Football London

Tottenham have confirmed just one new signing in the summer transfer window thus far, with it clear plenty more are needed. Spurs are fresh off a disastrous domestic season but it will be remembered for their historic Europa League triumph which broke a 17-year trophy drought.

The arrival of Thomas Frank as Ange Postecoglou's replacement has kick-started some movement in the trading period with Mathys Tel joining on a permanent deal from Bayern Munich. While the manager situation was resolved, negotiations for the Frenchman were ongoing and an agreement was eventually struck at £30million.

Alongside a talented young attacker coming into the club, marquee additions out wide, in midfield and potentially in defence will be needed.

Exits are also likely as Spurs look to raise funds from a number of players on the fringes of the first team. With a number of decisions facing Frank, on both incomings and outgoings, football.london has had a go at making some of the big calls.

Incomings

Even though he was the club's top scorer last season and scored the winner against Manchester United, an improvement on Brennan Johnson or at least a different option to the Wales international is needed.

Bryan Mbeumo of Frank's former club Brentford would be the dream addition and though he is favouring a move to Manchester United, Spurs are still in the race. £70million is his asking price and with Champions League prize money secured, Tottenham are in a much stronger financial position than United.

Perhaps the only position more in need of an addition is central midfield with a natural No.6 the clear requirement. Jonny Cardoso was the obvious option but he is set to join Atletico Madrid from Real Betis.

Alternatives are few and far between as Spurs need someone with a very specific skillset but there is a bargain option available that also has Premier League experience in Joao Palhinha. Bayern are open to letting him go for just £29million (€35m) with the Portugal international thus far enduring a nightmare spell in Germany.

For two seasons, he was very impressive at Fulham and while he may be tasked with different responsibilities in north London, at that price and with his track record, it is absolutely a deal worth pursuing.

An addition at full-back for depth is also important with Kyle Walker-Peters the perfect signing. His Southampton contract expires imminently and if he does join, he will be classed as club-trained with Tottenham needing more of them for their upcoming campaign.

Outgoings

Several Tottenham stars should be available for transfer this summer and a few others may be making the decision to leave. Yves Bissouma, Ben Davies and Richarlison fit into the former category with all three struggling for regular minutes and thus consistency.

The Lilywhites would also be able to take in some decent funds from the trio's departure with the one-year contract option for Davies perhaps taken up so a fee can be obtained from him leaving.

Cristian Romero and Son Heung-min are the big names that could exit N17 with the club captain having one year remaining on his contract. Having finally won a trophy representing Spurs for the best part of a decade, now is the perfect time to move on with it also allowing Spurs to take in a fee.

As for Romero, Spurs have made it clear that only a significant offer will see them consider a departure and therefore he stays before then departing next summer as he enters the final 12 months of his contract. That allows time for Luka Vuskovic and Kevin Danso to be bedded in further.

Thomas Frank and Johan Lange are looking to take Tottenham to new heights and the man who hired them two decades ago believes they are both very different characters driven by the same need to succeed.

Frank was appointed this month as the man to replace Ange Postecoglou as Spurs head coach in the wake of the club winning the Europa League. One of those keen to appoint the Dane was his compatriot Lange, who had wanted to do the same at Aston Villa a few years back only for Steven Gerrard to get the job at that point.

Frank and Lange go way back to their time at Lyngby where the former was a youth coach between 2006 and 2008 and the latter was also involved with the reserves for the club located in the suburbs of Copenhagen. The duo used to share a small office together back then so got to know each other very well.

The man who hired them both, Birger Jorgensen, has previously spoken about how different the two men who will now steer the Spurs ship are.

"Thomas is Thomas, he walks the talk. He has always been the same and will always be the same," he said in an interview with Sky Sports back in 2021. "He is very hard-working and always in a good mood. Johan is the opposite of Thomas, he keeps his cards close to his chest. But he is a fantastic guy, very smart."

He added: "I spotted them, I hired them, I worked with them. But they have done it themselves. They have taken their chance. We are just happy to have been a part of their education.

"Lyngby is just an ordinary football club but we have a special environment. We are built on curious coaching. You can experiment here. Of course, we try to win our games and be champions. But we are always collecting good people, hard-working people.

