Football London

Kota Takai will now complete the formalities of his £5million transfer to Tottenham Hotspur after saying farewell to the Kawasaki Frontale supporters on Saturday.

It had been announced ahead of the J.League match against Kashima Antlers that it would be the 20-year-old Japan international's final game for the club before he would make the switch to an "overseas club". That ensured a sold-out stadium as the centre-back played the full encounter and helped secure a 2-1 victory against the high-flying visitors.

After the game, Takai's team-mates formed a guard of honour for him as he re-emerged from the tunnel, all either high-fiving the defender or slapping him on the back of the head. He then walked out alone across the pitch to the centre circle. The youngster then stood there as a video tribute to him was played on the big screens inside the Todoroki Stadium ahead of his move to join up with Thomas Frank's team.

The video compilation showed highlights from across his 81 games at the club, in which he scored four goals and one assist. Takai played a big role in Kawasaki winning the Japanese Super Cup last year and was named the J.League's Young Player of the Year.

Takai also got plenty of experience in the AFC Champions League as an integral part of the Kawasaki side that reached the final in May. He made his senior Japan debut just after his 20th birthday and has appeared in four World Cup qualifiers so far, which would have been more in a squad mainly made up of players plying their trade in Europe but for an adductor injury suffered in October last year.

The video to the supporters showed him as a child as he joined Kawasaki's youth set-up as a seven-year-old and after another package of highlights it ended with the moving image of a shooting star above the stadium to presumably signify his Premier League move. The video also contained the Tottenham motto 'To Dare Is To Do' in Japanese.

Takai was then handed the microphone and launched into a near three-minute speech that brought applause from his team-mates and the fans and ended with him bowing to all corners of the stadium. The supporters then sang as he walked around the pitch and waved to and applauded them all.

Freelance football editor and former Goal.com Japan chief editor and DAZN news Japan chief editor Tasuku Okawa, a J.League expert, told football.london last month about the young defender. He said: "Takai has a calm, almost nonchalant personality. He doesn't get overly tense or emotional, which might actually help him on the mental side. He gives off the impression of someone who won't be overwhelmed by the big stage and could handle it with composure."

That certainly seemed to be the case with what looked like an emotional ceremony for the fans and his team-mates but the soon-to-be Tottenham defender appeared to take it all in his stride before posing for photos with his family. He will now make his way to north London to like up with Frank and his Spurs team-mates after completing his transfer.

Tottenham will need to use the summer transfer window to start building a squad to help new head coach Thomas Frank compete on all fronts with the Champions League on the table this season.

The Dane will begin meeting his Spurs players on Saturday as some of them start returning for pre-season testing at Hotspur Way before hitting the pitches with the 51-year-old and his staff. Many of the international players will return to the Enfield training complex next week and that will give Frank more of a sense of which players he wants to keep and what areas of his squad need strengthening in the transfer market.

Technical director Johan Lange will need to get those deals across the line to build a squad capable of handling all four competitions including the world's toughest one with the Champions League. A couple of loans have been made permanent already for around £51million and some senior players have left the club on the expiry of their contracts. Japan international centre-back Kota Takai is set to join Spurs in the coming week in a £5million deal from Kawasaki Frontale.

There have also been ins and outs of Wayne Burnett's U21s squad, with the signing of Max McFadden announced on Friday evening, while Oliver Boast is set to join the U18s from Leeds United.

With all of that in mind, football.london has taken a closer look at all the transfers completed by Tottenham for their first team and U21s so far this summer, including one deal agreed two years ago that only officially went through this week.

Tottenham transfers (In):

Mathys Tel (Bayern Munich) - £29.8million

Kevin Danso (Lens) - £21million

Luka Vuskovic (Hajduk Split) - £12million

U21s

Max McFadden - Free agent

Tottenham transfers (Out):

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Marseille) - £17million

Timo Werner - End of loan

Fraser Forster - End of contract

Sergio Reguilon - End of contract

Alfie Whiteman - End of contract

U21s

Will Andiyapan - End of contract

Archie Baptiste - End of contract

Jahziah Linton - End of contract

Maxwell McKnight - End of contract

Max Robson - End of contract

Jaden Williams - End of contract

Elliot Krasniqi - - End of contract

Tottenham have snapped up 19-year-old midfielder Max McFadden to add some firepower to their U21 development squad.

