Cartilage Free Captain

good morning hoddlers and welcome after one of the more chaotic French Opens we’ve seen in years.

On the men’s side, Alexander Zverev claimed his maiden Grand Slam title on his fourth attempt. He defeated the Italian (no, not that Italian) Flavio Cobolli in five sets on Sunday, in a match that will be less remembered for the tennis and more for the end of a strange fortnight.

After World No.1 Jannik Sinner and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic were bounced out in the second and third rounds, respectively, the draw was wide open for someone to claim their first major. Zverev’s triumph will be the big takeaway from this tournament here, although it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to compete in a tournament when Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are both healthy.

The longer-lasting legacy of this, however, might be the breakout of rising Brazilian star Joao Fonseca. The 19-year-old came back from two sets down to defeat Djokovic, and then backed that up with a win over Casper Ruud.

The last couple of seasons has left tennis watchers asking who will be the player to insert themselves into the Sinner-Alcaraz rivalry. After this tournament, it looks like we might have our answer: Joao Fonseca.

Speaking of teen sensations, Mirra Andreeva (19) became the youngest woman to win the French Open since Monica Seles in 1992.

Andreeva has had very high expectations for years. She rocketed up to the top five in the world last year after winning two WTA 1000 tournaments.

Andreeva locked in after a shaky second-round match and pretty much coasted the rest of the way, defeating qualifier Maja Chwalinska in the final. Again, a final that won’t be remembered so much for the tennis and more for this being Andreeva’s major breakthrough.

Like the men’s side we also come out of this asking another big question: Just how many of these tournaments will Andreeva win during her career?

Ftizie’s track of the day: Runner, by Tennis

And now for your links:

BBC: “Eriksen conscious after collapsing in Denmark game”

Alasdair Gold: “Dejan Kulusevski delivers positive new injury update after World Cup disappointment”

The Telegraph: “Alexander Zverev finally wins a major – on the court that almost destroyed him”

It’s been a busy summer so far for Tottenham Hotspur Women. In the short weeks since the season ended, we’ve already signed two players with more to come (if you believe what you read), we’ve taken place in a sevens tournament, and we’ve collected some accolades. Here’s the rundown.

Transfer Rumors

We’ve already signed Shekiera Martinez and Caitlin Dijkstra, and according to BBC’s Emma Sanders and Soccerdonna, more are on the way. Sanders (who is usually quite reputable) has reported Kirsty Hanson is set to join Spurs from Aston Villa. You might remember Hanson from absolutely terrorizing us down the wings when we faced her last season. We could use some speed in behind especially with Jess Naz still injured, so I’m a fan of this.

Soccerdonna reported that Arsenal midfielder Victoria Pelova could be on her way to Spurs. Here’s your habitual reminder that transfers between rival teams are a lot more common on the women’s side. Even knowing that, it’s still a bit of a jumpscare to see it on the Soccerdonna graphic. In footballing terms, I’m not too sure about this because we already have one million midfielders. I’ll save the rest of my head scratching for a later date should we actually sign her.

World Sevens

Spurs didn’t take this tournament particularly seriously. This was more the vibe. There were plenty of minutes for squad, fringe and academy players, although heavy hitters like Olivia Holdt and Signe Gaupset had their chances to light up the half-pitch too. The team lost 6-3 to Aston Villa, then beat West Ham 4-1 and lost to Manchester United 8-1 on the second day. This was not enough to progress to the final round but it looks like the players all had a blast and came out (as far as we know) uninjured so I’ll call it a success.

Accolades

Tōko Koga is up for the PFA young player of the year. You might recall she was named to the WSL team of the season a few weeks ago. She was also named Adult Supporter’s Player of the Season at the club’s end of season awards, along with Clare Hunt who was the Junior Supporter’s Player of the Season, and Tinka Tandberg, who won Goal of the Season for her 40-yard hit against Everton.

Elsewhere, Martin Ho apparently set a new WSL record for most points in a debut season by an English manager which sounds like a made up stat but whatever, I’ll take it. And while not an official accolade, it looks like Olivia Holdt made quite an impression for Denmark in their World Cup qualifier against Sweden earlier this week. We already knew she was like this, but it seems the rest of the world is starting to take notice. Thank god we locked her down to a new contract earlier this year.

