Cartilage Free Captain

Tottenham Hotspur club captain and Europa League champion (did you know?) Son Heung-Min is a target for a few clubs in the Saudi Premier League, according to the Telegraph.

And look — that’s about all the interesting info in that article, which has the headline, in super large print, of “SON HEUNG-MIN SET TO LEAVE TOTTENHAM.” Did you read that and panic? I know I did. The article uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh doesn’t really say that.

Read through the article (which is paywalled) and you’ll see a whole lot of speculation on Son’s future at the club as he enters into the last year of his Tottenham contract and after he delivered the first Spurs trophy in 17 years. Tottenham need to generate funds! There’s a chance they can get a fee for him this summer! Saudi clubs are interested in him! He would leave as the arguably the most important Spurs signing in the modern era!

But here’s the thing — out of all of that, the only really interesting thing there is the interest from Saudi clubs. Even that isn’t new — Saudi clubs were reportedly in for Son the past two years, and both the club and Son essentially told them, rightfully, to piss off. We have no evidence that Son would want to leave. We have no evidence that Spurs are keen to sell him. This article is, almost entirely, a big ol’ nothingburger.

Now look — Tottenham are going to need to do something about Sonny eventually. If Son were ready for a new challenge somewhere else, he’s certainly earned the right to ask the club to find him a new club. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if, at the conclusion of his contract, he would decide to leave, maybe to MLS, or back home to South Korea, to see out the twilight years of his career. It also wouldn’t surprise me if he stays on and retires at Tottenham. That’s his choice, and the club should pretty much let him do whatever he wants.

So could Spurs potentially sell Sonny this summer? Well, yeah, I guess they could. But despite the headline and the Telegraph broaching the possibility here, there sure isn’t much actual evidence (yet) that they will. Everyone chill out for now.

Hey, something to distract us from the looming #Decisange2025! Tottenham Hotspur have filled the news void by dropping the brand-new home kit for next season:

This new strip had been rumored / leaked for a little while now, and it’s a reasonably simplistic design (as home kits generally should be, in my opinion) with a couple of additional flourishes.

I have some mixed feelings on this instance of the Lilywhite kit. What’s strange is the things I thought I would like, I don’t, and vice versa. For instance, I thought I would HATE the centered Spurs badge and Nike logo; but I think on the plain white body of the shirt, it actually works quite well. I also thought I would like the standard crew collar, just keeping things clean; but it almost seems to make the shirt not sit right on the players, and makes the sleeve coloring stand out more than it should.

Speaking of... I’m really not sure on that second color under the sleeves. I almost think some sort of accent color might have worked better, but the two shades of blue just feel a little off. And that’s without even going into the super weird “Take a Vow” marketing spiel, which... sure, let’s cult the place up, shall we?

But hey - the bonus of this one is IT’S GOING TO HAVE THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE BADGE ON IT next season. Take that, haters.

Tottenham Hotspur Women were not exactly a joy to watch this year. Uninspired performances, injuries to Beth England and Eveliina Summanen, and poor recruitment all saw Spurs end the 2024-25 season in 11th, their lowest ever finish in the Women’s Super League. The team ended the 2023-24 season on a high note, so how did it all go wrong? Why are Spurs still ping ponging around the WSL midtable, unable to solidify themselves as “best of the rest”?

The season’s been over for a few weeks now, and I’ve had a bit of time to process it all. Let’s try to make some sense of how it all went down. Fair warning, this is not going to be a very happy article. A few good things did happen this season—some players had good seasons, but chief among them was Ella Morris, and we’ve just lost her to an ACL tear. If misery isn’t for you, turn around now before I get into it!

Recruitment Issues

Our recruitment has been a problem for a while now. There was some vague hope that Scott Munn might fix things up, given his previous experience in women’s football, but this was all in vain. In the end, this season ended up a perfect testament to how severely we’ve failed to identify and recruit players for the kind of football we’re trying to play.