"We all have a common thing, we all believe in ourselves, we all know where we are coming from and none of us think we are something we are not. That is what has made us successful, good people who are working hard, being themselves."

On that shared office all those years ago, Jorgensen said it was full of "good people, good coaches, a good environment" and he believes that happiness and having a release through your social life plays a part in successful football journeys. Frank has admitted himself that he ensures he maintains his social life and gets away from football as much as possible when the time is right.

"A lot of clubs believe only in serious people but you need a bit of yourself, a bit of a social life," said Jorgensen. "A football club is about teamwork, otherwise it cannot exist. That is why so many former Lyngby coaches are so successful. We are happy about it and want it to continue."

Tottenham Hotspur are seeking £11m from the Sir Jim Ratcliffe-owned INEOS firm after the company ended its sponsorship agreement back in December 2024.

Global petrochemicals giant INEOS had been the automotive partner of Spurs since 2022, inking a multi-year deal worth tens of millions, but opted to end their association with the club seven months ago, one of a number of sponsorship deals that they had looked to extricate themselves from, including sponsorship of the New Zealand Rugby All Blacks.

INEOS Automotive, the side of the business that had the deal with Spurs, have since seen legal action from Spurs come their way, with the club taking the matter to the London Commercial Court as they seek to recover what they believe to be monies owed from the deal.

INEOS Automotive have argued that the option to terminate their deal three years into a five-year agreement was within their right.

In a statement to Sky Sports earlier this month, an INEOS spokesperson said: “INEOS Automotive has been a partner of Tottenham Hotspur since 2022, taking on a partnership agreement that INEOS Group had in place with the club since 2020.

"We have a contractual right to terminate our partnership contract and in December 2024 exercised that right."

According to a report in renowned legal publication The Lawyer, Spurs are seeking as much as £11m, a figure football.london understands to be correct, from INEOS Automotive in relation to the early exit from the agreement.

Football.london reached out to Spurs for comment but were told the club do not comment on live legal matters.

In March, INEOS reached an agreement with New Zealand Rugby after they were threatened with legal action for a similar issue of leaving a partnership early.

On that occasion a settlement was reached, and there remains the possibility that both sides may well find some common ground in the coming days on the matter that is satisfactory to both sides.

Ratcliffe, of course, has a minority stake of 27.1% in Spurs’ Premier League rivals Manchester United, with the deal he struck with the Glazer family back in December of 2023 handing him oversight over football strategy at Old Trafford, as well as the plans to create a new 100,000 seater stadium for a side that has struggled competitively in recent years.

Tottenham Hotspur's chief football officer Scott Munn has been placed on gardening leave, football.london understands.

The 51-year-old Australian joined Tottenham less than two years ago after some initial delays in his announced move from the City Football Group and was a key ally of Ange Postecoglou during his time at the club. However, when the head coach was sacked this month following the Europa League win in Bilbao, along with the arrival of a new chief executive officer in Vinai Venkatesham, Munn's time at the club looked to be heading towards its close.

football.london understands that while no official announcement has been made about him yet, Munn has now been placed on gardening leave by the north London club as the changes continue to take place at the top at Spurs.

Along with Venkatesham's arrival, so Tottenham appointed a new head coach in Thomas Frank and it was announced that the club's executive director Donna-Maria Cullen, a long-time advisor to Daniel Levy, would be stepping down from the board and would be leaving the club this summer.

Former managing director of football Fabio Paratici is expected by staff within the club to return at some point this year. The Italian currently remains in a consultancy role with Spurs with a contract that lasts until the end of August and he is nearing the end of his ban from specific football activities. Paratici does remain part of a civil trial in Italy with others who used to be in the Juventus hierarchy over investigations into what took place at the Serie A club during his time there.

When Munn joined Tottenham back in 2023 in the newly-created chief football officer role, Levy said: "Scott has a unique and broad experience of running sporting organisations at the highest level and will take responsibility for the leadership and management of our football activities to instil best practice both on and off the pitch."

Now new head coach Frank will deal with Venkatesham, technical director Johan Lange and Levy. The Dane spoke last week about the club's current hierarchy.

