Cartilage Free Captain

Big news out of Germany today — Tottenham Hotspur are currently working to appoint a new Sporting Director, ostensibly to either work alongside, or above, Johan Lange. But whoever Spurs do end up appointing for the role, it will not be former Dortmund Sporting Director Sebastian Kehl. BILD’s Florian Plettenberg is reporting today that after several rounds of negotiations, talks have broken down between Kehl and Spurs.

Plettenberg’s tweet doesn’t reveal what caused talks to break down, but there is reporting from Sky Germany’s Patrick Berger that suggested the key point of contention was none other than Roberto De Zerbi. Since his appointment, De Zerbi has been given a huge and influential role in player scouting and acquisition, and apparently Kehl did not want to join the club for that reason, with the implication being that he did not want to be overruled in club direction and strategy by the head coach.

Sebastian Kehl (46/🇩🇪) has rejected Tottenham Hotspur’s offer. After concrete negotiations and multiple meetings in London, no agreement could be reached. ❌

Talks were constructive, but differing views on the club’s strategic direction ultimately proved decisive.

One of the dealbreakers was also that head coach Roberto De Zerbi will now be given greater influence within the sporting structure. @Plettigoal @SkySportDE

I have no idea who Spurs are targeting for the position, but Kehl’s reasons for walking away from talks are a pretty significant red flag. I can understand a potential Sporting Director not wanting to walk into a position where he isn’t the one guiding the overall direction of the club. If De Zerbi is indeed mostly calling the shots, I suspect Kehl won’t be the only one to have some reservations about stepping into what could be a politically complicated job. It almost sounds like Spurs have made De Zerbi into a defacto manager-Sporting Director role, and if they’ve done that then why bother bringing in a Sporting Director at all, especially if his power is diluted by a popular and (thus far) successful head coach?

But as I mentioned when Kehl’s name first surfaced for this position a few months ago, I’m also not entirely convinced Kehl was the right person for the job anyway. Kehl accrued a significant amount of resistance from Dortmund fans for what he did while at the Bundesliga club; he was, after all, let go from that job and there are some that blame him for Dortmund falling farther behind Bayern Munich over the past few years.

So this might be a blessing in disguise, but it does make me wonder about a) Johan Lange’s current role and whether the club are still expecting to cut ties with him, and b) knowing what we know now about the role, who would want to take it?

We can confirm the departures of ten players from our Academy following the conclusion of the 2025/26 season.

Under-21s players Pele Arganese-McDermott, Tyrell Ashcroft, Leo Black, Dante Cassanova, Matthew Craig and Calum Logan have left the club.

From our Under-18s, we can confirm the departures of Jamel Beggs, Samal Bangura, Leon Myrtaj and Elijah Upson.

Thank you to all departing players and their families for their contributions to the club and all the best for the future.

One player leaves, while another stays. It’s like the circle of life, or something. Tottenham Hotspur have announced this morning that stalwart Welsh defender Ben Davies has extended his stay in London, putting pen to paper to commit to Spurs for another year:

This will be Ben Davies’ 13th season at Spurs, with the Welshman the Lilywhites’ longest serving player. It’s also an extension that some may find somewhat head-scratching, with Davies getting on in age, coming off a broken ankle, and well down the pecking order.

The thing is that Davies is a player who’s demonstrated considerable loyalty and commitment to the club, and who has clearly enjoyed his time in North London. While never being clearly first choice, he has always worked hard, played well when called upon, and has been a fantastic example to the younger players in and around the club.

He’s also a very intelligent guy, and has been working on his coaching badges in the background. There have been some rumors going around Spurs ITK (mountain of salt and all that) that the plan is for Davies to transition this season into a non-playing role, potentially coaching or some other off-pitch support function.

And given the above, I can’t think of a better next step for both club and player. Ben Davies gets to get paid a wage while continuing to develop the off-pitch skills to allow him to succeed following the conclusion of his playing career; and the club get to retain an excellent clubhouse influence and break-glass-in-case-of-emergency defensive depth. It’s really a win-win, even though I don’t expect Ben Davies to see the pitch many more times for Spurs in the future.

Congratulations, Ben. It’s good to have a professional like you around the club. Welsh Mafia forever!!!