Alarm bells started ringing over the summer when we lost Grace Clinton and Celin Bizet to Manchester United. Grace and Celin did a huge amount of ball progression (according to fbref, they topped our 2023-24 stats in both progressive carries and progressive passes received, and Grace tallied our second most progressive passes after Eveliina Summanen). Their replacements—Hayley Raso and Maite Oroz—only showed modest promise in this area before joining Tottenham, and both ended up missing huge swaths of the season anyway. We also lost Kit Graham to an ACL injury before the season even started. Robert used Kit as a sort of all-purpose midfield sub to great effect. Summer signing Anna Csiki took on this role in her stead, but at no point did Anna actually look capable of filling Kit’s shoes.

To make matters worse, goalkeeper Becky Spencer’s shot stopping abilities took a nosedive, and we had no suitable backup in place. Of course it was really bad luck that the goalkeeper market was so thin when Becky’s dropoff happened. But also, we’ve known this moment was coming for years. Time really does come for everyone, and it’s baffling to me that the club weren’t more prepared. At the time, word on the street was we had someone in mind who wouldn’t be available until January. I can only assume that was Lize Kop, who we have since signed. Maybe waiting three months to get her seemed a fair risk to those in charge, I don’t know, but it sure doesn’t look too good in hindsight. A half-season on, it’s still not clear whether she’s good enough. Though it’s largely been due to poor performances elsewhere, we’ve only won one game since she’s joined.

Unfortunately, none of this is very surprising. Since Robert joined, almost every player we’ve signed has either been from his home country or home league (Swedish, or from the Damallsvensken), which makes me think he’s doing all the talent ID himself. This should not be part of his job! I don’t think it’s too much to ask for Tottenham Hotspur to hire a person (or people, even) whose job it is to identify talent around the world for Spurs Women.

There is a bit of good news on this front—Spurs Women have reportedly been looking for a Director of Football-type figure for a while, although at the time of writing no one has been hired. There’s also talk that Vinai Venkateshem, Tottenham’s new CEO, may be able to repeat the work he did to strengthen Arsenal Women at Spurs. But, well, people said Scott Munn would fix us too. Maybe Vinai will prove to be a key part of our front office, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Robert Vilahamn

Emma Sanders reported that Spurs are considering sacking Vilahamn off the back of the 2024-25 season. Personally, I think we should. It comes down to this—Robert was good when he had good talent in his squad that fit his exact footballing needs, but that man does not have a plan B.

Without Grace Clinton and Celin Bizet, and as injuries started to hit the squad and heavy defeats to top sides started to pile up, I lost all sense of what Robert Vilahamn was trying to accomplish on the pitch. The identity that felt so strong in 2023-24 only peeked through a few times, and never for long enough to actually win matches. I often think back to Martha Thomas’ iconic winning goal in December 2023’s North London Derby—a gorgeous and clever and perfectly executed team goal. I’ve hardly even seen us try anything like that this season, let alone pull it off.

I can’t remember one of his substitutions or tactical adjustments ever actually changing a game, and quite often, his inability to accommodate the specific strengths and weaknesses of the squad at hand got him into trouble. For example, Drew Spence has been excellent at times this season, but it’s clear she can only give 50-60 good minutes. Robert insists on keeping her on the pitch for much longer, which results in late game midfield breakdowns. I don’t think a manager this inflexible is a good fit for the WSL.

I also have qualms with Robert’s player development. A number of once-promising players have stagnated under him. After a strong 2023-24, Martha Thomas failed to score a single goal in the WSL on 4.4 xG. Jess Naz, Matilda Vinberg, Amanda Nildén and Olga Ahtinen have failed to hit the highs they reached last year, and Robert has even made Ash Neville look quiet. In years past, Ash has been one of our best attacking players. Yet for most of this season, Robert hasn’t allowed her past the halfway line (because she’s Ash Neville, she still did do a lot of ball progression for us, while also leading the league in tackles). I’m not suggesting that Robert is entirely responsible for all these players’ lackluster performances—there are obviously compounding issues. But the fact that I can’t point to a single player Robert has improved (except for Ella Morris who is so good she may have burst onto the scene anyway) seems like a big problem!

