The i Paper

There’s hardly been a worse time to be a Tottenham Hotspur player than the last couple of years.

No other side in Spurs’ history has finished one place above the drop zone for two seasons in a row. This was meant to be the club’s golden era, building from the strong foundations of the 2010s. The infrastructure is in place and there’s a fresh trophy in the cabinet in the form of the 2025 Europa League.

When it comes to squad-building, Tottenham still have a pulse on promising talent, though very few of those diamonds in the rough have survived the pressure to become jewels of any substance.

Lucas Bergvall was signed from under the noses of Barcelona and has shown only glimpses of his ceiling. Archie Gray is popular among fans, players and coaches alike but risks becoming a poor man’s James Milner if he doesn’t nail down one position. Destiny Udogie and Micky van de Ven haven’t hit the same heights of their respective debut seasons.

Pape Matar Sarr has been cast aside to Juventus on an initial loan. European hero Brennan Johnson was sold to Crystal Palace in January. Luka Vuskokic got out before even wearing lilywhite, perhaps recognising this pattern of unfulfilled potential.

And there is currently one youngster taking more flack than anyone else. Mathys Tel, the former Bayern Munich prodigy, has had a particularly turbulent time in north London since arriving in February 2025.

Then 19, Tel probably wasn’t physically ready for the rigour and vigour of the Premier League, especially in Ange Postecoglou’s failing system. When the Australian was replaced by Thomas Frank, Tel fell further down the pecking order, finding himself excluded from Tottenham’s Champions League squad for the first half of 2025-26.

Frank would find himself coming to Tel in break-glass-in-case-of-emergency situations. He was massively influential off the bench in 2-2 draws with Manchester United and Newcastle and he opened the scoring in a 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth. But, like everyone else at Spurs, Tel’s flaws have been more glaring than his strengths of late.

He has become more of a mainstay under Roberto De Zerbi, as well as short-lived predecessor Igor Tudor, in part due to a lack of viable alternatives, but also because of his enthusiasm and commitment. If there is one constant about Tel among his various inconsistencies, it’s his work ethic.

There are many mitigating circumstances to explain Tel’s stagnant development. The turnover of four managers with vastly differing philosophies, all with vastly different plans for the club, has been the most concerning.

Beyond that, Tottenham have been plagued by an injury crisis which has even touched those who have remained healthy, with Tel the chief culprit of simply playing a lot more under intense scrutiny and pressure than he ought to have been. Add these ingredients to a relegation battle and a hostile home environment, which itself has brought mental drawbacks, and you have the perfect sh*t sandwich.

So, what can Tel control? What’s a feasible way for him to improve amid the chaos? For starters, a run out of the first XI would do him wonders, and Spurs’ improved depth in this department ought to allow that. He notably wasn’t outcast by De Zerbi when other key players were.

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Tel has grown away from the electric, threatening wide forward who was so highly rated at Bayern, prioritising taking the full-back on to go round the outside instead. He leads the Premier League with 10 dribbles completed so far this season, but that’s not when he’s at his most dangerous.

The best version of Tel is the one who marries his trademark tenacity with simply getting shots away. Spurs don’t have many natural scorers left in their ranks having jettisoned Richarlison to the Nether Realm. If Tel wants inspiration, he should look at the transformation of Son Heung-min 10 years ago, when he shed away the habits of drifting outside to come infield a lot more.

Tel was widely courted before he ended up at Tottenham. This isn’t a matter of signing a bad player, rather finding a way to ensure he becomes a good one.

Tottenham are yet to receive any formal bids for Richarlison as the final transfer windows around the world draw to a close.

Spurs’ attacking woes continued on Saturday at Nottingham Forest, where they failed to register a shot on target. They have not scored in any of their opening three league matches for the first time since 1974.

Richarlison is no longer part of the Premier League squad after telling the club he wanted to leave over the summer. De Zerbi hinted it was “not my decision” to leave him out and Spurs now have an expensive exile on their hands.

Richarlison latest

Trabzonspor, the ambitious Turkish Super Lig outfit who signed Mohamed Salah this summer, came closest to signing the 29-year-old. However, The i Paper was told the move collapsed due to “high financial demands”. That included his wages, though the transfer fee was considered the “main obstacle”.