I’ll leave you with a video of Olivia destroying some souls for good measure, and I’ll see you later this summer to talk transfers:

It’s all done except for the official announcement. According to multiple sources online (including, yes, Fabrizio Romano), Marcos Senesi has signed his contract, confirming his free agent move from Bournemouth to Tottenham Hotspur. Senesi joins on a four year contract and becomes the second signing of the summer after the free agent signing of Scottish fullback Andrew Robertson last week.

AI photo-slop aside, to my mind Senesi is the signing that makes the most sense for Tottenham Hotspur this summer thus far. Although at 29 he’s a bit far along the age curve, the Argentine Senesi is a very solid all-around central defender. He’s good with the ball at his feet, is good in the air, and is comfortable in possession, all things that will endear himself to Roberto De Zerbi. Senesi is a high volume passer but his passing completion numbers take a hit because he’s more likely to go for a longer, higher-risk pass from deep than a comfortable short pass to the defensive midfielder. Like Micky van de Ven, Senesi also likes to step forward out of the defensive line to make defensive plays further up the field, and he’s fifth among all defenders in major European leagues in possession adjusted defensive action VAEP.

Due to his age he’s unlikely to be a long term signing for Spurs, but the skills he brings to the table are ones that will hopefully help transform Tottenham into a team that fits De Zerbi’s pressing and mid-to-high block tactics a little better than they do now.

His signing likely means the departure of at least one Spurs CB this summer, a shortlist that likely includes Cuti Romero and Radu Dragusin, both of whom are linked with moves away from the club.

Best of all — he’s free. As his Bournemouth contract has now expired, he comes to Spurs for no cost, but likely with a healthy wage bump; considering he was apparently only on £50k/wk at the Cherries, a hefty wage hike will be absolutely something Spurs can handle.

Spurs have a lot of work to do this summer to overhaul the squad, and that’s going to take a lot of money. So it’s nice to see Tottenham going after some of the low hanging fruit early on and before the World Cup basically shuts down the transfer window for top players over the next month. Senesi was not named to Argentina’s World Cup squad, but with the injury and withdrawal of Leonardo Balerdi there’s a chance Senesi, who was ostensibly left out for Nicolas Otamendi, could be called up.

While this isn’t a long-term signing, I’m okay with this one as he’s a clear upgrade to Dragusin and could push Romero (if he stays), Kevin Danso, and Van de Ven for starting minutes, or could feature alongside them in a hypothetical back three. It’s a good signing for right now, and after two consecutive 17th placed finishes, right now is probably what matters.

We await the official confirmation, which will probably come early next week if not first thing on Monday.

Hey, an outgoing rumor! Tottenham Hotspur, at least on present evidence, appear to be collecting central defenders, but here we have an actual rumor about an outgoing player, and one that most fans have tipped to leave for months if not longer.

According to Fiorentina blog Firenzeviola.it, La Viola and their Sporting Director Fabio Paratici (remember him?) are targeting Spurs’ Romanian CB Radu Dragusin this summer. The gist is that Paratici and Fiorentina believe Dragusin to be the profile of the kind of defender they want to play in Serie A. And truthfully, Serie A is probably a good place for Radu to land if he should be sold.

I don’t think Dragusin is necessarily a BAD central defender, but even being out for a year with a knee injury we’ve seen enough to know that he’s probably not suited to Roberto De Zerbi’s high line and high pressure tactics — he’s not especially fast, doesn’t really pass the ball that well, and is more suited for a slower-paced, maybe a bit less physical league like in Italy. And he’s already played in Italy for the bulk of his career, so a return feels natural.

The article suggests a price north of €20m. That would be slightly less than the €25m Spurs paid for him when they signed him from Genoa in January 2024. No idea if this is a real rumor or just aggregator slop, but I do like the symmetry of Paratici arguably helping Spurs sign Dragusin and then saving them by taking him back to Italy with his new club. If this happens, thanks Don Fabio, for saving us from ourselves.

Consider me mostly underwhelmed by Tottenham’s kit offerings for 2026-27. The home kit is, well, a white shirt with some minor design elements, same as it always is. The away kits are this weird dark irregular neon slashy stripes thing that frankly remind me of the Galaxy kits from a couple years ago, except if designed by a 10-year-old. Ew. No thanks.

But kit design leaker website Footy Headlines has now dropped a bomb with a leak of what they purport to be Tottenham’s third kits for next season and holy crap take my money right now thank you!

