Your hoddler-in-chief let out a gasp when he saw Richarlison score this worldie, which surely is a lock for goal of the month. Hell, let’s give him goal of the season!

It’s a heck of a start from Richarlison. Let’s keep the man healthy, please.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Straight to Hell, by The Clash

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Advantage Richarlison in contest to be Tottenham’s first-choice striker”

Alasdair Gold: “Why Thomas Frank shouted at Bergvall, Eberechi Eze and the powerful person sat next to Daniel Levy”

The Independent: “Why Eberechi Eze holds the key to the cruel crossroads facing Crystal Palace”

Ready for an Eberechi Eze to Tottenham Hotspur transfer update? Of course you are. The latest is that Eze has already agreed personal terms with Spurs, and that the rest of the deal is just horse trading. Depending on who you read, talks are “ongoing,” “intensifying,” or “too sexy for this shirt” (ok, I made that last bit up).

It really is feeling like this is edging towards a foregone conclusion. Eze wants to come, we want Eze to come, and all that remains is to figure out how much it’ll take to get him here. Eze’s £68m purchase clause expired on Friday, but that’s kind of a moot point because the numbers being thrown around for Crystal Palace’s demands were lower than that anyway. My guess is that the talks are not just about overall fee, but also fee structure — how much up front, how much in payments, length of the contract, clauses and how achievable they are, etc. Those things take time.

There’s also similarly good news about the Savinho deal. The Brazilian winger is not with the team right now as he’s “injured” (going with “vision problems,” i.e. he can’t see himself at City any longer), and most City sources I’m seeing are expecting Spurs to eventually come to a deal. It’s notable that City play in the late match today and Rayan Cherki, another one-time Spurs target, is on the bench. If Cherki’s not going to play for City, Savinho DEFINITELY won’t.

I know we’re all impatient bastards, but both of these signings are looking pretty great right now. Let’s see what happens next week.

The 2025-26 Premier League season is officially underway for Tottenham Hotspur as the Lilywhites made their debut under Thomas Frank in style, drubbing Burnley 3-0 on Saturday.

Following the Super Cup penalty shootout defeat to PSG on Wednesday, Frank has already seen changes to his Starting XI, rotating the midfield with the likes of Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray joining Pape Sarr. Kevin Danso was on the subs bench to start the match as Frank went back to a back four with Djed Spence still at left back, with Destiny Udogie recovering from his muscle injury.

With the excitement and buzz entering the new season as Champions of Europe, Spurs almost bagged the opening goal 30 seconds into the Frank era as Bergvall had a shot inside the six-yard post that had Martin Dúbravka sprawling out to force an early corner.

Only making matters worse for the newly appointed No. 1 keeper for the Clarets, Dúbravka became the first keeper of the season penalized for the new eight-second rule that awarded Spurs a corner kick. It will be interesting to see how refs dictate the counts after a few weeks into the season. Will they forget about it or punish teams more for time wasting?

Spurs scored their first goal of the game nine minutes into the season after Pedro Porro released a driven ball down the right touchline for Mohammed Kudus to chase. Unable to get to the ball, Kudus and Sarr kept the high press on the Burnley defense as a poor clearance allowed the two to connect on the right wing before Kudus dribbled the ball onto his right and whipped a cross into the penalty spot for Richarlison to connect on a half volley and bury his first of two highlight goals on the day.

Quickly becoming a fan favorite for many reasons before touching the pitch, Kudus backtracked to stop a Burnley counterattack down the left wing and would later prove why he is a force on the wing in the second half.

At times in the first half, the Spurs’ defense was shaky as Cristian Romero misplaced easy passes in the midfield that were typical easy passes for the Argentine defender. But the defense stood firm as the side closed gaps and put in strong tackles and blocks to stop the Burnley attack.

Leading 1-0 after 45 minutes into the new season, Spurs had to fight an early barrage of Burnley attacks before putting the nail in the coffin in the 60th minute.

Once more, it was Sarr and Kudus connecting down the touchline as the two played quick passes that allowed Kudus to run onto the ball and whip a corner into the box. Already connecting with Richarlison 10 minutes into the contest, the two connected yet again as the acrobatic display from Richarlison showed glimpses of the 2022 Qatar World Cup goal against Serbia.

Health is the most significant factor for the Brazilian striker, but when he is healthy, he is a force to be reckoned with, as his skills are one thing. Still, his ability to lead the high press will be a significant factor for this upcoming season.

Tottenham added a third and final goal six minutes later as Richarlison’s hold-up play near midfield allowed Sarr to collect the touch and release Brennan Johnson down the left channel. Beating the Burnley defender on his first touch, Johnson tapped the ball past Dubravka. He continued the celebrations inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Johnson Again, Johnson Again, Johnson Again Ole Ole Ole rang through the stadium with Champions of Europe echoing around the ground.

