Cartilage Free Captain

The future of Luka Vuskovic is going to be one of the hot topics for Tottenham Hotspur and its supporters this summer. Vuskovich is under contact at Spurs until 2030 and after an incredible loan at Hamburg this past season is one of the hottest and most in-demand young central defenders in world football.

We suggested earlier this week that Luka’s short-term future might hinge on what Spurs end up doing with Cuti Romero. While there are indications that Romero is committed to the club and wants to stay, a lot of Tottenham fans don’t necessarily feel the same after an injury shortened season that saw him pick up a number of disciplinary cards, though frequently enhanced by referee decisions. If Cuti is sold this summer, it seems likely that Vuskovic could be his replacement, either as a starter or (more likely) a reserve member, along with the incoming Marcos Senesi. If Cuti stays, there won’t be very many minutes for him and a loan seemed more likely.

Today, German reporter Florian Plettenburg tweeted what might be some clarifying tidbits about what Spurs may do with him, and with Plettigoal again ruling out a return to Hamburg on loan.

I’m not sure I buy this fully — I feel as though Luka has (or should have) more than the two options of “stay at Spurs with a new contract” or “get sold to a megaclub.” A loan to another high-level club seems like it should also be an option if Tottenham can’t promise him the minutes at Spurs next season to continue his development. Even if Hamburg isn’t an option, it feels like there are any number of clubs that would gnaw their metaphorical arms off for the chance to take Luka Vuskovic on loan for a season.

I also don’t like the idea that Spurs could potentially cash in on Vuskovic before he even plays a single match for the club. That feels more like Bayern Munich copium than anything else, which would make sense since Plettenberg is a Bayern reporter and Bayern have been publicly slobbering over the idea of poaching Luka this summer, when it feels like they have a very small chance of actually doing so.

So what do I know? Given the two options Plettigoal suggests, obviously I’d prefer the first one. I just have serious doubts that those are his only two choices. Even acknowledging that Vuskovich clearly has a bunch of agency in negotiations with the club, surely Spurs are more creative than that.

Sigh. I guess we’re doing this, huh? Arsenal Football Club a chance to do the double today, as they play in the Champions League Final against Paris Saint-Germain at Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary. Look, I don’t have to tell you to to root for, but I can tell you who NOT to root for. Rooting for the meteor to hit Hungary might be a bit cruel, but maybe we can at least wish that Gabriel steps on a LEGO in the training room before the match and causes him to say a very naughty word.

Anyway, if you plan to watch, or even hate watch, the match in the company of fellow traumatized Spurs fans, well this is the place to do it. Me, I will NOT be watching the match, I will be spending the day outside in what promises to be mild sunshine, touching grass and eating Mediterranean food. I find that a much more pleasurable use of my time.

Earlier this month we reported that Preston North End were currently “in negotiations” for the permanent transfer of Alfie Devine, who has a purchase option in his loan at the Championship club. Today there are a few more interesting details that have emerged.

Alfie had a pretty darned good loan at Preston this past season. He was a regular starter in the Championship, and scored 8G+6A in over 3000 minutes and 48 appearances. Pretty, pretty good. But it does seem as though his long-term future lies away from Tottenham Hotspur.

Today, the Lancashire Post is reporting that Preston have formally triggered a purchase option that was in Devine’s loan contract from last season, and that the clubs are (again) entering negotiations for a permanent transfer. The report also says that Wolverhampton Wanderers, who were relegated from the Premier League this season, and Scottish Premier League club Celtic are also interested in taking Devine off of Spurs’ hands this summer, suggesting he’s got a market and might not end up at Preston when all is said and done. The suggested fee has also increased — previously we said it was £4.5m, now it appears to have jumped to “north of £5m” which would double Preston’s transfer record. Not a huge change, but a significant one for Championship teams, certainly, and the fact that Preston are intending to trigger the option means that they think Devine will be a significant player for them now and in the future.

Who knows what the negotiations will entail — perhaps Preston want to spread the amortization of Devine’s fee out, and we can slip a sell-on or buy-back clause into his deal. Or maybe Devine suddenly having a market in the English second division has changed the calculus for everyone involved.

For fans who like seeing Tottenham Hotspur youngsters and academy graduates eventually move to the Spurs firs team, this might be a little disappointing, but not every promising young player will break into the first team, and getting a decent fee for Devine is still a win for the academy.

Sounds like Devine has a say on where his future lies and he is going to assess his options and take his time doing so. Unless something weird happens I think this might drag out a while, but who knows.

Short hoddle alert: Today is a short hoddle

We’re beginning to learn more about the fourth installment in the Paddington film franchise.

And let me tell ya, it’s time to get excited.

It was recently announced that Armando Iannucci, the man behind The Death of Stalin, VEEP, The Thick of It, I’m Alan Partridge, and In the Loop, and Simon Blackwell of VEEP are writing Paddington 4.

This is a dream come true.