You could argue that we should keep Robert and just try to do better at building him a squad. But there’s no guarantee we’re going to get the front office stuff right this year. If we don’t, I’d rather have a manager who seems remotely capable of elevating an average squad. Even if we do get recruitment right, it’s not like Robert is never going to need to be flexible again. We might sign better players, but so will the rest of the WSL. The league is constantly progressing, and I’ve seen no evidence he’s capable of keeping up with it. We should fire him and take a punt on someone new.

Investment in women’s football

My biggest gripe of all is, as always, that the club just doesn’t seem to care much about the women’s team. While the top Premier League teams in England have all begun to invest in their women’s side, Spurs have trailed behind. Spurs’ investment has come in fits and starts, all under the guise of doing things “sustainably.” This would be a lot more believable if Daniel Levy himself hadn’t effectively said he didn’t think there was a market for women’s football.

“If you look at the economics of women’s football at the moment, there is not the consumer interest compared to men’s,” Levy said in 2023, speaking to Cambridge Union in 2023. “Ticket pricing is exceedingly low, TV rights are very low. Sponsor interest is limited. And as a consequence, every single club in the Premier League’s women’s [team] is losing money. And then long-term, that’s not sustainable. So, something is going to have to change.”

This was, by the way, a non-answer to a question he was asked about his strategy for investing in Spurs Women. I won’t begrudge him that last bit. He is technically correct that pricing is low, that every PL club is losing money and that it’s not sustainable. He says that something needs to change, but he–and every other football exec who thinks like him—refuses to be that change. I find it difficult to believe he and a few other enterprising businessmen couldn’t whip up a good base of support for women’s football in London, of all places, if they really wanted to.

But he apparently doesn’t see consumer interest in women’s football as something one can generate, and he certainly doesn’t see the club’s own role in why the consumer interest is not there. Some of the things the club does actively discourage people who badly want to support Spurs Women—big things, like lack of investment in players, staff and facilities, but also small ones. They schedule women’s and men’s games at the same time, they fail to advertise women’s games, the team only plays games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against clubs guaranteed to absolutely ruin us, and when those games happen, they don’t even bother putting Spurs Women-specific merch in the store. When I go to watch Spurs Women content on Spursplay, I have to scroll down so far, I forget why I’m even there in the first place!

Levy’s way of thinking, if it follows what he said in that interview, is cowardly and unimaginitive. I’m admittedly very neutral on the man, but I will take this opportunity to yell at him: The club motto is To Dare is to Do, Daniel. Dare to build a stellar women’s side with a dedicated fan base! If you’d like to read a longer and more thorough takedown of Levy’s statement, I’ll now direct you over to an issue of fellow Spurs Women supporter Caroline’s excellent newsletter, Spurs Across the Pond.

As tempting as it is to paint this as a Levy problem, it’s not that simple. These attitudes are endemic to women’s football and endemic to the WSL (Just look at what Jim Ratcliffe is currently doing at Manchester United, a team with resources so much greater than ours they’re still able to tempt one or two of our players away every season). Women’s football was banned in England until 1970, and there’s still ground to actively make up.

Even if Spurs do choose to invest in the women’s side right this second, they’ve got an uphill battle to face because the WSL is a flawed product. There are four “rich” teams, and each year they fight for three Champions League spots. On the other end, there’s one relegation spot. Many years, the side promoted from the Championship goes straight back down. So what’s left for the eight teams that make up 4th-11th? There are two domestic cups, but those almost always go to one of those four richest teams as well. If you’re not in the Champions League and you misstep in the cups, things become very sparse very quickly. A team might go weeks at a time without playing any games, and when they finally do play, the stakes are low. How are they meant to drum up new support under these circumstances?