Yves Bissouma’s time at Tottenham Hotspur has come to an end. Spurs today confirmed the Malian midfielder’s departure via social media, with Bissouma’s contract expiring:

There’s something of a feeling of what could have been following Bissouma’s time at Spurs. Coming into the club with a huge reputation following his spell at Brighton & Hove Albion and at a time when Spurs sorely needed a midfield general, there were hopes that he would be a great fit for that Mousa Dembele-shaped hole that Spurs had still not managed to fill following the Belgian’s departure.

Arriving at the club under the management of Antonio Conte, he struggled with fitness and suffered with the managerial merry-go-round that ensued in the 22/23 season, as Conte departed and Cristian Stellini, followed by Ryan Mason, took the reins. Things started to look bright for Biss, though, once Ange Postecoglou took charge of matters in 23/24. The Australian’s aggressive approach suited Bissouma, and there were fleeting glimpses of the elite midfielder Spurs thought they were getting with Biss looking at times like one of the best central players in the Premier League.

Unfortunately, those glimpses always seemed to fade away. Injuries often interrupted runs of form, and he struggled with off-pitch discipline, with reports of him arriving to training late and photographs in the media of him partaking in nitrous gas heaping pressure on player and club as the team tumbled down the table in Ange’s second season.

There will still bright moments; but mercurial probably became a better term to describe Yves Bissouma’s performances. It’s hard to forget, though, his ice-cold performance in Bilbao, playing a huge role as Spurs defeated Manchester United to claim the Europa League trophy last year. There’s been some good memories and some bad memories.

What leaves a bitter taste, though, is Bissouma leaving on a free. Even given his lack of play in another injury-hampered season, there is still a decent footballer in there, and a club with a robust transfer strategy would have taken a more active stance in finding a buyer. Instead, his contract has dwindled, and he becomes yet another player under Johan Lange’s oversight on which Spurs have taken a significant financial hit.

Goodbye, Yves. Thank you for the Europa League trophy and for the good times; and good luck wherever you end up next!

Good morning everyone and welcome to the latest edition of What are you reading right now?, where hoddle headquarters asks the commentariat the books they’re reading:

Several months ago one of you recommended I pick up the book The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago after I mentioned how much I enjoy reading Fernando Pessoa and the Richard Zenith biography.

Let me take this opportunity to thank that hoddler. I finished the book on Saturday and I will remember it as one of my favourite books, and one of the most powerful I’ve read.

The book takes place in Portugal in 1936. Ricardo Reis returns to a dreary Portugal after living in exile for 16 years in Brazil. He checks into the Hotel Braganca where he meets some strange characters including Marcenda Sampaio, a woman with a limp left hand, and Lydia, a chambermaid. He also somehow winds up being questioned by the Portuguese police for reasons never made clear.

The strangest of these interactions, however, is the man who created him. Fernando Pessoa has recently died and his ghost visits Reis from beyond the tomb. For those unaware of Pessoa, he is known as the godfather of Portuguese modernism and for creating dozens of heteronyms: fully formed alter egos who had lives, careers and distinct writing styles of their own.

Several of these were also considered some of the most illustrious writers in Portugal: Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos, and Reis.

In the months that Pessoa roams the illusory Portugal, he and Reis hold several metaphysical discussions on what it means to live, to die, on love and the changing forces surrounding them that will plunge the world into its second World War.

There is only one way this book could end. Pessoa is a ghost, and, according to the rules laid out in this book, can only roam the earth for so long until they permanently return to the tomb. And of course, for Reis, himself a far-flung extension of Pessoa, must follow.

Fitzie’s track of the day: I Will Follow You into the Dark, by Death Cab for Cutie

And now for your links:

The Guardian: “Bukayo Saka is playing through pain barrier, says Tuchel, as World Cup looms”

BBC: “David Sullivan banned from contact with West Ham women’s and youth teams since 2023”

Thirteen years or so ago, give or take a year, when Tottenham Hotspur were moldering around the Champions League places but were known as a team that underpaid and underfunded its playing squad, the Carty Free chat channel had a favorite phrase that we were keen to use. Various users, including myself, would throw a “SELL A PAINTING, JOE” in all-caps and sometimes bold type. After all, Joe Lewis was a billionaire with a huge art collection. Surely he could sell a piece of artwork that he no longer liked or wanted and funnel that money into Spurs’ summer war chest! Maybe, just maybe, that’d be enough to afford… Nile Ranger?

