Cartilage Free Captain

Okay. We’ve gone through the squad. We’ve looked at who should be an integral part of the squad next season, who could find greener pastures elsewhere, and who needs further development; so how does that all fit together?

Now that we’ve assessed Spurs’ current player cadre, it’s time to shift from the individual to the strategic. How do the players fit into Frank’s tactics? What does the squad depth look like in key positions? And where do the Spurs front office need to invest going forward?

Before we get started, it may pay to familiarize yourself with the prior pieces in this series, which we will be referencing a fair amount:

The Goalkeepers

The Center Backs

The Fullbacks

The Midfield

The Wingers

The Strikers

Right, let’s jump in.

Frank’s Tactics

Before we look at the squad in totality, it’s important to briefly look at how Thomas Frank uses his squad. Though he is typically quite flexible with his formations, there is a pattern to that flexibility, as well as some core principles as to how he likes his teams to play. I’ll be doing a more in-depth write-up on the latter, but here’s the Cliff’s Notes.

Firstly, it’s my belief that Frank will set up his side largely in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation. Frank used the 4-3-3 almost exclusively in Brentford’s Championship promotion campaign, before largely switching to either a three- or five-at-the-back structure in Brentford’s first season in the Premiership. As time has gone on, and Brentford have improved and become more of a Premier League staple, Frank has relied more and more once again on a back four. When he does utilize a back three / five, it tends to be almost exclusively when he wants his sides to operate more defensively against a team he perceives to be stronger.

Last season, Frank’s most used formation was a 4-2-3-1, with a 4-3-3 used a chunk as well. The key difference between these two tends to be the midfield structure in buildup, with the 4-2-3-1 utilizing more of a double pivot, but the 4-3-3 making use of either a single pivot, or a slightly more conservative structure where the midfield three operate in more of a pendulum fashion, with the two players sitting deeper dependent on the side of the pitch from which the play is originating.

A couple of other principles to note:

Frank likes his sides to build from deep

With that said, he is not afraid to play direct, either over the center backs or through the channels

He likes to often switch play, requiring some ambitious passing at times from deep

He likes his wingers to often start wide and high, but make runs into the channels

He also likes to utilize crosses, especially from the half-spaces, with his tactics in attack often engineered to allow players to deliver from those positions - whether that be the wingers, attacking midfielders, or fullbacks

Keep that in mind as we look at the squad.

Here’s our starting point after I have brutalized Spurs’ squad. I’ll lay out in more detail further down as to what this looks like in terms of depth at each position, but there’s a couple of takeaways from this overview.

Firstly, Spurs’ depth isn’t terrible! That is, if they make the requisite investments. I’ve mentioned through this series what I view as vitally important moves to make, with a new CM, winger, and defender the priorities, in that order. I mentioned above that Frank often likes quick switches of play from deep, regularly utilizing the passing range of one of his midfielders to create space for his forwards. The problem here is that Spurs don’t really have any deep long passers. The closest options are Lucas Bergvall, who is still extremely raw on the ball, and Rodrigo Bentancur, who is more of a jack-of-all-trades type than somebody especially known for their passing.

The winger situation becomes a little more intriguing now that Spurs have locked in Mathys Tel, who I think will be excellent under Thomas Frank. It does make the many links to wingers in the media interesting as well, with my thinking Spurs are more likely to sell to buy. That’s why I have an asterisk next to Son, Johnson, and Odobert. I’d assessed Johnson as a sell if the right offer came in, but if it didn’t, and Sonny opted to head elsewhere (which is starting to sound more and more like a plausible option), then that frees up a slot. Alternatively, Odobert could go out on loan to get more minutes under his belt and to continue his development. There’s a player there, but he’s still very raw.

It still seems clear as well that Spurs need an extra defender. For me, I saw enough evidence last season that Ben Davies is now in physical decline, and if we are going into the season with him as our fourth center back / main left-sided backup, I think Spurs will have problems. We know Micky van de Ven has a pretty sordid injury history (even before coming to Spurs) and so we need somebody reliable in that spot; even better if they can also cover at left back.