There have been a variety of suggestions on how to reform the league—temporarily pausing relegation for a few years, merging with the Championship, or introducing Europa League-like competitions for non-Champions league teams (note that a Europa League has been instituted, but it only exists for teams that have been knocked out of the Champions League already so it’s not relevant to the rest of the WSL). They’ve all got pros and cons, and so far, nothing concrete has taken hold.

I don’t have an answer here either, but I do know that what the WSL has done so far is not it. The league has recently announced a low-effort, low-quality rebrand. WSL, if you’re reading this, please leave your ChatGPT-ass rebrand at home and take some real action. On a serious note, the rebrand campaign is sprinkled with the word “female” throughout. This is a word that tends to pop up a lot when someone’s doing transphobia or misogyny. In the context of the FA’s reprehensible ban on transgender athletes in women’s football, it makes me extremely concerned about the people in charge. In general, this ban is terrible and harmful for players and for the whole sport, and no league anywhere should do it.

So where do we go from here?

It’s ecstasy for Oldham Athletic and heartbreak for Southend United!

The Latics were promoted back into the EFL League after a dramatic 3-2 win against the Shrimpers in the Vanarama National League playoff final on Sunday.

Dramatic is an understatement, frankly.

Oldham were down 2-1 in the 110th minute until an incredible turnaround within a two-minute span saw them escape the fifth tier of English football. First was the equaliser from James Norwood, and then Kian Harratt scored from an improbable cross in the 112th.

It’s a devastating turn of events for Southend United, who started the game brightly with a goal in the fifth minute. And then began extra time with a goal as well.

Heartwrenching as this is for Southend, I am quite pleased for Oldham Athletic. They were in League One only a few years ago before falling as low as the National League.

Oldham alsoh has ties to Tottenham, even if those ties are loose. Former Spurs academy player was loaned out to Oldham in the 2021 season, where he made 17 appaearances.

You’ve got to fance Oldham’s chances of staying up in League Two next year. Perhaps they’ll be bottom six, but I hope they’ll be safe.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Real Wild Child, by Iggy Pop

And now for your links:

Matt Law: “Exit of Daniel Levy’s right-hand woman signals biggest Tottenham shake-up under ENIC”

Alasdair Gold: “Thomas Frank, Marco Silva and Daniel Levy’s huge Ange Postecoglou Tottenham decision”

The end-of-season awards are here at Cartilage Free Captain, and over the following few articles, Carty fans will get the chance to see the results they voted for.

In this article, you, the fans, voted in favor of Lucas Bergvall being crowned the young player of the season for Tottenham Hotspur. The club had an allotment of young talent this year who helped the side snap the 17-year and 41-year European trophy drought. Aside from Bergvall — who featured in 45 of the club's 60 matches this season — Archie Gray, Mikey Moore, Wilson Odobert, and Mathys Tel all received votes for the award.

Bergvall ran away with the award in a landslide as the 19-year-old midfielder became undroppable for Ange Postecoglou’s side. From making his debut for the club at Leicester City on Match Day 1 to bagging the lone goal in the 1-0 first-leg semi-final Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool, Bergvall proved that he had something special as he decided to join Tottenham over FC Barcelona last February.

In the 45 matches he was featured in, Bergvall scored his lone goal against Liverpool and added three assists. The numbers might not scream crazy success for the Swedish International, but many saw weekly growth on the pitch. From looking like a young teenager trying to find himself to controlling portions of matches, Bergvall helped Spurs through Europa League play, with two of his assists coming in Europe.

Unfortunately, Bergvall, like many others this season, was dealt with a significant injury that knocked the firey midfielder out for the final month of the season as he had to watch the side not only reach the Europa League final but hold on in the final minutes to secure the 1-0 victory over Manchester United.