A return to Everton fell through at the end of the English window. It was a separate deal to Iliman Ndiaye and had no bearing on the forward’s decision to move to Manchester City over north London.

Richarlison has also attracted interest from Saudi Arabia, where the window remains open until 12 October and which now looks like the most likely option if he is to get a contract before January. Al-Ahli are among the clubs monitoring the situation.

There are now very limited options remaining when it comes to high-profile leagues, with the following windows still open: Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Greece, Israel and Serbia.

Despite scoring some of the goals that effectively kept Spurs up at Anfield and Villa Park last season, Richarlison declined to sign a new contract.

Three departures

He was not the only player who expressed a wish to move on and Spurs have sold well this summer, raising more than £140m. A key part of that strategy was moving on youngsters without a clear route to the first team.

That saw Dane Scarlett, who has been on loan four times in four years, join Leyton Orient on a permanent deal. Will Lankshear is now top scorer in the Championship after scoring eight times in nine appearances at Middlesbrough. Jamie Donley, who played as a centre-forward at youth level but has since developed into an attacking midfielder, has been sent on another loan to Luton Town.

Marmoush role

Around £145m was spent bolstering the attack with the additions of Savio and Omar Marmoush from Manchester City (a number which includes sizable add-ons of a combined £20m for the pair), and with Mykhailo Mudryk joining on loan with an option to buy. Savio started on the right against Nottingham Forest, with Marmoush as the No 9.

At City the Egyptian’s opportunities were limited by the presence of Erling Haaland, while in Frankfurt he played either as a lone striker, alongside Hugo Ekitike in a two-man attack, or could also be deployed as a No 10 or out wide. Even as a front man he was inclined to drop into a deeper role.

Spurs have been hit by further injuries there. Xavi Simons is still recovering from a torn ACL and James Maddison suffered a shoulder injury in the defeat to Brentford, so Conor Gallagher has been deployed further forward. Sandro Tonali has been the only ever-present in the midfield so far and has had a torrid start after his record £100m transfer from Newcastle.

Fitness and injuries

Dominic Solanke has featured in all four games in all competitions, but his minutes will continue to be managed. Last season, he completed 90 minutes just eight times and was ruled out of 31 games, largely due to an ankle injury that required surgery.

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De Zerbi is also still navigating injuries to Dejan Kulusevski, who has been out for 16 months, Mohammed Kudus, who has been edging back to full fitness, and Wilson Odobert. After the goalless draw with Forest De Zerbi said Mathys Tel “takes too many wrong decisions”

Spurs were at their brightest against Newcastle and showed glimpses of creativity at the City Ground, yet they sit 17th in the table with no goals and no wins.

CITY GROUND — Help! I’m stuck in an Omar Marmoush rabbit hole and can’t get out. Partly because this match is dire, but also because I just can’t figure him out.

The fascination began in the fourth minute at Nottingham Forest, where Marmoush was Tottenham Hotspur’s starting centre-forward and was having words with Mathys Tel already.

Marmoush had shrugged off Liam Delap to find a yard of space inside the Forest box, but he was not found by Tel. His frustration was clear, and inwardly he must have been thinking about the quality he was only recently surrounded by at Manchester City.

Tel is no Jeremy Doku or Antoine Semenyo, that much is obvious, but Marmoush is no Erling Haaland either. No one is, really, but still that is why the Egyptian is at Spurs, where competition for the No 9 role is far less fierce. Alright, tame at best.

With no Haaland for company Marmoush will get more game-time, and the rabbit hole gets deeper when calculating the 27-year-old could clock as many Premier League minutes at Spurs by the end of October as he managed the entirety of last season at City.

That is providing Roberto De Zerbi continues to favour him over Dominic Solanke, and providing he starts to take his chances.

But opportunities like Marmoush’s in the 17th minute make you wonder, when he is penalised for a soft foul on Neco Williams, but only after he shoots wide when one-on-one with Matz Sels.

The fascination deepens. The real question surfaces: is Marmoush really a centre-forward?

De Zerbi was asked as much on Friday. “Normally, if you consider the striker a big animal, he’s not an animal, but he has different characteristics,” De Zerbi said.

“At Eintracht Frankfurt he played as a striker. He loves playing as a striker, but he is a different striker than Richarlison. We have to play with the ball on the grass, short-pass combinations, attack the spaces very well to use Omar for his characteristics.”

