Cartilage Free Captain

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.

Here we go.

No, not the Fab kind. It’s time for one last go around on the Tottenham Hotspur F***, Marry, Kill machine. What could I say in this one that could stir up even more controversy than suggesting we sell Brennan Johnson? Well, hold my beer.

We’re now up to Spurs’ last remaining group of players: the strikers. For each, we’ll give you our thoughts as to why they should stay (Keep), head out on loan (Loan), or go (Sell - either via an actual sale, or conclusion of their contract); though there may also be a bacon sandwich that pops up here and there also.

Editor’s note: this series and a couple of the pieces in it were nearly completed at time of writing, so we will still cover players whose future has already been confirmed (i.e. released players)

Richarlison - Sell

Man, it makes me sad writing this. The thing is, it’s not like Richy isn’t a good player. In some ways, he is the best striker on our books: excellent movement, high work-rate, and a natural finisher. I am a huge fan, let’s make that clear - but sometimes the best ability is availability. The man hasn’t managed 2,000 minutes in a single season at Spurs.

It just seems like Richy’s body can’t keep up with the rigors of top-level football anymore, and is there any value in keeping somebody around who’s just never able to play? Maybe, but as I’ve said in previous pieces, it probably makes more sense to take the money and reinvest in the squad.

Dominic Solanke - Keep

I’m officially now a Solanke skeptic. Earlier on in the 24/25 season, I was a big defender of him, impressed by his all-round game and assuming the finishing would come. It did not. Sure, Spurs’ attack just totally ceased to function as the season progressed, but Solanke’s inability to make the most of scoring chances contributed to that.

That said, Spurs committed a large amount of money to bringing Dom in, and it’s probably too soon to cut bait. Like I said, his all-round game is good - his passing, dribbling, and even pressing were better than I expected. He just needs to get that finishing going. For now, though, other areas of the squad are in more dire need of investment, so he keeps his place.

Dane Scarlett - Keep

You might think this a bit of a weird decision, with only two years left to run on his deal... but Dane’s development has stalled the last couple of years with some horrendous loans, and I wonder if it’s better to keep him closer to home for three reasons: 1) Spurs are desperately in need of club-trained players to round out their Champions League squad; 2) Dane needs to build some confidence, and I’m not sure sending him out to another middling team down the English pyramid helps with that; and 3) I think he could actually see some minutes in early cup rounds which could help build that confidence.

A lot of people are writing Dane off, but the Oxford United team in which he struggled had all sorts of problems with dysfunction in build-up before he would even touch the ball; and honestly, every time he plays, he just LOOKS like a proper striker. His movement is excellent, he hustles well, and he gets his shots off quickly. I genuinely think there could still be a player there. That, plus his value is probably at an all-time low right now. With that in mind, I think the first half of the season spent in London before potentially looking at a January loan makes a lot of sense.

Alejo Veliz - Sell

Another Spurs loanee who has struggled in a side seemingly allergic to attacking, Veliz’s loan at Espanyol was another bust. Unfortunately, he doesn’t add the club-trained value to Spurs’ squad that Scarlett does, so in this case a sale makes sense. Apparently the club agrees, with reports in recent days that Spurs have rejected loan approaches from Argentina, with Spurs preferring to sell the young Argentine outright. And you know what? That’s okay. These are the sort of gambles Spurs should be making with young talent. Sometimes you get a Lucas Bergvall; sometimes you don’t!

Mason Melia - Keep

You may not be immediately familiar with this name, but Mason Melia broke the record transfer fee for a League of Ireland player, with Spurs paying £1.6 million for the Irish youngster’s signing back in January. The 17-year-old was targeted by the likes of Everton, Chelsea, and Manchester City, but instead opted for North London.

To give you an idea of his talent, he debuted at the senior level at the age of 15, and is already in double figures for goals. That is unbelievable production at that age, playing against grown-ups. Unfortunately, he won’t actually be joining up with Spurs until January 2026, where I would be extremely surprised if the club did anything but keep him close, both to aid his early development and potentially to be a very dire break glass in case of emergency option - doubly useful if Scarlett heads out on loan in January.