The teenager scored 11 goals and registered 10 assists in 55 appearances for Leeds United's U18s and U21s in the past couple of seasons and in the last campaign played in his natural attacking midfield role but also up front and even on one occasion as a centre-back. However, his three-year spell at Leeds, having moved from Colchester United in 2022, came to an end this week with his release from the club.

That may well have been because a move to Spurs was in the offing as he was unveiled on Friday evening as a new development squad player to fit into Wayne Burnett's squad. McFadden has signed a contract until 2027 and played 61 minutes against Spurs last season in a 3-0 victory for Leeds at Hotspur Way.

On his unveiling, McFadden posted on Instagram: "Happy to have joined this amazing club @spursofficial. Can’t wait for this next chapter to begin. COYS"

The midfielder is following in the footsteps of £40million Europa League winner Archie Gray in making the switch from Leeds to north London and McFadden is expected to be joined at Tottenham this month by an even younger academy product from the promoted side. Oliver Boast, just 16, is set to join Spurs this summer having scored 10 goals in 20 matches for Leeds' U18s last season.

Tottenham have yet to announce any new signings this summer.

Mathys Tel has made his move from Bayern Munich permanent, having been on loan with Spurs for the second half of last season, while Kevin Danso's loan move was also turned into a permanent deal, as per the terms of the contract.

football.london reported last week that Tottenham had agreed a deal to sign Kota Takai from J.League team Kawasaki Frontale, but that transfer has not been made official by the club as yet, meaning there are no new faces in the building at Hotspur Way right now. Apart from the very new face of head coach Thomas Frank, of course.

The Spurs players will be filtering back to the training ground from today onwards, with pre-season training under the new boss beginning.

But the supporters are keen to see some new faces arrive at the club. Spurs will have the Champions League to worry about in 2025/26, as well as the Premier League and FA Cup and Carabao Cup after their heroics in Bilbao in winning the Europa League under former boss Ange Postecoglou.

Tottenham have been linked with a number of players, but there are no concrete deals ready to be completed, which could be down to a number of reasons. Here football.london takes a look at those signings which could be made.

Mohammed Kudus

The West Ham forward looks to be the one Spurs are going after to bolster their attack for the 2025/26 season. Kudus had a quiet last campaign as West Ham struggled in the Premier League, but his talent is clear.

The Ghanaian can play anywhere across the front line and even in the No.10 role although he is best on the right-hand side of the attack.

If he came in he could play in any of the three spots behind main striker Dominic Solanke. He might have some making up to do with his new teammates, however, having been sent off in the derby last season after hitting both Micky van de Ven and Pape Matar Sarr in the face!

Kudus has an £85million release clause in place for the first ten days of July, but it is understood the Hammers may well be open to selling for around £60million to ease their financial concerns.

Kyle Walker-Peters

This, in theory, should be an easy deal to get over the line.

The former Tottenham player is now a free agent following the end of his contract with relegated Southampton and is looking for a new club.

Spurs have an issue when it comes to UEFA competition, with only one club-trained player on the books in the shape of Brandon Austin. They should have four, per UEFA rules and if they do not their Champions League squad size must reduce accordingly.

Walker-Peters came through the Spurs academy and is therefore club trained. Spurs need added strength in depth at full-back and this would appear to be a no-brainer.

Christian Norgaard

The Brentford midfielder looks set to join Arsenal, with a deal seemingly all-but agreed. But what if Tottenham made a late move to hijack the deal?

Spurs need another No.6 and with Thomas Frank now in place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, he could well hold sway over his countryman to make the move to the white half of north London instead.

At £10million rising to £15million, it is a reasonably cheap deal, albeit for a 31-year-old, but it would be quite something if Spurs swooped in and stole him away from Arsenal.

Pedro Porro has shown why he's arguably the fittest player at Tottenham Hotspur after turning up at the club's training ground early ahead of pre-season training.