The other signings I have suggested are in midfield. I think there could be a lot of utility in adding another attacking midfielder, particularly one that could deputize out wide. Lastly, if Spurs moved on both Bentancur and Bissouma, there would be a need for a second central midfielder to round things out. If the club are confident in Sarr and Bergvall to cover that second central role, then it’s possible they could look for a younger, high-upside option.

So what does the depth look like in each position?

I’ve broken down the team by position, and then assigned players to each. I’ve then split the positions into a few groupings: the First XI, key backups, rotation options (players who are either First XI or backups in a different position but could cover here as well), and youth. One thing to note is that rather than splitting the central midfielders into a #6 and #8, I have split them into “passer” and “runner” roles - quite similar to the #6 and #8, but not as how you may have thought of them under Ange Postecoglou.

You can see that if the aforementioned player signings are made, things are actually looking pretty healthy! Arguably striker is the position of least depth; but all of Son, Tel, Kulusevski, and Johnson (if Son heads away instead) can cover there in a pinch. That’s without taking into account the fact that Frank doesn’t necessarily need a target-man type striker for his “system” to work, happily using forwards who can either run in behind (like Tel and Johnson), or drop deep and facilitate for the wingers (Kulusevski).

It does as well indicate that if Spurs sign another defender, time could be limited for Archie Gray. It could be the case that Spurs opt to send him on a loan to get more regular playing time - I would be willing to bet a number of lower-level Prem teams or Championship sides would be more than happy to take him on.

We can take a little bit more of a detailed look at depth by laying it out in numbers comparing the coming season to 2024/25:

In these numbers, I have included each player only once (so removing the rotation options, and just assigning a player to each position), with the “+” numbers indicating where the player is a youth player, or “break glass in case of emergency” option.

Starting with the keepers, you can see there is a drop-off - but that’s not a bad thing in this case. At the end of last season, Forster was never going to see the pitch, and Austin had been supplanted by Kinsky coming in. The emergency option there was Alfie Whiteman, who was never going to play. It is very, very unlikely that Spurs end up requiring a fourth keeper.

The center back numbers in my proposed squad have stayed the same; with Dragusin heading out, and a new defender heading in. The fullback numbers are down one, but only due to losing Reguilon, who again, was only an emergency case who barely saw the pitch.

In midfield, the central midfield options have stayed steady, with an extra youth option in the shape of Alfie Devine being added to the numbers; likewise at the #10 - though I have shuffled some players around in that particular case. I had Kulusevski at the #10 last season, but have shifted him to the wing this season with a new #10 coming in (that’s not to say he won’t play at the #10, just that’s where I have him contributing depth for this exercise).

That leaves us with the forward line. We are one number down there, but remember that Timo Werner was all but banished from the squad in the second half of 24/25, and that Mikey Moore is likely to be much more of a squad contributor this season. There’s also the possibility that Spurs could add another young option (like I mentioned above) or that there’s somebody from the academy the club has its eye on to make up numbers if required.

What about homegrown numbers?

Ah yes - that old chestnut. For the sake of brevity, I won’t go into the rules in detail - rather I’ll be doing a repeat of last year’s piece at some point as the squad starts to move closer towards its final shape (and for now, you can check that out here). The long and short of it is that Spurs are fine when it comes to Premier League homegrown players; but UEFA rules are more restrictive, so that means some tough decisions as to the Champions League squad:

In a nutshell, Spurs have too many players. There is a 25-player limit, with eight of those needing to be association or club-trained (with a maximum of four of those being association-trained). That leaves 17 slots for List A Non-homegrown players, with this proposed squad being two players over that limit.

There’s only really one thing Spurs can do about that (as it is unfortunately not a possibility to use a time machine to make Lucas Bergvall into a List A club-trained player) - and that is to not register players. There’s one obvious name there in the form of Ben Davies (which would then allow the likes of Solanke to shift across to an association-trained spot). Another could be Dejan Kulusevski, depending on the severity of his injury - if he is expected to be out for a significant chunk of the first half of the season, he could be left off the squad list (and then just registered in January, potentially in place of someone else).