"They've done a very, very good process. I would say Daniel Levy and Vinai and Johan Lange. I've had very good conversations and meetings with them, where we discussed everything in depth, details about club structure, processes, and of course I came with my view on things and how I saw it and my ideas and the way I want to do things and how I try to build a team and the club, and of course it's not, it's not just me," he said.

"I think it's very important to say, yes, the head coach is an important person, but if I don't have good people around me, it's impossible. You can't do anything alone in my opinion. If you want to do something quick, you can go alone, if you want to do something big or achieve something big, you go together. So it's definitely a thing about doing things together. Me, staff and players.

"I think the alignment is key from top to bottom, and of course it starts from Daniel and Vinai and Johan and me, and the more the four of us can be aligned, just like a unit and like unbreakable unit, the stronger we will be, and there will be ups and downs. I think right now it's a fairy tale. Everyone is happy. The sun is shining. It's fantastic, but we haven't played one game yet.

"Hopefully we win a lot. We'll work very hard every single day to make sure we create as many magic moments for the fans, and put them together and hopefully at the end of the season there will be a very good season, but the alignment in terms of structure, processes, transfers, squad, playing style, culture, all that is is key."

Cristian Romero's future at Tottenham is set to be the subject of plenty of speculation this summer and the club will need to have a succession plan in case the Argentine does leave.

The 27-year-old has been linked with a move to La Liga after admitting a desire to play in Spain before his career ends and Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simone has made no secret of wanting to sign Romero with his public statements about the World Cup-winning centre-back.

With two years left on his contract, the Argentine is in an awkward position where Spurs have to make a decision on his future but can also ask for a huge fee still for a player Lionel Messi called the best defender in the world, and that price tag could be the sticking point for many clubs like Atletico.

Romero struggled with injuries last season, mainly with his foot, and took part in only 18 Premier League games. However, he starred in the Europa League and was named player of the tournament and player of the match in the final in Bilbao.

It remains to be seen whether any team gives Tottenham something to think about with a serious offer when it comes to the two-time Copa America winner, but if they did then new head coach Thomas Frank will need to think about who comes in for Romero.

Here are five potential candidates to step into Romero's considerable boots.

Marc Guehi

The most obvious candidate in the transfer market would be Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi, who Spurs have admired for a long time and made an approach for late in the January transfer window. That was rebuffed by the Eagles, who had no real time to get in a replacement for the England international at that point.

Now Guehi has just a year remaining on his contract so Palace will have to decide if this is the summer in which he finally departs or risk losing the 24-year-old for nothing. The problem for Spurs is that while they can offer Champions League football next season, all the big clubs would love to have the England centre-back and Liverpool and Arsenal are both very keen.

If clubs can agree a fee then Guehi is expected to make his decision based on the amount of game time he will get. If Romero were to leave then Spurs would be able to offer plenty of that and probably plenty regardless if he remained, but due to the number of centre-backs at Tottenham at the moment, they might not make a move until the exits are clear and by then Guehi, who can play anywhere across a back three or central pairing, could be gone.

Kevin Danso

Spurs would sign another centre-back if Romero departs regardless, but Kevin Danso could also push his claims under Frank to become the new leader of the backline.

The Austrian has a strong personality and showed plenty of promising moments in his first four months of the season despite being thrown straight into a difficult situation. The 26-year-old also showed some wasteful moments with the ball, but will likely have less pressure on him to play some of the passes or make the dribbles that Ange Postecoglou's system called for.

Danso, who played an important late role in the Europa League final in Bilbao, is a strong character and leader and is already popular in the Spurs dressing room. He can fit into a back three as well, and he and Frank are likely to hit it off early on due to their similar mentalities, which could put him in a good position to take advantage if Romero departs.

Nathan Collins

Frank might look back to someone he trusts at Brentford and the most Tottenham-type signing among the centre-backs is probably Nathan Collins. The Republic of Ireland international, who only turned 24 under two months ago, came on leaps and bounds under Frank and became a key man in his defence.

The Dane said midway through last season of Collins, who played on the right of his central defensive pairing: "He got that injury [the previous season] and got that setback. He struggled to get back up to pace and made some mistakes, which didn't help his confidence. At the end of last season, he was more or less back to the good start he had.