Despite missing out on being on the pitch for the final in Bilbao, Bergvall and others who were sidelined had the chance to celebrate when that final whistle blew to achieve history for the club as they stand tied for second in all-time UEFA Cup/Europa League titles.

Initially joining the club for a rumored fee of £8.5 million from Djurgården last summer, Bergvall has eclipsed all the escalators in the deal between the two clubs with football.london sighting Djurgården sporting director Bosse Andersson as the agreement reached closer to £17 million.

Awarded Spurs’ Official Supporters’ Clubs (OSC) Player of the Season and both Player of the Season awards from One Hotspur Members and One Hotspur Juniors, Bergvall not only gained all the recognition for his play on the pitch but was awarded a new contract that sees him as a Lilywhite through the 2031 season.

Commentariat choice: Lucas Bergvall

Tottenham Hotspur have an agreement with Bayern Munich through which they have an option to purchase on-loan striker Mathys Tel. However, if Tel does join the club permanently this summer, it could be for a significantly lower fee.

Tel’s loan contract, signed in January, had a purchase option for £50m, but there has been lots of background murmurs that Spurs would try and negotiate with Bayern for a lower fee. The German giants clearly have no plans for Tel and are keen to get rid of him. He has played well for Spurs in his loan stint, but £50m is by any measure a lot of £.

Now, according to Bayern blog cfbayern and German journalist Christian Falk, Bayern are apparently willing to negotiate for Tel, with his price potentially dropping as low as £30m.

I’ve been quite happy with Tel’s loan, considering where he started from. He apparently arrived at Spurs low on fitness and it took some time for him to get up to speed. While hardly a prolific scorer, by the end of the season Tel was showing a familiarity with Spurs’ tactics and was regularly putting in positive performances.

Is that worth £50m? Probably not, and even I was pulling a face at the prospect of spending that much money for Tel. But £30m? That’s a much more palatable option for a player that is still very young (just 20 years old) and has a high ceiling. I do not know if I’d want to go into a season of Champions League football with just Dominic Solanke, Mathys Tel, Son Heung-Min, and (maybe) Dane Scarlett as our striking options, but in a season that promises, like this year, a lot of football, Tel would have plenty of opportunities to play and hopefully continue to improve.

But hanging over this potential move is the continued uncertainty over Ange Postecoglu’s tenure as head coach. It’s not clear yet whether any potential purchase of Tel, discounted or otherwise, is contingent on Postecoglou staying at the club for another year, or if any new head coach would want him, even for £30m.

This summer was already shaping up to to be a summer of change at Tottenham Hotspur. Not only is there still speculation over Ange Postecoglou’s continued job as head coach, but the appointment of Vinai Venkatesham as Chief Football Executive, as well as the expected return of Fabio Paratici in a major role and the departure of Scott Munn signal a major reshuffle within the front room staff at the club.

This morning we have news of an equally significant departure. According to a release on the club’s website, Tottenham board member and Executive Director Donna-Maria Cullen is stepping down from the Spurs board and leaving the club. The time frame for her departure was not stated, but it was implied she would leave before the start of next season.

In the club’s statement, Cullen said that this was the right time to leave and spend more time with her family.

““It has been quite some journey, starting at White Hart Lane, with a brief stay at Wembley and finally our new home - amazing memories home and away. Ending this season with the Europa League Trophy was a dream come true. The time is now right for me to gather more time for myself and my family, whom I thank for all their support over the years. I shall spend the coming months ensuring there is a smooth handover with my staff. Thank you all. I wish everyone at the Club all the success in the world.”

This is a pretty significant event. Cullen has been involved with Tottenham for three decades, first as an advisor and then, beginning in 2006, as one of Daniel Levy’s most trusted lieutenants. She was a specialist in public relations and most of the communications that has come out of the club would’ve had some of her fingerprints on it. She was also influential as the club continued to grow over the past 20 years from a midtable club to one that regularly competes near the top of the Premier League.