And that’s the squad, and the series! We’ve gone through the team with a fine-toothed comb, followed by a sledgehammer (much like the readers have come for my kneecaps in the comments) and this is the end result.

There have been some tough calls, and some easy ones; however, one thing is painfully clear to me, and that is that this squad needs some serious (painful) rebuilding if Spurs are to compete in both the Champions League, and the Premier League this coming season - especially as the sides around Spurs continue to strengthen themselves.

What do you think? Is this a squad Thomas Frank could work with? Where do you see the key areas of investment? Am I just a crazy person yelling at clouds? Feel free to give your thoughts in the comments.

The thing about Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumors right now is that they’re pretty much stuck in limbo. Oh sure we’re seeing plenty of rumors pop up. Some of them are fun and we’re writing about them on this Website Dot Com. But the reality is that until Fabio Paratici officially starts work in July, we’re still more or less stuck in Johan Lange’s Black Box of Nothingness while they work out which transfer targets they really want to focus on and Don Fabio loads his scattergun.

So it’s probably safe to assume that most of the transfer rumors in the news these days are either a) fake or b) agent-driven, possibly with Spurs just calling people and saying “would you? ok, ttyl then.”

That said, this blog needs content, so let’s write about something fun. According to French daily L’Equipe (via Get French Football News), Tottenham are one of two Premier League clubs that are interested in Monaco’s France U21 winger/AM Maghnes Akliouche. And that, gentle readers, kind of rocks.

Akliouche is 23 and has the look of one of those young players that’s about ready to explode if he lands somewhere good and can get a lot of minutes. So in that sense he makes a lot of sense for Tottenham. The kid’s got some SKILLS: he’s technically sharp, tactically progressive, and creative as hell. Last season he had 5g+10a (0.59 xG+xA/90) in Ligue 1 playing mostly as a right winger but also as a central attacking midfielder. That makes him sort of a hybrid 10 — he can dribble, he can pass, and he can take on defenders. The one small knock on him is that he’s underperforming his xG, but he’s still only 23, that can come in the right system, and his primary role is to set up others anyway.

I love this kid. You should love him too. Here’s a fun highlight video with bad music. Volume down for safety, y’all!

L’Equipe is saying that Akliouche will leave Monaco this summer for “the right price.” That price, apparently, is €60m (£51m), and that’s a lot of money for a guy coming off of one good season in France. That said, I honestly think this is a player who is going to make The Leap™ at wherever his next club is, and for that price you’re still buying low.

His hybrid skills and positioning makes me wonder where exactly he might fit in Thomas Frank’s tactics, but I can see him both as an inside forward on the right wing, or pushing Dejan Kulusevski at the 10 in certain formations.

L’Equipe says that the other Premier League club interested in Akliouche is Nottingham Forest, and if Forest ends up signing him I’m going to be very sad. That said, I suspect other clubs will come in for him at some point. The suggestion is that Akliouche’s move might not happen until later in the window, which could suit Spurs just fine.

Spurs need passing and dribbling in their midfield. Magnhes Akliouche would provide both, and has an impossibly high ceiling. This won’t happen, but if it’s me and I’m Johan Lange (I am not Johan Lange) I am on the phone with Monaco today to get the deal done as soon as possible. This kid rules.

The last couple of summer transfer windows I’ve liked to only feature one Tottenham Hotspur related character until Spurs make a signing. The tradition follows the one introduced by my predecessor, Pardeep, during the season in which Tottenham signed no one.

That one summer was the summer of Heung-min Son (and the summer of no signings). The idea at the time was that if there are going to be no signings, at least we get to see Sonny each morning.

We’re waiting for this second summer window to open. And while we’re waiting I thought it’d be good to throw it over to you all to select who your hoddle hero will be this summer.