A striker that is not really a striker, starting for a Big Six side that have just spent £394m?

Onwards down the rabbit hole we go. It turns out Marmoush actually started his international career on the left wing, and only became Egypt’s starting centre-forward at the 2025-26 Africa Cup of Nations.

He started up front at the World Cup over the summer, too (he was dropped for the round-of-16 loss to Argentina), but in this spell as his country’s No 9 he has scored just three goals in 15 games – a rate that admittedly aligns with his 11 in 55 overall but is not exactly the return of a top-level, international striker.

So, can help Pep Guardiola help me? Surely?

“I see him more as a striker than a proper winger but he is a guy for transition actions,” the former Manchester City boss said in January, and then in May: “He’s a proper striker but Erling [Haaland] is there.”

That doesn’t help, Pep, and now between Guardiola and De Zerbi’s assessments Marmoush is somehow a proper striker, but not an animal like other strikers. Right.

Confusion. Marmoush appears to have more traits attributable to a winger than a “proper” striker. His close control is brilliant, finding space out wide is second-nature, but his hold-up play is lacking, so too his accuracy.

That became clearer in the second half, not because of the free-kick into the wall, but come the 71st minute when he once more found invaluable space out wide after being picked out by Antonín Kinsky’s quick-thinking long ball over the top.

Like the winger he seemingly is, Marmoush expertly cut in from the left onto his right foot, and like the striker he seemingly is not, he hoofed his effort high and wide.

Cue the chants of, “What a waste of money!” from the Forest supporters, and after Solanke replaced Marmoush in the 84th minute, and after Spurs ended the match without a shot on target, this is the incident which De Zerbi brought up first in his press conference.

“We can improve the decision with the last pass,” De Zerbi says. “The situation with Marmoush, where he shoots, [Andy] Robertson was alone behind him overlapping, and if we improve in the last decision, in the last third we can score many, many goals because we have players with big qualities.”

He added: “We could [have] scored three or four goals today, because if you take the wrong decision, you don’t score.”

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Singled out but not the only problem, Marmoush is a work in progress. Somehow he is many things – a No 10, a winger, a wannabe-centre-forward – which makes him nothing at the same time, and while there is undoubtedly a player there, where exactly is the real question.

Out wide in place of Tel? Behind Solanke? Keep the faith at No 9? That is on De Zerbi to figure out, but experimenting on the go, in the Premier League particularly, is hardly ideal for a head coach and club already under pressure.

If there is something Daniel Levy’s former staff can all agree on, it is that he was only one face of Tottenham Hotspur over his 25 years in charge.

“Joe ran the club,” one former manager tells The i Paper, referring to former majority owner Joe Lewis, who handed over his stake to The Lewis Family Trust in 2022. “Joe owned the club, and Daniel ran the club for Joe, but Joe was always on the end of the phone. Daniel didn’t get rid of me, Joe Lewis got rid of me.”

A year ago, Levy departed after a quarter of a century as chairman, a legacy looming as large as the £1bn stadium he installed on the Tottenham High Road.

That legacy is still a divisive subject. He gained a reputation for ruthlessness, with 15 managers in 25 years – just eight shy of the number Liverpool have had in their entire history.

Levy the man

Though deeply private, he on occasion showed a more personal side. One of his former employees told The i Paper he received a kind letter from him after he had been sacked. He loved cars. At the old White Hart Lane, staff would speculate which model he was going to turn up in that day, with his own dedicated parking space close to the old Bill Nicholson gates.

At dinners, he was “good company” but reserved, a man of “few words”. “He’s not going to be the life and soul of the table,” one former colleague said. “But I think that’s just his personality.”

Players were amazed at how hands-on he could be, visiting them at home to seal the deal on contract negotiations. He even knew the kit men.

Rival Premier League executives considered him a shrewd operator, who could be obsessive about transfer negotiations, a detailed man who would never be cowed into paying inflated fees.

“There was never a contract that was a straight contract that you’re happy with, and they’re happy with. You had to fight for most things,” sources added. “That’s the competitive part of Daniel. I always thought he was at his happiest when he managed to get the best deal.”