Will Lankshear - Loan

Heading to the Championship for your first senior loan is pretty impressive, and though Will Lankshear didn’t score a goal in his time at West Bromwich Albion, context is important. Lankshear only played around four 90’s, and in that time managed 1.1 xG and 7 shots - and that was in a West Brom team that were a bit of a mess: manager Tony Mowbray only lasted three months between January and April, with a rather dire run of form leaving The Baggies in midtable.

Fans at West Brom (not always the best gauge of quality to be clear) were also hugely impressed with what they saw from Willy Lanks, and it thus makes a lot of sense for him to return to The Hawthorns under new manager Ryan Mason to continue his development.

The strikers are probably an area that is slightly lower in terms of investment required. With a player who is a reasonably reliable starting option and a number of other players that can step into the forward role in a pinch, other positions require more attention from the Spurs front office.

Join us next time for our final piece in this series, where we break down the squad as a whole, talk through Spurs’ strengths, the holes, and the possible signings.

Check out our previous pieces here:

Before he left Spurs, the world’s most interesting man Alfie Whiteman quizzed his teammates on what their four favourite films are.

All of this was down for Letterboxd, which looks like a social platform for film lovers. For those of you who are aware (as you should be), Whiteman’s a big film buff.

Here are his four favourites: Pusher II, Midnight Cowboy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Star Wars Episode III

I was very surprised to see Star Wars Ep 3 in there, but I get it. He saw it in the cinema. That’s what Episode 2 is my favourite Star Wars film.

Here’s what others around Tottenham Hotspur decided:

Matthys Tel: The Equalizer, 300, Jurrasic World, Avengers

Guglielmo Vicario: Venom, Gladiator, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Godfather Pt. 1

Fraser Forster: The Shawshenk Redemption, Man on Fire, Batman: The Dark Knight, Gladiator II

Micky van de Ven: Fury, Hackshaw Ridge, Wolf of Wall Street, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Antonin Kinsky: The Fast and the Furious series

Brennan Johnson: The Hangover, Shawshenk, Interstellar, Law Abiding Citizen

Archie Gray: Three Batman films and The Equalizer

Dominic Solanke: Get Rich or Die Trying, Avengers Infinity War, Focus, Straight Outta Compton

Timo Werner: Transformers, Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows Pt 2: Avengers Endgame, Gossip Girl (??)

Ben Davies: The Departed, Inglorious Basterds, Seven, A Few Good Men

Sonny: Spiderman Far From Home, Transformers, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Parasite

I was pretty surprised to see Transformers make so many appearances here, especially the rise of the beasts (??). I’ve never heard of it. The first one wasn’t too bad, but the rest are all terrible.

I’d argue Vicario probably has the best of the lot here. Forster’s could’ve, but he ruined it with Gladiator II.

Now, let’s get to fitzie’s four favourites:

Kill Bill, Vol. 1: My favourite Quentin Tarantino film. Love the action, the cinematography and music is even better. The final showdown between XXX and O-Ren Ishii is iconic.

Goodfellas: The best mobster movie not named The Godfather (or The Godfather Pt 2). This is the one I fell in love with.

In Brugges: Colin Ferrell and Brendan Gleeson are incredible in this, and it’s wonderful to see their strange relationship become something quite beautiful. Especially beautiful is Ferrell’s character growth.

Paddington 2: By all accounts, this is a perfect film.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Sir Duke, by Stevie Wonder

And now for your links:

The Times: “Obsessive taskmaster or misunderstood visionary: who is real Daniel Levy?”

Alasdair Gold: “Bryan Mbeumo call, Son Heung-min decision and what’s on Thomas Frank’s Tottenham to-do list”

The Guardian: “John Textor provides another twist in Crystal Palace ownership saga”

Tottenham Hotspur are getting down to business. After sorting out the whole managerial fiasco, the Spurs front office have moved quickly to close a deal with young, talented forward Mathys Tel:

Great pun work, Spurs’ Twitter admin.