The nominee will be your hoddle hero until one of the below three happens:

Tottenham Hotspur announce a senior team signing

That player leaves the club

Spurs go through the rest of the season without signing anyone

With that, I’ll get the poll started with 10 players for you to choose from.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Pure, by The Lightning Seeds

And now for your links:

Jay Harris ($$): “Justin Cochrane’s return to Spurs: He’ll plan training, but do more than just put the cones out”

Alasdair Gold: “Tottenham handed FA fine for homophobic chants about Mikel Arteta and Mason Mount in Man Utd win”

It took awhile, but we finally got some Thomas Frank #content from Tottenham Hotspur. Nearly a week elapsed between the time Spurs announced that Frank was taking over as head coach from Ange Postecoglou and when we started seeing actual photos and videos of Frank wearing Tottenham apparel. That delay was reportedly due to the fact that Frank was still on vacation when the appointment took place, and it takes time to film and edit interviews and videos.

But we finally got it, and Frank’s first interview is in the header of this article. You may have seen this already, but if you haven’t, it’s absolutely worth watching. You get a sense of who Thomas Frank is in this video — his background, his methodology, the way he interacts with people, and the way he loves to collaborate. He also talks about his intention to create “attacking, front-foot football” at Spurs, which is exciting to hear.

Frank is intelligent, loquacious, and a forthright communicator. He’s not too far from Ange in that regard, but in a different way. Watching this video, I’m excited for the future.

Considering how big a hit last week’s Danish fun facts were, your hoddler-in-chief thought it would be a good topic to revisit (I promise, no tennis this time).

There’s so much to enjoy and appreciate about Denmark. Too much for a single hoddle. That’s why we’re now in plural territory. Let’s get to it, baby.

Fun fact: Legos were invented in Denmark. How cool is that ??

Fun fact: Danes love snuggliness and cozniess. But, really, who doesn’t love a bit of “hygge”? Your hoddler-in-chief sure does. Grab your blankets, fam.

Fun fact: Bicycling is a major part of Danish culture, and it’s a major method of transportation. Denmark also hosted the first three stages of the 2022 Tour de France.

Fun fact: Wanna get your beach on? No problem, dear hoddlers. You’ll never be more than 32 miles away from the sea wherever you are in Denmark.

Fun fact: Holger Danske

Fun fact: Denmark produced your hoddler-in-chief’s favourite book, We, The Drowned. It’s an epic novel involving three generations lasting more than a century about the ship-faring town of Marstal. I highly recommend it.

Fun fact: There is no Danish word for “please”.

Fun fact: Denmark has only one land border. That’s with Germany. The opening chapters of We, The Drowned featured a war between Denmark and Germany int the 1800s.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Territorial Call of the Female, by Bodega

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Which Premier League team has the toughest start to the 2025-26 season?”

Alasdair Gold: “Every word Thomas Frank said on his Tottenham plans, classy Postecoglou touch, Levy and no Son”

The Guardian: “FA charge Chelsea’s Mudryk with doping offences”

ESPN: “Pochettino: USMNT not playing to get revenge on critics”

National Geographic (from September): “Why ‘Everything is Awesome’ in Billund, the home of Lego”

Tottenham Hotspur need a new 6 pretty badly, but thus far all the good transfer rumors have been for wide midfielders and wingers. Take this one, from Goal.com author (and Friend of the Blog™) Harry Sherlock, who writes that Spurs have made a £50m approach to West Ham for Mohammed Kudus.

Kudus is a good player who’s coming off of a pretty awful year for West Ham this past season. He had a promising 8g+6a in 2023-24 in about 2400 minutes, but saw his production dip to 5g+3a for the Hammers this season as West Ham finished an anemic 14th in the table. But Kudus has a bag full of tools, and there’s some suggestion that he could rebound in a better system and with a better team around him. Is that Spurs? Well, we’d all like to think so, wouldn’t we?

Kudus is a versatile attacker, able to play in a number of positions but frequently deployed wide. He’s agile and technically sound, loves to dribble guys, and excels in tight spaces. He played a lot on the wing for West Ham, but he’s a very adept central attacking midfielder. And when he’s on, he’s ON — he once had 14 successful dribbles in a match against Chelsea in May 2024, a Premier League record. This season he averaged just over 3 dribbles/90, a significant downturn from his past record. He’s also a good passer, something Spurs pretty desperately need.