"Now he has more consistency and his composure on the ball is good. He can find passes in the pockets, the diagonals and the balls in behind. He is very good. This year, he has made some crucial blocks, defending the goal and the box very well. He has just got more consistency in the way he plays.

"Another important thing is the concentration. I think his concentration levels have gone up and the best players in the world have got the ability to concentrate for 90 minutes."

The problem for Spurs is that Collins has a long contract until 2029 and would not come cheaply. However, if they got big money for Romero then the young Irishman would be able to come in and slot straight into Frank's system after some big displays for the Dane across the last campaign. He would be less of a risk than many foreign signings they might look at in the market.

Luka Vuskovic or Ashley Phillips

There could also be a breakout star in defence under Frank with the new head coach always looking to give young players a chance after his formative years as a coach in the Danish international youth set-up.

The Dane will not have made any decisions yet over the young players as he will want to take a close look at a number of them during pre-season to decide who is ready for his team and which ones must head off on loan again or out of the door permanently.

Luka Vuskovic will finally arrive at Tottenham after two loan spells before being able to join officially after his 18th birthday. The teenager has been a star in Belgium with Westerlo and Spurs beat plenty of Europe's biggest sides to land the Croatian starlet, no doubt with the promise of first team minutes if he impresses.

That will be on Vuskovic this summer but he's certainly got heaps of potential and could be given until at least January to settle in. Spurs' pesky club-trained issues might make it difficult to name the teenager in the Champions League squad, depending on the future of Romero and Ben Davies, but he could get game time in the Carabao Cup to begin with.

The same goes for Ashley Phillips, who could not get a look-in under Postecoglou but has impressed on both his loans to Plymouth and Stoke in the past couple of seasons. Frank might be impressed this summer by the young defender, who turns 20 on Thursday, and that could change what comes next for him. The next move for Alfie Dorrington must also be decided as well after he became a Scottish Cup winner with Aberdeen.

Jarrad Branthwaite

Another big money potential arrival would be Everton's Jarrad Branthwaite with the centre-back, who turns 23 on Friday, linked with Tottenham in recent weeks.

The Toffees defender, who has made one England appearance, has been the subject of interest from Manchester United in the past with a huge price tag on his head because he still has two years left on his deal with an option for a further 12 months.

The other issue for Spurs is that Branthwaite would not be a straight Romero replacement in terms of where he would play on the pitch, because like Micky van de Ven, he is a left-footed centre-back who operates on that side of the defence.

He and the Dutchman would likely be an awkward pairing so while we're adding him as a potential option to replace Romero in the squad, he would not likely replace him in the team.

Tottenham have a number of reasons to be confident they can win the transfer battle for Bryan Mbeumo despite his preference being to join Manchester United.

With the manager situation uncertain for a number of weeks, Spurs may have lost out on certain targets while other Premier League clubs were also able to put in significant groundwork.

Rayan Cherki was one player linked with a move to north London, but he ended up joining Manchester City from Lyon.

It was also made clear that Mbeumo was keen on a switch to Old Trafford from Brentford, snubbing Spurs and Newcastle United in the process. The decision by Tottenham to replace Ange Postecoglou with Thomas Frank, who has coached Mbeumo for the last few years, may have changed things though.

In the meantime, Bayern and Spurs met a compromise for Mathys Tel with the French attacker joining on a permanent basis for £30 million.

Despite bringing in a winger, the Lilywhites are still very much interested in Mbeumo.

Prior to the first summer window deadline, Ruben Amorim's side saw a bid rejected with another verbal offer made during negotiations knocked back. Brentford are holding out for £70m to sell.

In comparison to United, Tottenham are much more likely to meet that figure following on from winning the Europa League and thus qualifying for next season's Champions League.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Co. have also already sanctioned a big transfer with Matheus Cunha joining from Wolves in a £62.5m deal.

Though that was an early summer deal, there was some delay as United wanted to pay for his services over five years but they ultimately backed down and met Wolves' terms of three instalments over two seasons.

United trying to do that in the first place suggests that financially they are not in that strong of a position. The fact they also accepted what Wolves wanted means that some funds have already been committed elsewhere.

Spurs, and Frank in particular, now arguably face a race against time to convince Mbeumo of a move to north London. That is because later in the trading period United are likely to have more money available to them having sanctioned sales.

Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho, Antony and Marcus Rashford are all free to leave the club this summer with it entirely possible anywhere in the region of £150m is obtained. That would certainly give United the finances needed for Mbeumo.

It took just two seconds or so of football to show exactly why Thomas Frank gave the green light to Tottenham making the permanent signing of Mathys Tel.

The 20-year-old had drifted out to the left-hand side of the pitch in the final five minutes of the European U21 Championships quarter-final against Denmark when he received the ball from substitute Matthis Abline. The Tottenham man took a couple of touches, forcing the defender to step back in concern as he advanced into the box.

Tel used that space to curl an inch-perfect right-footed shot into the far corner of the net. Tottenham fans will have seen the similarities to the goals their captain Son Heung-min curled home most weeks in the Premier League. Tel's strike sparked wild celebrations alongside his Spurs and international team-mate Wilson Odobert and others for within two minutes, France had turned around a 2-1 deficit and the Spurs man's exquisite finish sent them into the semi-finals where they will meet Germany on Wednesday night.

To reduce another livewire performance from Tel into just two seconds would be doing the young attacker a disservice but it was a moment that showed how a youngster with plenty of Champions League experience has no fear of the big stage or the big moments. His professional career so far has been all about him being thrown in and having to sink or swim.

The previous 85 minutes of the game in the Futbal Tatran Arena in Slovakia had brought constant troubles for the Danish defence as they tried to deal with Tel, who began the game in a lone striker role. Forged by those early months thrown in as the target man at Tottenham in Dominic Solanke and Richarlison's injury-enforced absences, Tel used everything he had learned in those tough moments.

He held the ball up well, spreading it out to the flanks or used numerous neat backflicks to send it into his team-mates' paths. Sometimes he would take it on himself and beat a man or two.

Tel showed his terrific technique in the first half with a powerful dipping volley after a headed ball fell his way out wide, just inside the right-side of the Denmark box. It deserved to make the net bulge but was met by an equally impressive flying reaction save from Danish goalkeeper Andreas Jungdal.

The 23-year-old goalkeeper has his own Spurs connection, having spent the second half of the season on loan from Cremonese with Belgian side Westerlo, playing behind Tottenham's soon-to-be-arriving centre-back Luka Vuskovic and academy midfielder Alfie Devine.

Tel had an effort disallowed in the second half when a team-mate was adjudged to have been offside in the build-up by VAR and the French media praised him after the game for the dangerous nature of his performance despite a lack of service at times, as well as the never-give-up attitude he displayed.

For Tel, he knows all eyes are on him after the north London club made his loan move from Bayern Munich a permanent one. It will cost Spurs £29.8million (€35million), plus a potential further £4.2million (€5million) in add-ons. Tottenham to managed to knock around £15million off the original £45million option to buy the player at the end of his £8.5million loan spell.

The transfer only went through because Frank agreed to it. football.londonreported soon after the Dane's appointment that he had analysed Tel and was excited about developing him into the talent that both Spurs and Bayern believed he could become when they signed him.

The new head coach then confirmed that in his first club interview when he said: "Very, very excited about Mathys signing with a permanent deal. I think he's a very talented player that can play across the front four positions. He's a goalscorer that we can develop even further to be more consistent in his all-round game but also to more consistently land in the right positions in the box. So I'm looking forward to it."

Sunday's performance for France showed exactly what Tel is capable of when that all-round game clicks and it also showcased a lot of what staff inside Tottenham had felt about the player and why they always believed there was something special to develop despite the difficulties faced in his opening months in a new league, new country and a struggling team when he was being relied upon to be a battering ram in the fastest, most physical competition in the world.

Spurs staff last season saw Tel as strong technically with a top notch training mentality while being a positive character within the squad. With his lack of minutes for Bayern ahead of his move, plenty of fitness and conditioning work was required and he will be benefiting from that now during this tournament with France as he will when pre-season begins next month. He already looks more powerful and broader than he did when he first arrived in February.