Today, Daniel Levy’s legacy is the giant modern stadium, still the best in the UK and among the best in Europe, that virtually prints money. And yet, here we are again — a report this morning in football.london says that, after two consecutive 17th place finishes and a near relegation this season, the Lewis family are planning to invest significant funds into the club to improve it and get Spurs back up the table where it, presumably, belongs.

Not coincidentally, they’re also planning to sell some artwork. I’m sure the two are not at all connected.

London-based auction house Sotheby’s has announced an upcoming exhibition and art auction titled “Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection”. The exhibition will be open to the public from June 10 through June 23, and an auction of the displayed pieces will be held afterwards. The exhibition and sale will include pieces by such artists as Edgar Degas, Francis Bacon, Egon Schiele, Amedeo Modigliani, Gustave Caillebotte, and Lucian Freud. But the real draw is a painting by Austrian art nouveau pioneer Gustav Klimt, which is valued at £30m on its own.

The press release by Sotheby’s about the exhibition and auction describes the collection as follows:

“This summer in London, alongside our various-owner auctions, Sotheby’s will stage a landmark exhibition and sale of masterpieces from the renowned Lewis Collection. Estimated in the region of £200 million, this will be the most valuable single-owner collection ever offered at auction in Europe, bringing together defining masterpieces of modern figurative painting.

Assembled over decades by Joe Lewis and his daughter Vivienne, many of the works in the collection have been exhibited in major museums across the globe – a testament to their exceptional art historical significance – and many have not been seen on the open market for decades, if at all.“

Football.London says that the Sotheby’s exhibition and sale is not linked to the Lewis Family’s plans to heavily invest in Tottenham Hotspur football club, and in a sense that’s probably true — money, after all, is famously fungible and can be used to purchase and sell all sorts of goods and services, and can be moved around with impunity to obscure or focus on various different things. If the billionaire family which is planning to invest funds into their football club says with a straight face that the income from the sale of their artwork isn’t connected to their expenditures in other parts of their investment portfolio, well, who am I to say otherwise? I’m certainly not a finance guy, so sure, perhaps you can’t draw a perfectly straight line between the shuffling around of money between various investments.

In that sense, the title of this article nicely meets Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, and I’m perfectly fine with that. The Lewis family is hoping to raise upwards of £200m from the sale of their apparently unwanted artworks. Meanwhile, Spurs have brought in, unofficially, two players on free transfers, are targeting big-money moves for Brazilian winger Savinho and defender Jan Paul van Hecke, and are linked to numerous other players, some with very high transfer values.

So the art sale is a coincidence? Could be. Sure does seem suspicious, though, doesn’t it? Do not look at the woman behind the curtain.

Despite our exhortations during the early Redknapp era, there’s something a little grim about a billionaire family selling Klimt paintings to finance the purchase of a 22-year-old Brazilian winger. On the other hand, it’s not our money and billionaires plowing huge funds into sports clubs could be considered a better outcome than what we’ve seen a lot of other billionaires doing with their money over the past decade or so. There is an irony, however, in seeing Tottenham Hotspur owners with a surname Lewis (ostensibly) finally opening their pocketbooks and selling paintings to fund their sports team investment at a time when the club likely has more money than it ever has before. The me from 13 years ago would probably be very annoyed at this. The me of today just wants us to finish higher than 17th next season.

Good morning dear hoddlers. We are getting closer and closer to the start of the World Cup.

There’ve been lots of friendlies going on in the last few days before the tournament properly starts, but there’s one I want to point out because of a new Tottenham player’s instant impact.

That’s right - I’m talking about Andrew Robertson.

Not only did the new Spurs signing provide an assist during Scotland’s 4-0 win against Bolivia on Saturday, he’s also captaining the squad this tournament.

For those interested in following along our boy Robertson, here are Scotland’s three group games:

vs Haiti (13 June)

vs Morocco (19 June)

vs Brazil (24 June)

Also, speaking of Tottenham players: Djed Spence provided an assist to Harry Kane during England’s 1-0 win against New Zealand. And, for those of us tracking the English team, here are their three group games:

vs Croatia (17 June)

vs Ghana (23 June)

vs Panama (27 June)

Fitzie’s track of the day: Where Are We Going?, by Donald Byrd

And now for your links:

The Guardian: “‘Luckily I play with my feet’: Spence talks up World Cup hopes despite broken jaw”

The Independent: “World Cup 2026 kits: Every home and away shirt ranked and rated”

”I want to let everyone know that I am doing well and that I am home with my family.