Finally! One day before Tottenham Hotspur kick off their Premier League season against Burnley, the club has confirmed its kit number assignments for the 2025-26 campaign. You might remember that there were no names on the back of the kits throughout the preseason, and that’s usually because players can opt to change their kit numbers or their name on the back of their shirts at any time up until registration is complete. Now it’s locked in.

The big changes are Radu Dragusin switching from kit #6 to kit #3, and new signing Joao Palhinha taking #6, one of the numbers he wore at Sporting. (Palhinha has also worn kit #16, #26, and #66, so I’m guessing he likes the number six, ah ah ahhhhhhhh [thunder rolls].) Mohammed Kudus takes kit No. 20.

Everything else is the same as last season. Here are the finalized kit numbers. Go forth and order your Tottenham replica kits with full confidence that they will have the right number on the back!

Tottenham Hotspur Women will face Sevilla Femenino in a friendly today (August 15, 2025) at 7 pm UK time, 2 pm ET. The match will be available to view on Spursplay–the first time the club has ever televised a Spurs Women friendly.

Although fans have been clamoring for the club to show these games for literally years, Spurs have always kept women’s friendly matches behind closed doors. In fact, they’ve hardly ever announced them until after the fact. Though it’s long overdue, I’m excited we’re finally getting one, and I hope it’s just the first of many to come.

As such, I’m basically beside myself with curiosity about this game. Spurs finished the 2024-25 season in a demoralizing 11th place in the WSL out of 12, one spot above relegation. Since then, Spurs have sacked Robert Vilahamn and replaced him with Martin Ho. Ho is very well-regarded in women’s soccer circles, but he’s spent most of his career as an assistant coach so there’s not too much info out there on how he likes to play. Unless you’re a big fan of his previous club, Brann, this friendly will be a first glimpse of Ho-ball, and whether he can make something out of last season’s weak squad.

To be honest, I don’t really know what to expect from Sevilla as opponents. Sevilla finished 9th in La Liga F last season. I understand La Liga F drops off sharply in quality after you get past Barcelona and Real Madrid, but, well, so does the WSL. We’ll find out together, and given Spurs have been known to base any international recruitment largely on teams they face in friendlies, maybe we’ll get a cheeky transfer out of it, too.

Other than the trip to Spain and today’s friendly, it’s been all quiet for Spurs Women. There haven’t been any business developments since the club announced the transfer of goalkeeper Becky Spencer to Chelsea. Here’s hoping for a bit more August news, and we’ll be back after the game with our first thoughts on Martin Ho!

Welcome back to our mini-series looking back at Tottenham Hotspur’s intriguing preseason campaign. Yesterday, we got started with some of the positive takeaways: the players who stood out, exceeded expectations, and seized the chance before them. Tomorrow, as we lead into the first match of the season against Burnley, we’ll look at some of the quandaries and questions of the season’s preparations.

As for today, it’s a journey through the negatives. Who’s struggled through preseason, and perhaps not cemented themselves in Thomas Frank’s plans they way they could (or should) have?

Why don’t we get sad together?

Note: I haven’t included players who have missed significant time due to injury, such as James Maddison, Manor Solomon, or Dane Scarlett.

Yves Bissouma

It’s a far cry from Biss’ heady heights in the early days of Ange-ball at Spurs. Bissouma looked off the pace in preseason, with Rodrigo Bentancur and some of the younger options in Pape Matar Sarr and Lucas Bergvall often being preferred ahead of him; even late on in closing out matches where you think somebody with his engine and ability would excel. This is before the signing of Joao Palhinha, mind you!

Yves is always one moment away from making a mistake, and it just seems like Frank doesn’t trust him. That lack of trust won’t have been remedied in any way by Bissouma showing up late to training either, breaking team protocols and earning himself a suspension from the matchday squad for the Super Cup. It feels like his days are numbered at Spurs.

Brennan Johnson

It’s getting harder and harder to work out where the Europa League final hero fits in Frank’s starting XI. Though Johnson is always a goal threat, the deficiencies in other areas of the squad demand more from the wide roles, which new signing Mohamed Kudus seems to offer. Johnson’s playing time has therefore dwindled as preseason has gone on, and one solid performance against Newcastle aside, when he has played, he’s been completely anonymous in a rather uninspiring attack.

This culminated in a sub appearance against Arsenal, where he worked hard in defense, but only touched the ball four times in nearly half an hour. It’s the sort of stint that seems to happen a little too often for Brennan, and with Spurs now linked with another right wing in the form of Savinho, Johnson is going to have to really fight for his spot.