The 20-year-old still needs to improve further physically, particularly with his explosiveness on and off the ball, and the stamina required for the Premier League, while continuing to improve his growing ability in one vs one duels against defenders. While this goal did not suggest it, the consistency of his finishing also requires work and while Tel is always eager to track back, the defensive work when he gets there needs more finessing.

football.london reported last week that the youngster's performance against Nottingham Forest at home in April was held up internally as the best of the spell, with great energy and creativity from the flank, and there were plenty of similarities to his performance in Slovakia.

Frank may well have watched Sunday's match while nodding his head happily for his first big decision at Tottenham looks to be a good one. With plenty of work from Tel and coaching from Frank and his staff, the first transfer of his reign could be one people look back on and remember for all the right reasons.

Tottenham fans will be excited by the prospect of the Thomas Frank era and the attacking philosophy that the Dane will bring to the club.

Frank replaced Ange Postecoglou as the Spurs head coach after the Australian was sacked earlier this month.

The Dane arrives at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after seven years at Brentford, during which time he guided them to promotion from the Championship and turned the Bees into an established Premier League outfit.

Much like Postecoglou, Frank's philosophy is about attacking football and he often utilised the 4-2-3-1 formation in west London, with three players behind a frontman.

And he has already hinted that that is the formation he is planning to employ at Tottenham. In an interview after giving the green light to sign Mathys Tel on a permanent deal following his loan spell with the club last season, Frank said: "I think he's a very talented player that can play across the front four positions."

You would not ordinarily speak about the front four positions unless you were planning on employing that 4-2-3-1 strategy. Frank has also used the 3-5-2 and 4-3-3 formations at Brentford, but neither of those formations would really lend themselves to talking about the front four positions.

Tel was mainly used on the left hand side of a front three under Postecoglou, although he did play through the middle too. There are question marks over Son Heung-min's future with the Lilywhites as football.london understands the South Korean is more open to leaving the club than ever before after steering Spurs to the Europa League trophy in 2024/25.

Spurs have been linked with other wide players so far in the summer transfer window, with the likes of Eberechi Eze and Bryan Mbeumo also able to play in multiple positions in the front line.

New Tottenham head coach Thomas Frank has already made it clear he is "very, very excited" about Mathys Tel signing a permanent deal with the club. Following the Frenchman's initial loan spell from Bayern Munich, he has signed a six-year deal in N17 for a transfer fee worth £29.8million (€35million), plus a potential further £4.2million (€5million) in add-ons.

Even though the decision over the 20-year-old's long-term future was something that divided the opinion of fans, it was a rather straightforward call for the club. Tel may not have been a Tottenham player when they played Frank's Brentford team at the beginning of February but the new boss quite clearly knows all about the youngster and the areas of his game he can improve.

"Very, very excited about Mathys signing with a permanent deal," said the Dane in a club interview. "I think he's a very talented player that can play across the front four positions. He's a goalscorer that we can develop even further to be more consistent in his all-round game but also to more consistently land in the right positions in the box. So I'm looking forward to it."

The reason for some fans not wanting the club to sign Tel on a long-term deal was mainly due to the £45.7million buy option and what he did or did not contribute in the final third in his minutes on the pitch. Tel finished the 2024/25 campaign with three goals and two assists to his name in 20 appearances.

He did show plenty of promise when played, most notably in the home defeat against Nottingham Forest in April, but that clinical cutting edge when it mattered most wasn't always there. A player with bags of potential due to the attributes in his locker, many will have ultimately felt that the club could spend the £45.7million better elsewhere.

It may well be in the 2025/26 season where Tottenham see a different side to Tel. The hope will be that is the case, especially with Frank potentially able to extract even more out of him considering his great record at working with young players.

When it comes to Tel and his first 20 games for the club, it needs to be remembered that he arrived in a brand new country as a 19-year-old and had to very quickly try and get to grips with the pace and intensity of the Premier League. There was no real bedding-in period for the player as he was immediately thrown into Ange Postecoglou's starting XI due to the injury crisis the team were going through.

Tel's first four months in a Tottenham shirt should stand him in good stead to attack the new season and hopefully hit the ground running. What should also help is near enough a full pre-season with Frank and his teammates once his participation at the Under-21 European Championship has come to an end.

Tel's initial loan period and what comes next could be reminiscent of Lucas Moura's first few months at the club after joining from Paris Saint-Germain in January 2018. The Brazilian contributed two goals and four assists in his first ten appearances in all competitions as Mauricio Pochettino elected to ease him in rather than immediately introduce him to the starting XI.