In 2019, Tottenham allowed Amazon’s cameras to look behind the curtain with the series All or Nothing. Topics spanned including Mauricio Pochettino’s sacking and the arrival of box-office Jose Mourinho. Above all, it pained a picture of Levy as an almost ubiquitous presence – popping up in the canteen, the training ground, the manager’s office.

That was not quite in line with reality. “He never interfered,” insists one of his managers. “Okay, once or twice, there were players I wanted to bring in, there was a transfer we didn’t agree on. But he was not at the training ground – he was there if I wanted to talk to him, but he didn’t interfere.”

Biggest controversies

It was around 2019 that frictions began to reemerge with supporters. “Levy Out” banners began to appear at games. Levy, and Enic more widely, were accused of putting “profit before glory”. The apocryphal lament of 1980s manager Keith Burkinshaw enjoyed a revival: “There used to be a football club over there.”

These should have been halcyon days, with the temporary stay at Wembley finally over, two years after White Hart Lane had been pulverised in N17. Yet, on the pitch, Spurs seemed in perennial decline. A first ever Champions League final masked a decaying squad, just as years later Ange Postecoglou’s Europa League triumph jarred with the team’s 17th-placed finish.

Therein lay the eternal paradox of Levy’s Spurs. Sustainability off the pitch – some success on it, but not enough. Upon Levy’s removal last September, Enic demanded “more wins, more often”.

Some had already made up their mind on the Premier League’s highest-paid chairman years before. The immensely popular head coach Martin Jol, who took Spurs back into Europe, was sacked in 2007. In the early days of everyone having a mobile phone inside the stadium, news of his departure leaked at half-time. By the final whistle, he was one of the last people to find out.

While Levy was not involved personally, leaked photographs showed members of the board meeting Jol’s successor, Juande Ramos, while he was still in a job. There were tensions in the corridors of power as the club flitted between a director of football model and giving the manager full control.

The board then toyed with a controversial move to Stratford, to the ground eventually occupied by West Ham. A rumoured rebrand to “Stratford Spurs” prompted more protests. There were more managerial missteps, from the ill-fitting Ramos to the inexperienced Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood, and later sacking Mourinho days before the League Cup final.

A wasted opportunity

Levy had desperately wanted to appoint Louis van Gaal, who ended up at Manchester United instead, and so opted for Pochettino.

The Pochettino years took in two title races, two FA Cup semi-finals, the Champions League final, and briefly established Spurs at the top table. They joined the European Super League, before pulling out due to universal backlash.

With Spurs at their peak, there was an 18-month period between 2017 and 2018 when they did not sign a single player, breaking a Premier League record. The squad had been remarkably organic, full of homegrown talents (Harry Kane, Harry Winks), English prospects (Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Danny Rose, and bargain signings from abroad (Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen, Hugo Lloris).

Somehow, it became synonymous with wasted opportunity. The trophy drought would extend to 17 years, until it was broken by Postecoglou in Bilbao. The Australian was sacked within a fortnight.

Make Tottenham great again

Many close to Levy felt he was forever shaped by what had come before him. Enic assumed control from Alan Sugar in February 2001, with the east-End businessman having saved the club from financial ruin. Alongside right-hand man Claude Littner on the board, Sugar immediately focused on cutting costs. Levy wanted to ensure Spurs never came so close to catastrophe again.

In the early days, he vowed in his programme notes to “make Tottenham great again”. Still, he was no football populist. He wanted to stay largely out of the spotlight, only making rare public appearances with his family in quiet restaurants around Essex.

People found him “shy” and noted he did not spend much time in “trivial” conversation, because he “lived for work”. By his own admission he was not a “fanatical” fan – others felt his love of the club grew steadily during his time as chairman.

How Levy’s exit changed Spurs forever

Thomas Frank was Levy’s final appointment, with sporting director Johan Lange advocating strongly for the Dane. By the time of the real fallout surrounding Frank, Levy was gone. It was a profound shock on 4 September, 2025, when his acrimonious departure was announced. Insiders described a “business-like ruthlessness” about the decision, with no emotional farewells or chances to say goodbye.