In a Spurs season packed with injuries to his team-mates, the 25-year-old Spaniard was one of the few players not to suffer a single one across the last campaign and he ended up playing 51 matches and a remarkable 4,130 minutes of football for the club on the way to that Europa League triumph and another 503 for his country after returning to the international set-up.

His former boss Ange Postecoglou told football.london about the right-back: "He's played more than anyone else this year, he's been unbelievable for us, not just in his durability which has been important because with so many players going down, we've needed at least a few to be durable like he has, but also the quality he's shown.

"[His playmaking ability is] really important and it's something we're continually working on to get him on the ball in more key areas and also work on his positioning a little bit as well. He does have such quality with his ability to hit the longer pass, but also the quality of his crosses, every time he puts the ball in the box, whether that's a set piece or just a cross in general, it causes oppositions problems."

It looks like Porro is preparing his body for another big season under a new head coach at Spurs in the shape of Thomas Frank.

Although the Tottenham players are due to start returning to Hotspur Way on Saturday, with the internationals like Porro due in next week, the Spaniard was already back at the training ground in Enfield on Friday. He posted an image of himself smiling inside the club's gym with the caption: "The champ is here! Glad to be back @spursofficial."

Porro told football.london earlier this year about some of the work that goes into creating the amazing engine he has within to keep running up and down the flank for 90-plus minutes.

"I train at the club but I also do my own work outside the club, recovery work, prevention of injury," he said.

"It's okay because I work with the physio in the gym. The people outside don't understand this situation, they say Pedro you have to rest, you haven't rested. For me and Deki, we've played full minutes this season, this is normal, this is football. Too many games, but I'm ready. If the gaffer asks 'are you ready?', I say 'yeah, no problem'. Everything for the team, for the fans and for the club, it's the most important thing for me."

It looks like Frank will benefit from a super-fit Porro himself this season and the Spaniard appears to be ready and raring to go.

Work has begun at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to clear last season's pitch with a new one to be laid for Thomas Frank's first home game in charge next month.

Spurs' season ended on May 25 and following a series of events at the stadium on the surface beneath the roll-away pitch such as Beyoncé and 50 Cent concerts, work has now taken place to remove the old pitch from the stadium during a lull in events. Pitch specialists Fineturf released a series of images of their work in removing last season's turf while revealing when the new one will be laid.

"The removal of last season's pitch at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium marks the first step in preparing for the 2025/26 season, with a brand new Hybrid playing surface set to be installed this August in collaboration with Tillers Turf and Lakeland Earthworks," said the company on social media.

Spurs' first match at their N17 home will be the one they kick off the 2025/26 Premier League season with as Scott Parker's Burnley come to town on Saturday, August 16. It will technically be the second competitive game of the Frank era as just a few days before on the Wednesday night, Tottenham will take on Champions League winners PSG in the UEFA Super Cup in Udine, Italy.

Pitch work has also been taking place at Tottenham's Hotspur Way training complex with the first stages of the reconstruction of a string of academy pitches now complete.

"This phase involved removing the existing surface, excavating 150mm of material around the perimeter to improve levels and drainage, and replacing the upper rootzone across the entire pitch footprint," said Fineturf on social media.

The first team pitches are all ready for the return of the Spurs players from tomorrow onwards, with the international stars coming back next week.

Tottenham Hotspur are yet to bring a new face through the door in the transfer window and that has brought some frustration among the fanbase.

Spurs are not alone in failing to get going in the market yet with Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool the only real big movers so far, the first two due to their Club World Cup commitments. However, after that Europa League win and the prospect of Champions League football next season, this was meant to be a summer of building without dallying.

Add to that the change in head coach with Thomas Frank replacing Ange Postecoglou and then chairman Daniel Levy making it clear that the Europa League trophy was not enough and that he wants Tottenham to win the Premier League and Champions League and you've got the recipe for a summer in which there needs to be plenty of evidence for the supporters of trying to make those declarations more than just wishful thinking.

So far the arrivals have been for players already within the walls. Mathys Tel's loan from Bayern Munich became permanent, costing Spurs £29.8million (€35million), plus a potential further £4.2million (€5million) in add-ons. Kevin Danso's £21million loan from Lens also officially became permanent on Tuesday. Luka Vuskovic was signed from Hajduk Split back in 2023 but had to wait two years and turning 18 before he could officially make his £12million move following loans in Poland and Belgium.