Mathys Tel

I feel bad even writing this, especially given what Tel has endured over the last couple of days; but the reality is that Tel hasn’t exactly shone through preseason. I am a huge fan of Tel, and I honestly thought he would be a fantastic stylistic fit for an Mbeumo-eque wide role under Frank. That never really eventuated, as other players were preferred in the wide areas, and Tel spent most of his time at striker covering for the injured Dom Solanke and Richarlison where he was largely ineffectual.

Tel is still young, and with a bright future in front of him; but with the departure of Son I really thought he could step up and be “the guy”. There’s still plenty of time, but it’s likely he’ll have to bide his as Spurs look for more attacking reinforcements and Frank seems to prefer other options.

Alfie Devine

After a pretty successful loan season in the Belgian top flight, I had high hopes for Alfie this season. A talented, front-foot midfielder with a good all-round skillset, I was hoping he would build on his time at Westerlo with a strong preseason campaign, potentially sticking around as depth for the senior squad as a club-trained option in Europe.

Instead, he played barely more than a half of football (where I maintain he looked pretty good!) before being loaned out to the Championship with an option to buy. It’s not a terrible result for Alfie, but I was expecting more, and with the injury to Maddison Devine could have been a valuable contributor if he could have made that next step.

Tottenham Hotspur’s failed bid for Morgan Gibbs-White has prompted a lot of questions since Nottingham Forest refused to accept a bid above the player’s release clause. Gibbs-White eventually signed a new contract with Forest, scuppering any chance Spurs had of landing the player.

It’s been an open question up until now what actually happened. Did Spurs actually meet Gibbs-White’s release clause? Why did Forest refuse to accept the bid? Did Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis actually report Spurs to the Premier League for an illegal approach?

We still don’t know the answers to all of these questions, but articles from Jay Harris in The Athletic and Alasdair Gold in Football.London have provided some new details that have given a bit of clarity to what happened and why.

Here’s a brief summary.

Tottenham Hotspur placed a bid for Gibbs-White that, after escalators, was above the £60m release clause for the player and would’ve been higher than the £65m club record fee they paid for Dominic Solanke

Forest owner Marinakis was furious over the bid, suggesting Spurs had somehow underhandedly discovered the release clause, which was supposedly confidential. In addition, Forest maintained that Tottenham’s initial bid “did not trigger aspects of the clause beyond the £60m fee,” the conditions of which was not explained in either article and remains a mystery

Forest threatened to report Tottenham to the Premier League for an “illegal approach” but never actually did

Tottenham then came back with an even larger bid above Gibbs-White’s release clause, but Forest did not accept that bid either, holding that the approach was illegal

In the meantime, Gibbs-White continued to train, and was convinced to sign a new contract after a 30-minute meeting with Marinakis

Tottenham, upon learning of Gibbs-White’s new contract, were “flabbergasted,” with suggestions within the club that Gibbs-White’s decision to stay at Forest “could not have been a financial one”

It’s not clear who told Tottenham about Gibbs-White’s release clause, or even if anyone did at all; the possibility exists that they simply made a bid and it happened to trigger it, but this can’t be proven and likely won’t be

Gibbs-White telephoned Thomas Frank to apologize for how things played out, and Frank told him he had nothing to apologize for

Nobody — neither Spurs, Forest, CAA Base, or the Premier League — is willing to speak publicly on the record about what really happened

There’s enough smoke here to be able to make a reasonable surmise about what happened, and that is this: MGW had a release clause, Tottenham (by whatever method) met it, and Marinakis simply didn’t want to sell. That’s at least what Occam’s Razor tells me via the above details. It’s not something I would ever bet the house on, but it does feel like the most reasonable explanation.

If MGW had a release clause but Forest believed it to be confidential, then it explains why Marinakis and Forest were so furious over Tottenham’s bid. Regardless of whether Spurs knew or were tipped off about the release clause number or not, if a club makes a bid for a player that eclipses that amount they’re legally obligated to honor it. But a confidential clause makes it somewhat likely that the selling club could just ignore it, because if a tree falls in the forest and doesn’t make a sound, maybe it doesn’t really exist?

That’s a legal argument Tottenham could’ve probably pursued, but it would’ve very likely been a long and drawn out process that might have carried it past the end of the transfer window and into the new season. Once the player decided to sign a new contract, it more or less became moot; in that case I can see a situation where Spurs decided it was not worth the effort.

Now, let’s back up a second and note that Tottenham actually made not one, but TWO bids that were over MGW’s release clause, one (potentially) unknowingly, and one knowingly. I recognize that Gibbs-White was identified as one of the clubs’ key summer signings, but I’m already on record as thinking a £60m bid was already too high. Bidding OVER the release clause for MGW feels a bit insane to me and not exactly a good use of club resources. That nugget of info definitely made my eyebrows raise.