This is effectively Tottenham Hotspur’s third signing of the summer, following young defender Luka Vuskovic officially joining the club and Kevin Danso’s loan becoming permanent. We wrote just yesterday on Spurs’ negotiations with Bayern Munich; though there was an option to buy in Tel’s original loan deal, the £50 million clause was considered high for a player who is still quite raw, albeit talented. The reality is though that Bayern didn’t see any future for Tel at the German club, and Tel clearly enjoyed his time in London.

This therefore represents a fantastic piece of business for Tottenham Hotspur. Though £50 million was undoubtedly too high, the £30 million reported is much more palatable: still a slight gamble, but one worth taking with chances high that Tel is worth much more in the next couple of seasons. I wrote in our Loan, Keep, Sell: The Wingers piece how encouraging Tel’s underlying numbers were (0.54 xG+xA), and if he can turn that into actual production, Spurs have a gem on their hands.

It’s impressive as well how quickly negotiations proceeded; clearly, the relationship between the two clubs is in good stead (even after the messy media campaigns of the Harry Kane saga, which I would rather forget). It also allows the club’s front office to now pivot to more pressing matters (such as a midfielder, and potentially an additional winger and defender).

Tel’s deal runs until 2031. Welcome (back) to the club, Mathys. It’s good to have you with us for the long haul!

Yesterday we reported that Bayern Munich’s sporting director had confirmed talks between the club and Tottenham Hotspur for Mathys Tel. Today, we’re getting more details and a report that a permanent transfer is close.

Sport Bild is reporting today that Tottenham and Bayern are very close to an agreement that would send Tel to Spurs permanently for a fee of €35m (£30m). That’s on top of the €10m loan fee Spurs paid last season to bring Tel in on loan in January. The number is a cut rate price from the purchase option that Tel had on his loan deal last season and reflects the fact that Spurs want to bring him in, and Bayern Munich just want him gone.

Tel’s going to be an interesting case at Spurs. He’s a young player and has a high ceiling, but came in looking pretty raw. A lot of that was due to him not being fit after barely playing at all in the first half of the season at Bayern, and you could really see him rounding into form at Spurs towards the end of the 2024-25 campaign. I think there’s a good chance that Tel can take another step forward this coming season and could be a real asset for Spurs in the future.

The last time we heard news about Mathys Tel, it was the suggestion that Tottenham Hotspur were not going to trigger his £50m purchase option after his loan from Bayern Munich, but they’d still try and sign him this summer. Now, according to Bayern Munich sporting director Max Eberl, we can at least confirm that Spurs are doing just that.

Eberl told Abendzeitung München (via SportWitness) that Bayern and Spurs are “in talks” over a permanent transfer for Tel that is almost certainly less than the original option. That means the club brass were impressed with Tel’s performance and improvement over his half season loan and are keen to bring him back under Thomas Frank.

Here’s what Eberl said about Tel:

“Mathys was at Tottenham for six months. He wanted to play in the U21 European championship with France, and we allowed him to. We’re talking to Tottenham, that’s no secret. We’ll see how that pans out.”

Sounds good! It’s not much of an update, but when the sporting director of a major European club says they’re talking to Spurs, then they’re talking to Spurs. There are still plenty of opportunities for these negotiations to go sideways, especially if Bayern aren’t willing to go down to whatever Spurs’ number is, but considering they’re basically begging clubs to take him this summer I kind of expect a deal will get done at some point.

Tottenham Hotspur have already announced most of their preseason plans — a trip to Asia for matches against Arsenal and Newcastle United in late July, and a match against Bayern Munich in Germany in early August. Now we can add another one, and maybe one that’s a little less challenging.

Spurs have announced that they will travel to Kenilworth Road to face Luton Town on July 26, shortly before departing for their preseason tour.