She was, it should be noted, also a lightning rod for criticism from some segments of the Spurs fan base. Among fans highly critical of Levy and ENIC’s control of Tottenham Hotspur, Cullen was viewed equally negatively, if not more so.

It’s not known what has precipitated her departure from the club. It could be that it was simply time for her to move on, and we have no reason to suggest otherwise. It could be that the arrival of Venkatesham indicates some sort of larger shakeup at the board level. It could be for some other yet unknown reason. All of that is speculation. But it is nonetheless a significant departure.

In the same statement on Spurs’ website, Levy thanked Cullen for her contributions to the club during her tenure

“Donna has made an immense contribution to the Club, over an extensive period. Her diverse responsibilities grew significantly and replacing her roles with a single individual will be impossible.

“While many may associate her primarily with marketing and communications, Donna’s impact extends far beyond those areas. Notably, her leadership and political acumen at planning committees, was instrumental in the Club being able to build one of the finest stadiums and training centres in the world.

“...Her daily input will be greatly missed, however she fully deserves to take time for herself, and I know that we shall be able to call upon her advice when needed. We wish her well for the future.”

Now the season is over, it’s time to have some tough conversations as to who stays and who goes from the current iteration of the Tottenham Hotspur squad; or to put it more casually, F***, Marry, Kill, Spurs edition.

In this series, we will work our way through the Tottenham Hotspur squad - covering all players who have seen the pitch for the men’s first team, as well as all players out on loan playing senior men’s football. We’ll also include a couple of known incomings who are not yet “officially” Spurs players.

For each of these footballers, 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. Squad building is a tricky process, and balancing contracts, squad needs, and UEFA eligibility rules is not for the faint-hearted - but we will give it our best shot!

Starting with an area that is now reasonably settled for Spurs: the goalkeepers.

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)

Guglielmo Vicario - Keep

A no-brainer with which to start. Though Vicario has his weaknesses, he is decent with the ball at his feet, and is an elite shot-stopper which is kind of the key component of the role. Could Spurs aim higher? Maybe, but now is not the time, with the squad in desperate need of reinforcement elsewhere.

Antonin Kinsky - Keep

The Czech keeper received a baptism by fire when he transferred to Spurs, thrust immediately into the starting lineup, and acquitting himself reasonably well in Vicario’s absence. There are questions around his shot-stopping ability and footwork, but he’s very young and has time. Has done enough to operate as Vicario’s backup next season.

Brandon Austin - Keep

Club-trained, decent enough to do a job when called upon, and with a contract that runs until the summer of 2029, Austin is the perfect third keeper. Will likely see limited chances, but he seems a good sort around the club so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Fraser Forster - Sell (Release) - confirmed

The gentle giant probably saw the writing on the wall this season. He struggled with the requirements of Ange-ball, with a couple of horror moments leading to Ange Postecoglou giving untested keeper Brandon Austin a go ahead of Forster. With the signing of Kinsky in January, he’ll start the transfer window without a club as his contract concludes.

Alfie Whiteman - Sell (Release) - confirmed

Everyone’s favorite Letterboxd reviewer and DJ will see his time at the club come to an end this summer. He has been usurped in the keeper hierarchy by Brandon Austin, and his loan spells elsewhere have been unsuccessful. At this stage, there is no reason for Spurs to renew his contract (which finishes at the end of this season), so Alfie will likely have to find pastures new if he is to continue his football career.

Josh Keeley - Loan*

*Ideally with a new contract, otherwise a sale could be considered for the right price

Josh Keeley has a lot of bargaining power right now. A talented keeper with a good all-round skillset coming off a very successful loan season at Leyton Orient, he unfortunately came to the club too late to ever qualify as a UEFA club-trained player. As a general rule, it’s bad squad building to have three non-club-trained keepers, which means at a certain point Spurs will likely need to make a choice as to who they keep out of Vicario, Kinsky, and Keeley. The problem is that currently, Keeley’s contract is up in 2027, so if they decided to go with Vicario and Kinsky as the long-term option, that’s a decision that would ideally be made this summer, which doesn’t really give the club a chance to truly see what Keeley could offer at the top level. If, however, Keeley is willing to sign a new contract (which some recent reporting has indicated may be the case), then that will allow Spurs to kick that can down the road and send Keeley out on loan at a higher level next season - hopefully the Championship.