The problem with this rumor is twofold: first, Spurs’ £50m approach is significantly lower than West Ham’s asking price of £65m (which feels like a stretch if I’m honest). Secondly, Spurs haven’t done any business with West Ham since 2012 since WHU chairman David Sullivan reportedly hates Daniel Levy’s guts and won’t do business with him. Will that change now that Levy’s stepping back and Gold has to deal with Fabio Paratici and Vinai Venkatesham? Who knows!

I like Kudus. I would like to think that this past season is a bit of an outlier and he could rekindle some of his previous excitement with a change of scenery. It’s neat that we’re linked with him because I think he could cook under Thomas Frank. The fact that West Ham despises us doesn’t do us any favors, though so if this is going to happen it’s probably going to take a lot more than £50m.

Tottenham Hotspur have a veritable stable of young talent that’s not quite ready to earn a place in Thomas Frank’s first team, so it’s unsurprising that, in addition to the usual raft of incoming transfer rumors, we’re also seeing quite a few rumors about players heading out on loan. Danny Hall, writing for the Sheffield Star, has a piece today suggesting that Sheffield United are interested in both central defender Ashley Phillips and midfielder Alfie Devine next season.

United recently sacked Chris Wilder after losing in the Championship promotion playoff final to Sunderland at the end of last season; the Blades finished third in the table with 90 points, ten behind Leeds and Burnley. New boss Ruben Selles is said to want to make his mark on the team, and part of that is replacing the six players Sheffield United had on loan last season.

Phillips spent the whole of last season on loan in the second division, first with Plymouth Argyle and then with Stoke City. Alfie Devine was sent abroad to Westerlo, where he had a fine season and became something of a fan favorite. Both players are unlikely to make much of an impact on Spurs’ first team this year, but are attracting interest from a number of English clubs, including West Bromwich Albion and their new manager Ryan Mason.

Now, the piece doesn’t specifically say that United want Phillips and Devine on loan, but seriously — they’d be on loan. There’s no way that Spurs would be willing to cut bait on either player this season considering their age and ability, even if they eventually decide to make that decision further down the road.

I’m pretty sure that Sheffield United won’t be the only club that is linked to these players, as well as others who are coming up through the academy at the moment. My guess is that any loans won’t be announced until after the start of preseason training and maybe not until after the Asian preseason tour so that Frank has an opportunity to see them in action. But who knows. If it’s pretty certain that Phillips and Devine could benefit from another season on loan in the Championship, that’s not a bad outcome either.

It’s Premier League fixture day! The names have been drawn, and we now get to see what lies ahead as Thomas Frank prepares for Tottenham Hotspur’s 2025/26 season:

It’s a gentle start to the season for Spurs’ new manager, getting to test his side’s mettle against newly-promoted Burnley at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium; but things very quickly escalate from there, as the Lilywhites head north to take on Manchester City. That does look though to be Spurs’ biggest challenge for the first three months, as Frank will look to build into an extremely busy festive period.

It’s the middle third of the season, in fact, that looks the toughest for Spurs. Six league fixtures through December is certainly a tough test of any squad’s depth, and remember - no cup fixtures are included in this list! The fixtures against the remaining “Sky Six” teams, as well as Newcastle United (who, in terms of quality at least, may as well have replaced Manchester United in that grouping), are largely concentrated through that period from November to March as well - a period in the season where in recent years Spurs have struggled with player availability.

One would hope that Thomas Frank’s methods will have less of an impact on player attrition than his predecessor’s, but it would certainly be hope, rather than confidence, that Spurs will avoid an injury crisis. Brentford also suffered a number of injuries through their squad under the Dane’s more pragmatic tactics, with Spurs’ squad this season not looking particularly deep and European football to contend with.

Of course, all this discussion is moot - we can’t predict the future, and this fixture list is realistically largely a guide, with fixtures likely to shift due to cup runs, television schedules, and other circumstances. At the end of the day, it’s 38 matches, home and away, against the other 19 teams.

Here’s hoping it’ll go better for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club this coming season.

Now that whole pesky manager thing has been sorted, we’re back to getting Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumors. One name that has popped up repeatedly here and there is that of Bournemouth winger/forward Antoine Semenyo. London-based French journalist Sebastien Vidal tweeted today that Tottenham are “increasingly confident” that they can sign Semenyo in this window, with the player possibly commanding as much as a £60m transfer fee.