The first new arrival is currently likely to be the £5million transfer of Kota Takai from Kawasaki Frontale, with the 20-year-old Japan international centre-back set to tie up the move next week following a goodbye to the J.League club's fans this Saturday.

But why the lack of big money transfer movement a Tottenham during a period when all the talk has been about pushing on and improving? Here we look at five potential reasons.

Waiting for investment

Transfers cost money obviously and if there's one thing that's been said a lot about Tottenham in recent years it's that despite being one of the most high-value sides in the world, they are an asset-rich club rather than a cash-rich one, particularly after the losses made in recent seasons. That is the reason Levy publicly admitted to a need for new investment a year ago in order for the club to properly compete against their rivals.

So far that new investment has not arrived but there is an expectation among many that it will this summer. With no apparent movement in terms of outside investment as of yet, it may well be that ENIC is required to pump funds into the club in exchange for a bigger stake in Tottenham.

They did that in 2022 with a £150million capital increase which the club appeared to end up only taking £100million of. Then in December last year, ENIC injected £35million of capital into the club, increasing their holding within Spurs slightly to an 86.91% share, up from 86.58%.

Of that majority ENIC share of the club, a trust of which Joe Lewis' family are beneficiaries owns 70.12% while Levy and his family are potential beneficiaries of discretionary trusts which own 29.88% of that share capital.

Spurs will make money from their Champions League qualification but that will be offset by the £32million or so they lost from the drop in Premier League prize money for finishing 17th rather than the previous season's fifth-place finish.

That's all of no consolation to supporters who were told that the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would be a game changer for the club. It's certainly brought in record revenues but Spurs' need for new investment shows that they require far more than that.

That all could be one reason for not being able to invest in transfers yet, particularly ones where there is a significant portion of the fee required up front.

That wage structure

Much has been made of Spurs being bottom of the Premier League table when it comes to the revenue to wages ratio.

Tottenham's wage structure has always been explained away as being performance-driven in terms of being one of the league's most lucrative for players if they reach certain targets and hit various triggers. It will certainly be interesting to see what winning the Europa League meant in terms of bonus pay-outs to players as Postecoglou reportedly got with his contract. That might have been a very expensive night in Bilbao.

The obvious downside to having a lower wage ceiling than your rivals is that targets will often go for the guaranteed money rather than the potential money. Football is a team sport rather than an individual one, so meeting performance-related bonuses is reliant on others helping out.

Some of the wages at the Premier League's biggest clubs are two to three times what Tottenham are believed to offer in terms of a weekly salary and that's going to put them at a disadvantage if they can't sell the rest of the project as being brighter than their consistently challenging competitors.

Thomas Frank's squad analysis

There is also the fact that with any managerial change, the new man will want time to look at the squad that he has inherited and make a decision on what players he wants to keep and which areas need strengthening.

Frank will not start working with his players until a few return through the doors on Saturday and then the international stars start filing back into Hotspur Way next week.

So in the coming week or so the Dane will start to form a better image of the squad he has at his disposal from working with them face to face. There may be players who were key under Postecoglou that the new man believes need to be replaced while some who looked out of the picture could suddenly become vital under Frank.

That's not to say that some clear needs could not have been addressed yet in conversations between the Dane and his compatriot Spurs' technical director Johan Lange, but the bulk of the club's transfer window work will be decided by what comes in this next month of pre-season.

Uncertainty and that club-trained issue

Frank also needs to have some conversations with his key men, for the futures of both captain Son Heung-min and vice-captain Cristian Romero will need to be clarified with the Dane. The South Korean has reached the stage where after a decade of service the club will let him drive what comes next for him but obviously Frank's opinion on his amount of game time will help inform his decision in the season before the World Cup.

football.london reported almost a month ago that an MLS move was something of interest to Son and it may be that like Hugo Lloris, he ends up starting the campaign at Spurs before moving in January ahead of the new season in the USA. It could also be that the Tottenham skipper will want another crack at the Champions League after that heartbreak in 2019.