Luton have had a pretty spectacular fall since promoting to the Premier League two seasons ago. They’ve now suffered two straight relegations and will play in League One next season. In years past Tottenham have played clubs at Luton’s level or below in behind-closed-doors friendlies that aren’t open to the public, but this one will give a nice gate to Luton Town, something I expect they could use right now as they prepare for life in the third division.

Playing Luton is also something of a nice preparation for what one would expect would be tougher preseason matches on tour.

Here’s a short summary of Tottenham’s expected preseason tour schedule. As of now I don’t have much in terms of TV coverage, but we can probably expect they’ll be streamed at minimum on SpursPLAY.

@ Luton Town

Saturday, July 26, 10 am ET / 3 pm BST

Kenilworth Road, Luton

vs. Arsenal

Thursday, July 31, 7:30 am ET / 12:30 pm BST

Kai Tak Stadium, Hong Kong

vs. Newcastle United

Coupang Play Series

Sunday, August 3, 7 am ET / 12 pm BST

Seoul World Cup Stadium, South Korea

@ Bayern Munich

Thursday, August 7, 8:30 am ET / 1:30 pm BST

Allianz Stadium, Munich, Germany

Now that Tottenham Hotspur have officially announced the appointment of Thomas Frank as their next manager, attention can now turn back to summer transfer rumors. And not a moment too soon! Spurs have already “wasted” one of the two (!) open windows, and there’s a ton of business that needs to get done before Spurs play PSG in the UEFA Super Cup.

Brentford attacker Bryan Mbeumo is coming off of the best season of his career, scoring 20 goals and tallying 9 assists for the Bees in the Premier League in 2024-25. All of the noise in the football media had Mbeumo leaving Brentford, but heading to quite possibly the one major club in the league that’s worse than Spurs — Manchester United.

But Frank’s appointment has maybe changed that calculus. There are reports from Sky Sports’ Lyall Thomas that suggest that Spurs are now moving for Mbeumo where he would rejoin the manager that developed him.

Sky doesn’t exactly have the most sterling of records when it comes to transfer rumors, even if Lyall Thomas is a perfectly cromulent reporter and editor. So a Sky rumor doesn’t exactly turn my head. What DOES turn my head is this brief tweet from Sam Tabuteu, a freelance sports journalist who writes for the Hounslow Herald, a London borough in between Heathrow Airport and the Gtech Community Stadium.

The Hounslow Herald is one of the small local papers in the areas around Brentford, and if you know me you know I tend to have a lot of time for the rumors that come out of the small regional newspapers in Britain. So if our new best friend Sam says Spurs are trying to move for Mbeumo, they probably are at minimum investigating what it would take, and likely on behalf of Thomas Frank.

If you played Fantasy Premier League, Bryan Mbeumo probably made it onto your team at some point over the course of the season, and for good reason — he had a monster season for the Bees, along with Yoane Wissa and Kevin Schade. This is probably a rumor that will excite a lot of Spurs fans and for good reason — he’s seemingly kicked his game to a new level and at age 25 is entering his peak.

But there’s maybe a reason to be a little skeptical about Mbeumo if you look a little deeper into his numbers. Yes, the 20g+9a statistic is fantastic. But his xG over the season was only 12.3, about a 65% overperformance of his underlying statistics. He also slightly overperformed his xA on the season. In short, Mbeumo ran extremely hot, some would say unsustainably so. Now take him out of his past environs and put him in a new team with new teammates and it’s a potential recipe for a regression to the mean.

The 20g Mbeumo is almost certainly worth the £60-65m expected transfer fee that it would take to get him out of Brentford. But is it worth spending that much for a 12g Mbeumo? What about something in the middle? Now, it’s possible that Mbeumo has made The Leap™ and this is the kind of player he is now. It’s also possible that joining Frank at Spurs would help him maintain the level he hit last season. But it’s just as possible that he regresses somewhat to something more akin to his overall expected metrics. It’s for that reason I’m a little skeptical about a big money move for Mbeumo, when Spurs really need to hit every summer signing out of the park.

Gazumping United would be fun, though.