Whereas that wasn't the case for Tel at Tottenham, there may eventually be similarities in terms of what they offered in their first four months as Spurs players and what happened next. In the 2018/19 season, Lucas scored 15 goals in 49 appearances, including a memorable double in a 3-0 win at Manchester United, a hat-trick against Huddersfield Town and that treble at Ajax that sent Tottenham through to the Champions League final.

Before all that occurred, Lucas spoke in the summer of 2018 about the importance of his first few months as a Tottenham player and his adaptation to a brand new country and league.

“My first months at Tottenham were to adapt to the new league, to the city, to the climate of a new country," said Lucas in an interview with Brazilian outlet Lance! in the summer of 2018. "But it was quiet, everyone welcomed me very well, I already knew [Serge] Aurier, with whom I had played in PSG. They treated me very well, the environment is very cool.

"It was easy to adapt and I am very happy to be wearing the shirt of a great team, and to play in the Premier League, which was a great dream. It’s a great opportunity in my life.

“I knew it would be difficult. I arrived at the window mid-season, and there were not so many signings. When I arrived the team was already in place, fighting for the first team places, they were already well into the Champions League.

"It is very difficult to get there and to be a starter. The expectation was to get there, to adapt, to know the environment, the new teammates. Now, it’s time to take advantage of the pre-season, start strong, and be able to clinch a starting spot this season.

“The expectation is to start well, go strong and fight for a place in the starting team. The team is very good with great players, but the season is long with many games. Surely I will have many opportunities. I need to take advantage of the chances that will appear.”

Tel showed glimpses of his quality in his first four months as a Tottenham player and it quite clearly was enough for the club to sanction a permanent transfer. As was the case with Lucas, the best is yet to come.

James Maddison has provided an update on his recovery from injury. The 28-year-old midfielder missed the end of the season with a knee problem, which he suffered during Tottenham Hotspur's win over Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League semi-final first leg.

Shortly after Spurs confirmed their place in the final against Manchester United, Maddison broke silence on social media with a heart-breaking message. He wrote: "Gutted. Just absolutely gutted.

"We've had our sights on that European final in Bilbao from day one of this campaign. So to accept not being able to take part out on that pitch with the boys is really tough to take.

"Injuries are just part of this game that can be so cruel, at times. But I truly believe that it can be a special night for my football club. Bring on the 21st. All together."

Maddison was in attendance at San Mames Stadium a couple of weeks later, as Tottenham stormed past Ruben Amorim's side, winning their first European trophy since 1983/84. Despite featuring as a pundit for TNT Sports, the England international didn't provide an update on his recovery.

Then, earlier this month, Maddison commented on his progress in a quick exchange with Thomas Frank, who had just replaced Ange Postecoglou as head coach. The duo crossed paths at the club's training ground - and the new Tottenham boss was keen to find out how he's been doing.

"Yeah [working hard]," said Maddison. "Had a little break with the family. Had a nice check-up with the specialist yesterday."

Frank then asked if everything was okay, to which Maddison replied: "Yeah, yeah. It was good.

"Positive to be fair. All about schedule stuff."

BAStraining has since dropped another update on Maddison's recovery on Instagram. The personal trainer - based in Norwich - has been putting the Tottenham vice-captain through his paces ahead of the new season.

Maddison, who has previously worked with BAStraining, will be desperate to be fit for pre-season and impress Frank. Speaking to club media, the new Spurs boss was quizzed on the players at his disposal.

"I think it's a very talented squad. I think it's a very good squad," said Frank. "So, yeah, very excited about starting working with them and, of course, you know, when you follow the Premier League, you see the other teams, of course I've seen Tottenham, I've seen some fantastic performances from the team over the last years, and I'm very excited about that."

The 51-year-old Dane added: "I think there's big, big potential in it, but of course I'm looking from the outside, so I'm looking forward to get to know them, to be around them, to feel them, to understand them, to work with them on a training pitch.

"That's where you really get a big understanding, and understand the relationships between players and how you can get the best out of them. Of course, I've got an idea already, you know, my head is spinning, how can we play, who can I put them together - and all that."