As you can probably imagine, receiving a shock from my ICD has had a major effect on both me and my family, but I want to assure everyone that this was a different situation from what happened in 2021.

“I am feeling good and my recovery has already started.

”In addition to being grateful for the support and assistance of all the players and the medical team on the field, I am also incredibly grateful to the doctors who have cared for me and my heart over the years.

”Thanks to their expertise, my ICD did exactly what it was designed to do: protect me when I needed it.

“For now, my focus is on recovering, spending time with my family, going on vacation, and playing football with my children.”

We first reported this back in February, but it’s probably time for a reminder. Remember Alejo Veliz? Spurs signed the then-19 year old Argentine striker from Rosario Central for £13m back in 2023 after he banged in 19 goals for his home club. That felt like a large fee for an unproven teenager who hadn’t played outside of his home country’s league, but hey — that’s what we were doing back then, signing young, unproven talents and hoping we’d hit the winning lotto numbers with at least one of them.

Well, that didn’t turn out so well. Veliz played sparingly in the brief time he was actually at Tottenham, making 8 appearances and scoring one goal in a 4-2 league loss to Brighton. Since then he’s had a couple of unspectacular loans at Sevilla and Espanyol in La Liga before heading back to Rosario Central. Back in February Spurs agreed to sell Veliz to Brazilian Campeonato club Bahia for £7.8m.

Today, Alasdair Gold posted an update on Veliz — that agreement holds and Veliz was apparently spotted in Brazil to lock things up before the transfer becomes officially official this month.

Those of you who have been around the block with Spurs a few times know this isn’t the first, nor the last, time Spurs have whiffed after taking a chance on a young attacking talent. Veliz, however, never once looked like he had the stuff to make it in the Premier League — he was a big fish in a (very) small pond in Argentina and his game just never scaled up to the major European league level. That became pretty evident after he kind of flamed out on both of his La Liga goals.

I have nothing against the kid — far from it, I’d love to see him establish himself in a smaller South American league like Brazil and then potentially go from there. It’s clear, however, that he’s unlikely to crack Tottenham Hotspur’s first team and it’s best that he’s moved on. Bahia finished 7th in the Campeonato and finished third in the league in xG — seems like a pretty good place to land for now, and a nearly £8m transfer fee, which includes a 20% sell-on clause, isn’t awful and probably comes close to breaking even in accounting terms.

I’m sure we’ll get an official notification when it happens. In the meantime, buena suerte Alejo!

You’d think after signing Marcos Senesi on a free transfer (yes, I know it’s not OFFICIALLY official but it’s happening) that Spurs would be done with defensive reinforcements. Well, you’d be wrong. According to Fabrizio Romano, Tottenham are continuing to negotiate with Brighton & Hove Albion for the transfer of Dutch central defender Jan Paul van Hecke, who is set to participate in the World Cup which begins later this week.

Van Hecke is a solid enough defender and Roberto De Zerbi wants him, which in the absence of an Actual Sporting Director™ is probably what is making the difference here. But it IS curious — two central defense reinforcements in a squad that, even with the hypothetical sales of Cuti Romero and Radu Dragusin, still has Micky van de Ven, Kevin Danso, Senesi, and (ostensibly) Ben Davies, plus Luka Vuskovic, pending whatever Spurs decide to do with him. Adding Van Hecke to the mix is… weird.

That is, unless De Zerbi is planning on selling another defender and/or playing in a back three formation. I’d say the latter is more likely, even if we hadn’t seen a back three much from De Zerbi in the run-in last season. That’s really the only explanation I’d like to think about, because the alternative is selling Romero, Dragusin, and one of Danso or Van de Ven, and that would probably make me pretty upset.

Now, Van Hecke is a good player would make a fine addition to Spurs’ back line. He’s an excellent passer from deep and is probably going to cost somewhere in the realm of £45m or so when all’s said in done — that’s what the negotiations are for. That’s not a bad price for an international footballer with a solid defensive pedigree on a team that finished in a European qualification spot. It’s just… I’m not sure what we’re actually DOING here and I worry a bit about who’s calling the shots right now until we can appoint that “world class” director of football that’s been talked about lately.

I don’t hate this. Not really. But it’s odd, and that kinda worries me.