Paddington rivals Godfather as the greatest film series of all time (yeah, come at me you Star Wards ands Lord of the Rings fans - I dare ya !!).

The marmalade-loving bear is back. The world is a better place for our bear and the Brown family.

What I’m most looking forward to is how those conversations with Mr Curry might go …

Fitzie’s track of the day:

And now for your links:

Jack P-B ($$): “Spurs survived. What do the Lewis family do now to avoid another season of struggle?”

BBC: “USA boss Pochettino holds initial talks with AC Milan”

This has been old news for a while, but it’s nice to get a confirmation from perhaps the premier football journalistic outlet in England —according to the BBC’s Nizaar Kinsella, Tottenham Hotspur is close to a full agreement to sign Marcos Senesi, who is leaving Bournemouth at the conclusion of his contract, on a free transfer.

We’ve known this is coming for a while, and I’m okay with it. Senesi is a solid depth signing in central defense, and he comes with the bonus of not costing a dime apart from wages (and we don’t know what his wages are). If confirmed he’ll be the second new signing of the summer after Andrew Robertson from Liverpool, and the transfer window hasn’t even opened yet.

Senesi turned down multiple offers from Bournemouth to sign a new contract, and so it’s maybe a bit weird that he’s leaving to join a club that just barely escaped relegation. But Spurs ARE a big club and are expected to improve, so sure! Welcome Marcos! Please help us improve. Senesi is an Argentina international, so if Cuti Romero DOES leave we’ll at least keep our Argentine defender quota stable.

I don’t mind this at all. Senesi is a good defender and although Spurs won’t have European competition and will be playing in fewer matches, he’s solid depth and a good rotation option, at a minimum.

The only weird thing about this report is that it says “personal terms are not quite agreed” and that’s… pretty much all they need to agree to? But if Kinsella says it’s close, then I believe him. Hopefully we get this one salted away pretty soon and we can move on to other targets (and outgoings).

”It’s been a long story with Dejan. He’s done everything he can to get ready [for the World Cup], but when it came to deciding [if he would make the squad] he wasn’t. The reason is that he hasn’t played football in a year, but even the medical assessments made this spring have pointed in the direction that he wouldn’t be ready.

“Cartilage injuries, like in Dejan’s case, are troublesome. They are difficult to treat. Plus, he has it in a place that gets a lot of stress. The injury simply hasn’t healed enough to handle that stress. I have high hopes for that and I really hope so.”

Luka Vuskovic is by far the most talented young player Tottenham Hotspur have on their books right now — more than Mikey Moore, BIG WILLY LANKS, Yang Minheok, or any other player Spurs have. He positively exploded this season while on loan at Bundesliga club Hamburg, making the Team of the Season as a 19-year-old and causing even huge clubs like Bayern Munich to slobber over the possibility of signing him.

To be clear — Spurs have no intention of selling Luka. He’s under contract until 2030 and unless a club comes in with an absolutely ludicrously expensive bid, that’s a no-go. So Spurs fans shouldn’t be concerned with losing him, but there’s still a good amount of angst about where his immediate future lies. Previous reports had suggested that Luka could head back out on loan to Hamburg for another season where he could play with his brother, who is also at Hamburg.

However, a report in MOPO.de seemed to suggest that there’s very little chance of Vuskovic returning to Hamburg next season, with the paper suggesting a “99.9% chance” he rejoins Spurs. Vuskovic pretty much said his goodbyes to Germany, as his loan formally ended and he’s once again a Tottenham Hotspur player.

However, check out this report from Athletic writer and noted Spurs fans Seb Stafford-Bloor:

To me, this suggests something different — not about Luka Vuskovic, but about Cuti Romero. Vuskovic is clearly an excellent talent, and while I have hypothesized that he might not (yet) be quite ready for Premier League football, the ambiguity over his immediate future suggests that the club still doesn’t know whether they’ll have Romero, their club captain, next season or not.

If Romero is in the team, he’s a starter alongside Micky van de Ven. Kevin Danso and (presumably) Marcos Senesi would be backing them up, assuming Radu Dragusin is moved on this summer. (We’ll just skip over Kota Takai, who hasn’t yet played a minute in a Spurs shirt.) That doesn’t leave a whole lot of minutes for Luka as ostensibly a 5th CB on a Premier League team that will not have European match fixtures next season.

So I hypothesize that Luka’s future is tied to Romero’s. If Cuti stays, I think Luka will go back out on loan, possibly back to Hamburg or another team that would gladly take him and play him regularly. If Romero leaves, however, that opens up a slot for Vuskovic to come in and either start or be a very solid rotation option in the back line alongside Senesi

That’s my best guess, anyway. It would explain a lot — why Spurs are dithering over Vuskovic’s place in the squad, and why it’s not already clear whether he’ll be heading back out on loan or not. Luka is an amazing talent and he’s expected to be a big part of Spurs’ future. But it would make sense why Tottenham are dragging their feet here a little bit, because Romero’s shoes are huge and someone’s got to fill them.