I also am intensely curious what other conditions, beyond the financial bid, might have been included in Gibbs-White’s release clause that Spurs didn’t meet with their bid. I’m struggling to think of what those might have been and whether or not it’s even possible to include those into what is supposed to be a purely financial process.

Also a bit alarming was the suggestion from inside Tottenham’s camp that MGW’s new deal might not have been made purely for financial reasons. There are suggestions that Marinakis has ties to the Greek mafia, and has allegations of sportswashing and corruption made against him in the past. I do not know that Tottenham’s assertions have anything to do with that, nor am I making that claim myself, but it is very interesting to suggest that Gibbs-White’s new deal might not be a purely financial one and then not go any further as to what other factors could have been involved. It’s also important to note, as the Athletic points out, that MGW could’ve been willing to advance his career by moving to Tottenham and also be perfectly happy staying at Forest under new contractual terms; these things are not mutually exclusive.

I’ve been waiting for an article or two like the ones linked above that could provide some additional context to what happened with Morgan Gibbs-White. The new details are interesting, but still don’t provide a full picture of what happened. I doubt we’ll ever know the full story, or at least not for a very long time.

In the end, Marinakis and Nottingham Forest “won” — they were able to successfully refuse to honor a bid for one of their best players that was above the release clause in the player’s contract by throwing a huge hissy fit and screaming about it until Spurs backed away. Tottenham still don’t have a high-level (and healthy) #10, though that could change if they are able to sign Savinho and Eberechi Eze.

It makes you wonder if Forest, or another club, will try this tactic again in the future.

Despite the defeat in Wednesday’s nothing-more-than-a-friendly, Tottenham Hotspur enters the Thomas Frank era with plenty of hope. With the silverware drought finally ended and transfer rumors continuing to fly, the start of the new campaign feels overall very positive, though there is much work to do. A 17th-place finish will not happen again, but Frank faces a difficult road to get the club back where it belongs.

That all starts with a visit from promoted Burnley to begin the Premier League season. The Clarets have gone down-up-down-up the past four years and will try their best to make it a multi-year stay this time, though betting markets have them favored to once again drop back down. At home against a bottom side, Spurs have no excuses on Saturday to not open up with three points.

Match Details

Date: Saturday, August 16

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

Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

TV: Peacock (US)

Table: Tottenham (0 pts), Burnley (0 pts)

Spurs beat Burnley three times in the 2023/24 season before the Clarets returned to the Championship. At Turf Moor, Heung-Min Son bagged a hat trick and Cristian Romero and James Maddison added belters in a 5-2 win. Pedro Porro one-upped them all to secure an FA Cup Third Round victory, then scored another impressive goal in the 2-1 league win in North London, with Micky van de Ven slotting in the winner. After all, scoring goals is just what Romero and van de Ven do!

Three Big Questions

How will Frank force the issue? Though the horrendous defense doomed Tottenham last season, there are more question marks regarding the attack at the moment. Reinforcements may be on the way, but even with the rumored names, it is not perfectly clear how this side will progress the ball. It was fun to see the set pieces yield a pair of goals against PSG, but at the end of the day, this squad must convert possession into chances.

Spurs will face plenty of low blocks this season — certainly an increased amount for Frank — so answering this challenge quickly is imperative. Burnley will obviously look to sit and defend as much as possible, meaning supporters will get an early glimpse at Tottenham’s tactics against (and ability to break down) extremely defensive sides. Do not expect another back three this weekend.

Is the Burnley defense actually good? Burnley conceded a ridiculously low 16 goals in 46 Championship matches last season and will now try to carry that performance forward. But against much, much higher competition and without outstanding keeper James Trafford at Turf Moor this year, it seems difficult to feel great about this defense despite the previous season’s success.

In addition to promotion and personnel turnover, also working against the Clarets is a simple argument for regression. With 39.1 xGA last year, odds are the defensive excellence was going to slip even still in the Championship. Now facing significantly better opponents and elite attackers, the floodgates might open. Unfortunately, Spurs might not be able to fully capitalize, but Burnley’s defensive numbers (and narratives) from last season do likely overstate reality.

How much patience does the fanbase have? While this is just one of 38 matches, it will be difficult to not extrapolate out the entire year following Saturday, especially if Tottenham does not secure the win. After taking 15 points against the newly promoted clubs in 2022/23, and all 18 points in 2023/24, Spurs were just 3-1-2 against them last season. Though that campaign was (hopefully??) an anomaly, starting the season with more struggles against the bottom would be a troubling omen.

I hope for patience with Frank — especially with the transfer window still open and a positive showing in Udine — but know that all of us are desperate to have long-term faith in a system again. Tottenham has not opened the league season with a win since 2022/23; this feels like the perfect opportunity to snap this drought and move forward from the sourness of (the domestic portion of) last year.