Peter Charrington was confirmed as his immediate successor, taking over as non-executive chairman. Charrington is not involved in the club’s day-to-day running, which falls primarily to CEO Vinai Venkatesham and the executive management team. Lange and director of football operations Rafi Moersen also play a key role in transfers. Lewis’ daughter Vivienne and son Charles, together with his grandson-in-law Nick Beucher – co-chair of Lewis’ Tavistock Group – also have a large influence. The old system of centralised power has been fragmented.

Above all, Levy’s sense of caution went out the door with him. This summer saw a record £394m spent (including add-ons) and the wage ceiling shattered. Levy had first increased wages upwards of £100,000 a week, and later £200,000. In the current climate, they simply had to be raised again if Spurs are to realign with the Big Six.

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The change in direction is not a mere matter of Levy or no Levy. “Daniel, even in the role he had, had a boss,” an ex-colleague said. “If Daniel wanted an £80m player, I never felt somebody in Daniel’s position could do it without authority from the owner.”

His pet projects, the stadium and training ground, were greenlit from above. It fell to him to finalise minor details, even down to the space between different rows of seats in the ground. “For all of those things to have happened, the stadium, the training ground, he must have absolutely had the backing of his boss.”

Tottenham Hotspur were already preparing to take the handbrake off when the reality began to set in that relegation from the Premier League was a serious possibility.

In the months after Vinai Venkatesham took control from Daniel Levy discussions had already taken place around a two-pronged change in transfer strategy – ripping up the wage structure that had kept even the highest earners below the £200,000-a-week mark and planning a record-breaking summer of spending on new arrivals. March’s defeat to Crystal Palace under then interim boss Igor Tudor sent alarm bells ringing that Spurs needed to survive at any cost before fully addressing the squad.

Owners Enic are understood to view this extraordinary £300m window as just one part of a “multi-year plan”. There was an acknowledgment that even aside from the two successive 17th-placed finishes, Spurs had fallen away from the rest of the Big Six. Enic consider Spurs not for sale and it is not thought that any potential sale of the stake Levy still owns would have much bearing on the club’s day-to-day operations. Summer reports that Levy’s shares had been sold were premature.

After last year’s pursuits of Eberechi Eze and Morgan Gibbs-White collapsed, there was a determination that this summer’s targets had to be treated differently. Newcastle were unsure if Spurs would bid again when an initial approach for Sandro Tonali was knocked back, but they ultimately returned with a £100m offer. Tonali was persuaded to move in spite of interest from Manchester City with the prospect of living in London a major pull.

Mateus Fernandes was likewise a Manchester United target but Spurs were the only club willing to go so high. Although nobody had been given “free rein” on spending, the shift in mentality has been getting Roberto De Zerbi’s desired targets over the line even when fees raise eyebrows – as they did for Jan Paul van Hecke’s £52m move with just a year left on his contract.

When it came to free transfers and new deals, wages were key. Micky van de Ven was being monitored by other clubs, but was tied down to a lucrative contract extension and offered the captaincy after Cristian Romero’s exit.

Marcos Senesi was a free agent but had interest from several other top clubs in the Premier League and abroad. Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka also came in as free transfers.

Iliman Ndiaye, who opted for a £65m move to Manchester City having held talks with Spurs, was seen as a disappointing miss but unconnected to the collapse of the Richarlison deal the other way. Once City’s bid for Cody Gakpo was rejected by Liverpool, Spurs all but knew Ndiaye was not going to happen.

Instead, De Zerbi wanted to pivot to his former Shakhtar Donetsk player Mykhailo Mudryk, with Chelsea making Spurs aware of Tosin Adarabioyo’s availability after they began a late search to replace Kevin Danso.

Danso was keen to move elsewhere after falling down the pecking order behind Van de Ven, Senesi and Van Hecke. Adarabioyo, 28, is seen as a solid, experienced option with Danso joining Sunderland on a loan with an obligation to buy for £25m.

The i Paper understands Spurs’ wages are “well under control” when it comes to the new squad cost ratio (SCR) rules and they have recouped around £183m in player sales. The big fees came for Luka Vuskovic (to Brighton), Romero (Atletico Madrid) and Djed Spence (Inter Milan) but another £35m was brought in from fringe players like Will Lankshear, Alfie Devine, Alejo Veliz, Ashley Phillips and Manor Solomon.

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Internally there has been a concern at the lack of academy players coming through to the first team and at the same time an acceptance that those without a clear route to the senior squad – many of whom had had several loan spells and seasons of uncertainty – should be moved on.