Another signing for Tottenham Hotspur Women! Yesterday, the club announced the acquisition of Dutch central defender Caitlin Dijkstra, who most recently played for Wolfsburg until the expiration of her contract this summer.

I’ll confess to not knowing much about Caitlin. I know she’s 27, a full Dutch international with 35 caps. I know she’s a solid defender, and that the club needs defensive reinforcements after the departures of Charli Grant, Josephine Rybrink, Amy James-Turner, and Luana Bühler. Dijkstra is an experienced defender and was a reulgar for Wolfsburg this season in both the league and Champions League. It’s no secret that Spurs have Champions League ambitions and signing a player with CL experience is very good.

Based on the few highlight videos I’ve seen of her, she looks like solid defensive depth, something Spurs will need. They’ve got their starting defensive line more or less sewed up with Toko Koga and Clare Hunt, but Dijkstra has a pedigree that suggests she could push one or both of them for starts. If Caitlin is “solid but unspectacular”, well that’s a good outcome. And if she forces one of Hunt or Koga out of the lineup, well… that’s even better, because it means Spurs are continuing to improve and are signing players that will push those currently in the starting XI.

Spurs manager Martin Ho has promised that the club will be working hard to make improved signings and that the club will be highly active. They’ll need a solid window, especially after the departure of Bethany England, the club’s all-time leading goal scorer and club captain. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of announcements of new signings this summer.

This morning, The Athletic’s Tottenham Hotspur beat writer Jack Pitt-Brooke released a new piece about the recent statement from Spurs owners the Lewis family and CEO Vinai Venkatesham, all commenting on the season that just finished. JPB’s piece, which is worth a read, is very similar in tone and conclusions to the opinion I wrote and published yesterday, noting in particular how the current Spurs leadership appears perfectly willing to throw Daniel Levy under the proverbial bus, but that move can only be done so many times before it loses effectiveness.

But there was one paragraph near the end that I want to highlight, since it addresses the future of current Sporting Director Johan Lange. Tottenham had been public about its search for a co-Sporting Director to work alongside Lange, the way Fabio Paratici had done for a couple of months at the start of the year before Paratici departed for Fiorentina. Names such as former Crystal Palace director Dougie Freedman, currently in Saudi Arabia, and former Dortmund SD Sebastian Kehl. However, there were murmurs from Alasdair Gold that Lange’s future might not be as secure as what we once thought.

And here’s Jack with more detail.

Tottenham have been looking for a new sporting director for months, ever since Fabio Paratici left at the end of the January transfer window. While the initial brief was to find someone who could work alongside Johan Lange, someone with experience working in a structure, someone used to being a No 2 rather than a sole decision-maker, the hierarchy are now looking for something slightly different: someone world-class in that position. What that means for Lange remains unclear.

— Jack Pitt-Brooke, The Athletic

That is… significant, not just as a signifier that the club is aware of the Lange Problem™ and is taking steps to address it, but that they are now looking at a future in which Lange does not hold his current position, whatever that means. It could mean that the club lets Lange go after a series of underwhelming transfer windows resulted in a hugely unbalanced and flawed squad the club’s near relegation this season. It could mean that Lange stays, but in a demoted role subservient to the new Sporting Director.

Honestly, if the writing is as on the wall as what it looks like at the time of this article’s publishing, I don’t understand why Lange doesn’t just resign. After all, his Spurs career seems like it’s mirroring what happened to him at Aston Villa, a place where he underwhelmed before being demoted and eventually leaving.

I’ll say that from my perspective this is welcome news. It’s clear that, whatever else happened (and a LOT happened), the executive structure and staff at Spurs has been deeply flawed and disappointing. The club has already signaled that significant change is coming, starting with the appointment of a new Sporting Director. This report suggests that change will involve a notable and “world class” figure, and may not include Johan Lange after all.

Good morning everyone! We’re continuing our roundup of the EFL playoffs. Today is the final one with League 2.

——

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one. I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to watch it. But, spoiler alert: Notts County have been promoted to League One!

It all looks like a straightforward 3-0 victory to me. Notts were up 2-0 by half and Jodi Jones put it away in the 69th minute. That means the club that was taken over by some Manchester United greats will have to endure another year in League Two.

And, for Notts, it means they’re now one league behind Wrexham (this was a plot line on that Welcome to Wrexham series a few years back).

So who do they join in League One? Bromley, MK Dons and Cambridge United, who were also promoted, and Oxford United, Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday, who were relegated from the Championship.

This should make for a very interesting season with Leicester, Luton, Argyle, Reading, Blackpool and Wigan.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Adam Raised a Cain, by Bruce Springsteen

And now for your links:

The Independent: “How to fix Tottenham: Start by selling Cristian Romero, and follow this blueprint”

The Athletic ($$): “Lewis family promise investment in Tottenham, take ‘ultimate responsibility’ for struggles”

BBC: “Nuno to stay as West Ham boss after relegation”