The conversation between Son and Frank in the coming week will go a long way to shaping what comes next for the captain, who turns 33 on Tuesday.

The new Spurs head coach wants to keep Romero in the fold and with two years left on the 27-year-old's contract compared to Son's 12 months, it's more about whether a club like Atletico Madrid will seriously offer the sort of major fee that might turn Tottenham's head for the World Cup winner, who was named player of the tournament in the Europa League.

The other issue at Spurs is the long-standing club-trained problem with a lack of senior players that have come through at the club. That leaves Frank having to fit 31 players into 22 spots in the Champions League squad if we are including the incoming Takai. The new manager needs to decide on a bucket load of departures before the squad can keep being added to otherwise it will just sit there bloated and financially draining.

Lack of decisiveness

There's also the possibility of course that Spurs just simply haven't been decisive enough in the transfer market so far in their pursuit of various players.

Tottenham have been long-term admirers of more players than you can shake a stick at but that doesn't mean a move materialises. There are various targets over the years where the club has played the long game and ended up without their target, none more so than the failure to sign Jack Grealish from Aston Villa under Mauricio Pochettino.

In an ideal world transfers would get done in time for pre-season. Despite the need for Frank to analyse his squad, that did not stop Postecoglou getting new signings through the door by this point in his first year with James Maddison and Guglielmo Vicario already at Hotspur Way by the end of June, so it can be done and for key players as well.

Mohammed Kudus is one of the versatile attacker names on Tottenham's list this summer and there is a feeling within the market that West Ham desperately need to sell the Ghana international to fund their own forays into the market to rebuild Graham Potter's squad. With a reported £85million release clause for the first 10 days of July it is unlikely the Hammers are going to get anything near that after a disappointing second season in England from Kudus.

Tottenham could be waiting to see exactly what their fellow London side will drop their expectations to, if there's not competition for the player. That of course is a dangerous game to play and the past has shown that more decisive clubs will jump in if Tottenham wait too long.

Some selling sides will have been waiting for the new financial year when it comes to the PSR rules and sales going towards whatever they do in terms of incomings in the 12 months ahead.

Tottenham need to get moving though because all of those grand words will come back to haunt them if they cannot provide Frank with the tools to make their dreams a reality and his appointment a success.

Tottenham Hotspur Women have appointed Martin Ho as their new head coach on a three-year contract.

The 35-year-old has been making a name for himself in recent seasons with his work in Norway, guiding SK Brann in his first season into the group stages of the Women's Champions League, the first Norwegian side in history to do so, as they won all four of their qualifiers.

They then finished second in a group consisting of eight-time winners Lyon, Slavia Praha and St Polten, before bowing out to three-time winners and eventual champions Barcelona in the quarter-final, losing 5-2 on aggregate.

Ho, born in Liverpool, then took Brann took a second-place league finish in Norway while reaching the semi-final of the domestic cup and the Bergen-based club are currently one point behind leaders Valerenga after 14 matches of the current season.

The new Tottenham boss has plenty of Women's Super League experience, having been an assistant coach with Manchester United for three years as they reached the FA Cup final in 2023 and finished second in the league, and he was a key member of the staff during their most successful league season since getting promoted in 2019. Before that he spent three years with Everton Women and had a spell as the head coach of Liverpool Women's U21s.

Now Ho is hoping to take Spurs on in their seventh season in the Women's Super League and build on Robert Vilahamn's FA Cup final appearance with the club before a poor league campaign last time out.

He already has a new signing in the bag for his squad after the club announced this week the signing of Toko Koga from Feyenoord, subject to international clearance and work permit. The 19-year-old Japan international has agreed a deal with Spurs that will run until June 2029, and she will wear the number 32 shirt.

New Tottenham CEO Vinai Venkatesham has big plans for the club and has three areas of focus to work on with one big change on the agenda.

The former Arsenal man began in his newly-created role last month at Spurs and has already made a positive impact behind the scenes at the club. One of his aims is to make the Premier League outfit more communicative and transparent in the way they act and build a bridge between the hierarchy and the supporters.