HOLY CRAP. Now, it must be said that these, as are most Footy-Headlines leaks, are not the ACTUAL actual kits but “early predictions.” So there’s a strong possibility that the final kits wont’ look exactly like this.

But GODDAMN. I’m a sucker for a Spurple away kit — I own three of them. Even if the designs are moderately different to the ones shown above, I’m all in for the Spurples. As depicted, this might actually end up being my favorite Nike kit ever made. But they actually have to make them first.

In the age of generative AI slop, I find myself no longer trusting kit release websites fully, especially when they essentially guess on the actual design based on whispers and color swatches. But if these are actually the 2026-27 away Tottenham kits, well, I’ll be first in line to schedule a pre-order.

Most of the transfer rumors we’ve seen regarding Tottenham Hotspur so far this summer have been of the incoming kind, which makes sense since Spurs are a horrifically constructed team that is coming off of back to back 17th place finishes. They need better players, so it’s natural that they’re linked to practically everyone under the sun.

But here we have a different transfer rumor — an outgoing one, and remarkably, one that isn’t centered on Cristian Romero. According to Twitter journalist Sebastian Vidal, Mathys Tel is considering pushing for a move to leave Spurs in search of more playing time, with Bournemouth one of the clubs interested in his services.

Brazilian journo Joao Van Boysen is also claiming Tel could be sold this summer, suggesting that in addition to Bournemouth, Porto, Lille and Frankfurt are also interested in signing Tel this summer.

It’s not entirely surprising. I’d be willing to bet that, despite a lot more playing time than we would’ve expected at the start of the season, Tel probably didn’t have too fun of a time trying to help the club avoid relegation. And the way things are going, Tel’s probably looking at a spot primarily on Tottenham’s bench next season, especially if Spurs bring in Savinho and Mohammed Kudus rounds back into fitness. Tel’s young and has a high ceiling, but it’s pretty clear he’s not ready for a regular starting role at Spurs… yet.

I wouldn’t mind keeping ahold of Tel and ideally we’d have a squad that’s ready to play fewer matches without European football, which would make Tel a strong candidate for a loan, possibly with an option. But if Spurs want to cut bait on Tel and maybe flip him for a moderate profit, it sure does seem like he has a market all of a sudden.

ESPN is hardly the bastion of top-notch sports journalism the way it is for a lot of American sports, so I sure hope their Brazilian wing is a little more reliable? ESPN Brazil is reporting that Savinho, currently at Manchester City, is ready and willing to move to Tottenham Hotspur and play under Roberto De Zerbi.

The article claims that Savinho had his doubts about joining last summer, when Spurs were actively trying to convince him to come, but he’s convinced by the project this summer and is willing to make the switch for additional playing time. The article claims Spurs will likely make a bid for Savinho next week and suggest it should be in the realm of €60m (£52m).

I’d sure like this to be true! Tottenham, for what it’s worth, seem to be moving very quickly this off-season and working to get a bunch of signings across the line before the World Cup kicks off next week. That’d be super nice, and I’m already on record as thinking Savio would be outstanding in Tottenham’s forward line under Roberto De Zerbi.

Maybe this is true, maybe it isn’t. But I’ve seen several reports circulating lately that suggest Savinho is ready to leave City for more playing time and would be more than happy to get that time at Tottenham Hotspur next season. That feels pretty good. Hopefully we can get him signed and confirmed as soon as possible, because that boy nice and I would like to subscribe to his newsletter.

There are two kinds of transfer rumors I generally post on Cartilage Free Captain. One type looks at rumors that drop from reliable to semi-reliable sources that have real connections, making them plausible to write and/or talk about. This is a distinction from the numerous Bat Country rumors emerge like demons from a Hellgate with frightening regularity and that we generally ignore until (if?) they end up being repeated from a reliable or semi-reliable source.

Which then brings me to the OTHER kind of transfer rumor I like to post, which is “this is a badly sourced rumor that probably isn’t real but I’d like it to happen” rumor. That’s what this one is. There is a twitter report from Pedro Almeida, ostensibly a Portuguese journalist with Connections™, that says that Tottenham Hotspur have made a €50m bid for 23-year-old Como attacking midfielder Martin Baturina.