Luca Gunter - Loan

Spurs’ young, age-grade international keeper saw his first taste of senior men’s football this season, as he headed to Wealdstone in the National League on loan in January. He made 14 starts for The Stones, which is pretty impressive for a 20-year-old, and the club will likely want to build on that experience next season. As such, he will likely head out to another club - ideally one where he can play a lot of minutes.

Carey Bloedorn - Loan

Hands up if you know who this guy is? Be honest. I didn’t until I went to write this article, so there you go. Bloedorn is something of an enigma: he was born in Pakistan, grew up in Milton Keynes, and has German citizenship - an interesting combination of cultures - and was scouted as a child from Norwich City’s academy setup. Since then, he has moved his way up through Spurs’ academy ranks, before signing his first professional contract at the start of the 24/25 season. He’s gone on loan to actual adult teams a couple of times as well (which might explain our lack of familiarity - out of sight, out of mind and all), including a spell most recently at National League South team Aveley FC, where he made 19 starts. That is downright impressive for a now-19-year-old, and like Gunter, Spurs will probably loan Bloedern out once more to allow him to continue to develop.

There you have it. Spurs’ goalkeeper cadre really presents as possibly the most settled part of the squad (for now), with no real controversy as to next steps or potential sales. That stability means no real need to address any gaps in the transfer window - one that will already be busy for the club. That will likely change, though, as we work our way through the squad. The defense is up next!

We’re at the beginning of a fresh month for Tottenham Hotspur, which means it’s time to look at the month ahead.

There’s very little to point to this month.

Because of the Club World Cup, we’ve got a strange transfer window this year.

The window will first run from Sunday through June 10, and then again from June 16 to September 1. Both windows shut at 7pm.

But does any of this matter, really? We’re all waiting for news on Ange Postecoglou, and it doesn’t seem like any transfer business can be sorted until his future his. Presently, at noon Sunday, we still do not know of his fate.

There’s also still no word on if Ben Davies will be at the club next season

The Women’s Super League summer transfer window also opens this month, on June 18.

So there you have it. This was your Look at the Month Ahead. Not much to say, all we can do is wait.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Shortnin’ Bread, by the Charles Mingus Quartet

And now for your links:

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “Ange Postecoglou fulfils his ‘impossible dream’ with Tottenham’s Europa League win”

Alasdair Gold: “Daniel Levy to decide on Ange Postecoglou future amid fears of Tottenham dressing room backlash”

Jack P-B ($$): “Tottenham need new players more than a new manager – that is what will really elevate them”

The transfer window isn’t even open yet and Tottenham Hotspur have already made their first confirmed transfer. Kind of. In a way. According to Fabrizio Romano, Spurs have confirmed the €25m purchase of Kevin Danso from Lens, fulfilling his purchase obligation after he was signed on loan last season.

So no big surprise since this was going to happen anyway. The club hasn’t confirmed it yet, and they might not since this was more or less a forgone conclusion and they sometimes don’t in these circumstances, but Danso is now a permanent member of the squad.

I’ve been quite pleased with Danso since his arrival. He’s been a steady presence at the back when called upon, to the point that if Cuti Romero were to ever leave the club or get injured or whatever, I’d have few concerns about Danso stepping into that RCB role. He’s a solid backup and rotation option, exactly the kind of player we need MORE of as Spurs gear up for a Champions League campaign next season.

So hooray for successfully fulfilling our contractual obligations! Well done lads, good process (complimentary).