Venkatesham played a key role in the hiring of Thomas Frank as the club's new head coach after Ange Postecoglou was sacked. The new chief executive officer forged a strong bond with fan groups on the other side of north London across his years with the Gunners and he has already begun that process at Tottenham. Part of building that relationship came while taking part in a two-hours plus meeting with the club's fans' advisory board last week.

The new CEO introduced himself to the members and explained that he will oversee day-to-day operations and made it clear that the club's aim is to make supporters proud "especially through a desire to create more memorable nights like Bilbao and to compete for trophies consistently".

Venkatesham shared that after joining the club, his three areas of focus are "football, supporters and staff". The minutes of the meeting stated that he "is taking the time to learn as much as possible from staff and supporters. He has already met with supporter representatives since joining the club and committed to attending all FAB meetings and wants to operate on the basis of openness and transparency. He stated that the wider fanbase will continue to hear from the board and senior staff at points throughout the year."

That in itself will be a major change from the previous policy at the club where moments of public communication from the hierarchy were few and far between and it looks like Venkatesham will take on a role as the face of the powers-that-be at Spurs.

The 2025/26 season could be the year where Tottenham fans see the real Wilson Odobert. New head coach Thomas Frank will certainly be hoping that is the case as he looks to take the club forward and challenge for silverware.

Arriving from Burnley last August in a deal worth £30million, the Frenchman was restricted to 21 appearances in all competitions due to injury. Odobert did finish the season with a Europa League final winners' medal around his neck and he also played a huge role on the team's way to the final.

It was his double in a 3-1 round of 16 second leg win over AZ Alkmaar that saw Tottenham overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg to crucially secure a place in the quarter-finals of the competition. A few weeks later he then scored his first Premier League goal for the club in a 1-1 draw away at West Ham.

Odobert showed glimpses of his quality in his Tottenham appearances, perhaps most notably on his Premier League home debut against Everton, but there were occasions where he found himself on the periphery of a game and unfortunately having little influence. The hamstring injury he suffered in the Carabao Cup win at Coventry City ultimately had a big impact on his season and meant he was playing catch-up from the moment he returned five months later.

Speaking after his European double against AZ Alkmaar, Ange Postecoglou lavished praise on the winger and touched upon the "enormously exciting talent" at the club.

“Super pleased for him because he’s worked awfully hard," said the Australian. “I’d be surprised if I have to explain why I selected him, if you didn’t see that today… I was excited when we signed him. He’s one of these players who has the ability to take players on, find space, great technician and super pleased for him to get his goals. He’s worked hard silently to get back in the team.

“Obviously, he came to a new club, a big club and a big move for him and it didn’t work out for him through no fault of his own, through the injury and it’s been frustrating for me not to be able to showcase him and know how much he can develop and that’s just the starting point for him.

“He’s still working his way to full fitness. When you look at the likes of him and Lucas and Archie and two or three others we’ve got, there’s some enormously exciting talent there.”

It will be Frank rather than Postecoglou who hopefully benefits from the talented Odobert in the months and seasons ahead. The France Under-21 international did not feature in either of Tottenham's games against Brentford last term due to injury but he did play twice against the Bees the previous campaign when he was a Burnley player.

In his second outing against them as the Clarets won 2-1, Odobert teed up David Datro Fofana for the winning goal with a lovely disguised pass that the striker finished off. Frank will certainly know all about the qualities his player possesses and he has a track record of extracting even more out of his players, which hopefully will in turn result in Tottenham fans seeing the very best of the 20-year-old.

It won't be so straightforward in terms of the Meaux-born player securing a place in Tottenham's strongest XI but it will be a task he relishes. As things stand right now, Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski, Mathys Tel, Manor Solomon, Mikey Moore, Bryan Gil, Yang Min-hyeok, Son Heung-min and Richarlison are all options to play on the wing.

A few of the aforementioned players will head for the exit door and there is also the possibility of further incomings in that area of the pitch, with West Ham's Mohammed Kudus linked with a big-money move across the capital. Following a summer where he got even more minutes under his belt after playing for France Under-21s at the recent UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Odobert now has to make his mark in pre-season and put himself in the best possible position to start against former club Burnley on the opening weekend of the season.

It is a big year for the player and it could prove to be a very exciting one with Frank now the man tasked with his development.