I do not know if this is a real rumor or not, but Martin Baturina is an amazing player, would be an excellent addition to Tottenham Hotspur’s playing squad, and I would like this to happen very, very much, thank you.

When you think of Como, you probably first think of Dele, who had a brief loan there as he tried to resurrect his playing career. Think a little harder and you’ll remember this is the home club of Nico Paz, a midfielder whom Spurs tried to sign last summer, and who is very likely going to be sold to one of the big Spanish clubs for an astronomical fee this summer.

Como has a lot of good players, and Baturina is one of them. In his first season at Como after signing from Dinamo Zagreb last summer, Baturina has tallied 8G+4A in all competitions, including World Cup qualifiers. He’s a full Croatia international who was named part of Croatia’s World Cup squad. He’s also extremely passy, and there are people in Carty Free’s Slack chat that say he’s about as close to a Christian Eriksen analogue as Spurs are likely to get in today’s transfer marketplace.

Check out his passing and chance creation statistics. Me likey.

He’s apparently had some finishing issues this season, so his shot and shot conversion numbers look a little less exciting. He played most of his minutes at Como (2100 minutes all told) in the attacking band, either centrally or as a left sided inside forward. In that role he appears to have served in a role better suited to assisting his teammates than getting his owns shots.

But the Green Bars speak for themselves somewhat — Baturina is a good young player who if Spurs don’t sign him first will likely end up at a Bayern, Barca, or Madrid in a few years, assuming his production continues to rise and he continues to improve.

That said there’s a giant Nico Paz-sized obstacle in the way of this transfer rumor being a thing. If Paz is sold for big money this summer, the sense is that Como are going to want to try and retain the remaining good players they do have so they can eventually sell them again for big money, and Baturina looks poised to be one of Como’s future stars. Now, that’s not necessarily to say that Spurs can’t buy him even if Paz goes — famously, football players and clubs both like money and that’s something Spurs definitely still have, even after two 17th placed finishes.

Como, however, is unlikely to want to part with him so it’ll probably take an overpay to get him and his club on board. I’m actually okay with Spurs overpaying for someone like Baturina in this case — Spurs are in a situation where they might need to overpay for the players that they really, really want. But if they’re going to spend northwards of €50m for a player like Baturina, we better hope that they’ve nailed their scouting because it’s a big, big swing.

Thankfully, I think Baturina is probably the real deal and I’d be okay for purchasing a player with his skillset, ability, and potential. With Xavi Simons out for at least the rest of the calendar year, James Maddison only barely healthy and also ageing, and Dejan Kulusevski being… well, whatever he is right now, signing a new attacking midfielder would make a ton of sense, especially one with such high upside as Baturina.

Again, I’m not saying this rumor is real, accurate, or even exists. But I hope it is, because I think a player like Baturina is exactly what Roberto De Zerbi and Tottenham Hotspur need to improve. If Spurs haven’t actually bid for him, they should.

TRUSTEE OF DANIEL LEVY’S FAMILY TRUST AGREES SALE OF 24.99% STAKE IN TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR PARENT COMPANY

London, 5 June 2026 — Eight Sports Capital Limited today announces the signing of a sale and purchase agreement to acquire a 24.99% interest in ENIC Sports and Development Holdings Limited (“ENIC”), the parent company of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

The transaction is structured through the acquisition from Oakchester Limited of the entire issued share capital of Walburg Holdings Limited and Larkin Ltd pursuant to the sale and purchase agreement. The target companies together beneficially hold 24.99% of the issued ordinary share capital of ENIC. Oakchester Limited is owned by Whitmill Trust Company (Gilbraltar) Limited, acting as trustee of the Levy Children’s Trust and the Walburg Discretionary Trust, which are family trusts established for the benefit of Daniel Levy’s children.

A spokesperson for Eight Sports Capital Limited stated: “We are delighted to have signed this agreement to acquire a significant stake in ENIC. We look forward to working with the Club’s shareholders, management, staff, players, and fans to support Tottenham Hotspur’s continued growth and success.”

The parties have agreed that no further public comment will be made regarding the commercial terms of the transaction.

-ENDS-

”Andy is someone I’ve admired for a number of years and he will bring outstanding technical qualities, experience, leadership and mentality to our team.

”He is a proven winner at the highest level over a long period and is someone who can be a big player for us, both on and off the pitch.

“I can’t wait to start working with him and seeing the positive impact he will have on everyone around him.”