Sporting director Johan Lange has been paying renewed attention to the academy. There is less of the “hands-on” approach around the training ground that was felt under Levy but the owners want a serious “rebuild” at all levels. That no longer falls to majority owner Joe Lewis, 89, but Vivienne Lewis, Charles Lewis and her son-in-law Nick Beucher have been regular attendees at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Given where the club was last season, there is no panic just yet as Spurs’ poor start to the season with two defeats from two – but there is scope for more additions in January and beyond. Sufficient gaps have been created in the squad for further additions – but this summer is thought to be just the start.

This is The Score with Daniel Storey, a subscriber-only newsletter from The i Paper. If you’d like to get this direct to your inbox, every single week, you can sign up here.

Hello and welcome back to The Score, my weekly column on the biggest talking points of the Premier League weekend. For the new season, we’ve given it a little revamp – with a new structure and some shiny bells and whistles at the end. Please let me know your (positive) thoughts on social media: @danielstorey85

Another Tottenham Hotspur season and more records to be broken. This is now the first time since 1974 that Tottenham have lost the first two league matches of a season without scoring a goal. They were better than against Brentford – such a low bar it should make you laugh – but Newcastle United have suffered enforced flux and found it way too easy in the second half.

The answer, it appears, is just to keep on spending. Sunday morning brought news of Iliman Ndiaye arriving from Everton with Richarlison going the other way (unrelated deals, honest). Take a deep breath and now list the attacking players who must be competing for a maximum of four positions: Savinho, Matthys Tel, Ndiaye, Dominic Solanke, Omar Marmoush, Wilson Odobert, Mohammed Kudus, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Xavi Simons.

The theory – and it probably carries some weight – is that piling up enough proven Premier League experience and talent will eventually cause a positive reaction. You cannot spend hundreds of millions of pounds on those who have done it elsewhere and have them all just fall into a black hole of incompetence. Honestly, you can’t.

But there are two caveats to that theory. The first is this: more than any other club in the top flight, Spurs needed a fast start to this season to ease the biggest concerns that the entire place was cursed. By buying so many new players (and it is almost an entirely new set of outfielders now), you create greater need for patience because none of them have ever played together before.

That presents a chaotic, difficult start to the season as inevitable, even if the details of their first two results were evidently not ideal. It is just that every supporter is so indoctrinated towards things going awry that they needed a sprinting start rather than this stumbling mess.

The other problem: what does this do to the mindset of new signings? Spurs deliberately paid the asking price to get deals done quickly ahead of the competition, considered a necessity given the lack of European football. But does that attract players joining for the right reasons and does it mean they might – even subconsciously – lack some stomach for the fight if things get tough again?

And on that second point, Roberto De Zerbi’s comments about not being able to buy mentality in the transfer market were instructive. Because: 1) you really can, Roberto, and 2) what does it say about the new signings that you are already accusing them of lacking the mentality to be better than this?

It will come good eventually. Good players eventually work things out and Spurs have signed plenty. But we are already lowering our expectations of where they might end up this season and De Zerbi needs to get a handle on this quickly.

Newcastle and ‘verticality’ might be a perfect match

That Newcastle crisis didn’t last long. Having been the better team against Liverpool last weekend, Matthias Jaissle earned his first win as a Premier League manager at Tottenham with some comfort and in some style. Rebuilds can be fun!

When Jaissle arrived, he explained that his aim was to play with “verticality”, which is a modern translation of getting the ball up the pitch quickly when you win the ball and trying to get quick players in behind the defensive line before it is set.

The principal beneficiary of that style? Anthony Elanga. Elanga flourished at Forest when given space to run into but became unstuck last season because Eddie Howe’s team were too sluggish and slow in possession. He has been reborn already under Jaissle, becoming the first Newcastle player to score in the first two games of a Premier League season since Alan Shearer.

Coventry already in firefighting mode

A weekend of unacceptably bad vibes for Coventry City. It started with empty seats at the CBS due to a new ticketing process that disallowed season ticket holders from transferring tickets to friends and family if they could not attend the fixture. It continued with a home defeat against the club who, pre-season, were the most likely to finish behind them.