Semenyo’s one of those players where the eye test maybe tells the story more than the green bars. He had 11g+5a for a pretty decent Bournemouth side this past season, the team’s second highest scorer behind Justin Kluivert, and every time I got the opportunity to watch him play I always came away pretty impressed. The 25 year old English/Ghanaian dual-national winger kind of does it all — he’s two footed so can play on either side of the pitch, he has an explosive burst of pace, he can dribble, he can pass, and is pretty adept at getting his shot off. He also reads the ball well, and averaged a league-high 1.5 blocked passes/90 last season. The green bars don’t look particularly exciting, but he’s one of those players who seems to attract interest from managers who Just Know About Things™, like Thomas Frank.

That said, £60m is a lot of £. The tweet says that Semenyo is a backup option for Bryan Mbeumo who is still, I guess, set on Manchester United. I can certainly see Semenyo as a good option for Frank and Spurs next season, especially if Son Heung-Min decides to leave the club or is sold. His versatility will serve him well in Frank’s offense, as it has in Andoni Iraola’s, and it looks as though he’s ready to take a step up in competition to a Champions League side.

I don’t know if I like Antoine Semenyo for £60m, but I do like Antoine Semenyo and think he could be poised for a breakout season in 2025-26.

Late last week, a report started circulating amongst the various (and obnoxious) twitter aggregators suggesting Turkish Super Lig club Fenerbahce was inquiring about and in talks with Tottenham Hotspur over a potential move for Son Heung-Min. The source of those aggregations was, naturally the Turkish media.

Naturally, I dismissed the rumor immediately. There are a few truisms that permeate football transfers and that you can generally rely on: ITK is almost always fake, swap deals never actually happen, and you can never, ever trust the Turkish media. This particular rumor originated from Yagiz Sabuncuoglu, who besides having a surname that makes him sound like he’s a distant cousin of Ange Postecoglou, has 1.5m followers and whose Twitter bio reads simply “Sports Journalist.” Not very promising!

EXCLUSIVE | Jose Mourinho met with Heung-Min Son. The Korean star’s relations with Mourinho are at a very advanced level and he is open to coming to Fenerbahçe. A transfer fee of 30 million euros is requested due to agreements in the Far East. If the transfer issue is resolved, the talks will progress.

So imagine my surprise when Friend of the Blog™ Joel Wertheimer dug up this from a Fenerbahce Reddit thread, suggesting that if Turkish football media has a Tier 1, this guy is probably on it. Amazing scenes, we seem to have discovered the singular reliable football journalist in Turkey!

I could spend a few paragraphs talking about how Son moving to Turkey might not be as insane as it sounds — aging footballers head there all the time, Sonny probably likes Jose a lot more than we do, it’s closer to South Korea than London, Fener are in the Champions League third qualifying round. You can certainly cock your head, squint, and convince yourself that this is plausible.

But I won’t do that, because Sabuncuoglu had an update yesterday that pretty much rules out Sonny reuniting with The Special One due to the high cost of the transfer.

Although Heung Min-Son wants to work with Mourinho again; the transfer is very unlikely to happen as the transfer fee is around 30 million euros.

Aye, there’s the rub — Spurs are probably willing to let Sonny go (he’s earned that right), but with one year left on his contract it would probably be for something close(r) to his market value and certainly not for peanuts. £25m isn’t a lot for a genuine superstar, but Sonny turns 33 next year, so that figure seems pretty fair? As one of the bigger clubs in Turkey, Fenerbahce can probably afford Sonny’s wages (Galatasaray just locked Leroy Sane down on a free transfer with ridiculous wages), but it looks like they can’t afford those wages and his transfer fee.

There are also rumors that there is interest in Son from several clubs in Saudi Arabia, which feels gross, but they’re much more likely to offer stupid money for him, assuming Son wants to go. Again, I feel pretty confident in saying that the club will accommodate whatever Son wants to do within reason. If he wants to leave the club, Spurs will find a way to come to an understanding that makes everyone happy. But it sounds like it won’t be with Fenerbahce.