Coventry have been more circumspect than Ipswich Town and Hull City this summer. I have no issue with that given their financial woes of the past. But when that combines with early home defeat against a likely relegation battle peer, don’t be surprised when supporters start to panic.

Coventry’s greatest issue lies in the lack of creative force having got promoted. They turned 69 per cent into just 11 shots and 1.29 xG. Hull were happy to sit back and back themselves to repel the threat and did so with far too much ease. Remember that this Hull side conceded 66 goals in the Championship last season and four of their starting back five were part of that defence.

Rashford gets a new start at Man Utd

There is little to be learned from Bruno Fernandes’ creativity in open play, but far more from how Marcus Rashford flourished on the left wing. There was an intent to take on Dara O’Shea that is directly proportional to Rashford’s confidence; we know how he tends to turn back to pass when things aren’t going his way.

Without the ball, there was something entirely new. The accusation – long-term in its application – is that Rashford’s offers insufficient tracking back and defensive work to account for the attacking returns in an age when the best wingers are either super-productive or do both attacking and defending.

This gave hope of another new start. Rashford’s three tackles were only bettered by one other United player. There was a moment in the first half where Rashford lost possession in a duel with Abdul Fatawu, who sprinted away from him. Rashford sprinted with him and, when a teammate forced Fatawu to slow down, it was he who nicked the ball away. Old Trafford roared as if it were a goal.

Gameweek 2 highlights

Goal of the weekend – Kevin Schade (Brentford)

We all have our kinks and one of mine is finishes of a type that you don’t see very often – variety is the spice of goals, people.

Which brings us to Schade and Brentford’s opener at Elland Road.

The German flicked a drilled cross with the outside of his right boot so that it looped up and over James Trafford and into the top corner. It is an outrageous piece of skill.

Mistake of the weekend – Bart Verbruggen (Brighton)

The equivalent of a slip fielder dropping a simple catch because he had too much time and so forgot to maintain concentration.

Verbruggen can reasonably claim some interference from a teammate, but having come to claim the loose ball he had to do better than juggle it to Romeo Lavia.

This Chelsea attack is going to be good enough without giving them freebies.

Player of the weekend – Rayan Cherki (Man City)

I’m not saying that France would have won the World Cup if Cherki had been given more than 96 minutes, but I am saying that it would probably have been worth a go.

Cherki started as the most central advanced midfielder (although swapped positions with Phil Foden a fair bit) against Crystal Palace and had a lovely old time.

There was some doubt whether Enzo Maresca might take to Cherki given his reputation as a luxury attacking option, so it was interesting to hear City’s manager praising his midfielder for his work rate, pressing off the ball and man-marking of Adam Wharton when Palace were in possession. The rest of us enjoyed the two goals because we aren’t sickos.

Stat of the weekend

Alexander Isak had 13 touches against Nottingham Forest, the fewest by a Liverpool player to play 90 minutes in a Premier League match since full data was collected in 2003-04 (Opta).

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM — The great Tottenham Hotspur rebuild of 2026 has not gone to plan just yet.

Despite now passing the £300m mark in outgoings this transfer window, Spurs have lost both of their opening Premier League games, conceding five times without reply. What’s equally alarming is they didn’t play particularly well in either match and those score-lines were hardly flukes.

When team news dropped prior to Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Newcastle, there was a prevailing thought that this overhauled team was already in need of another overhaul. And, well, after finishing 17th two years on the spin, you’d be correct for presuming this Tottenham side still requires more parts.

The main area of concern was in attack, where right-back Pedro Porro – making his first Premier League start since winning the World Cup with Spain – had to start on the wing. Even more concerning was the fact that Tottenham’s best spells in the game came when they played this unorthodox hand.

At 0-0, Spurs did look like they had the better of Newcastle and that they were slowly turning the key to unlock an all-important goal. Then Anthony Elanga went down the other end, scored with a remarkable piece of trickery, and the hosts lapsed back into their bad habits.

The players shrunk and retreated back into their shells. They did not create a meaningful attack once Newcastle took the lead. Mathys Tel’s comedic free-kick into row Z of England’s tallest single-tier stand got a round of meaty groans that could have powered a wind turbine (just in case Spurs needed another source of power and/or revenue).

Tottenham put their round pegs back in round holes six minutes after Elanga’s opener, with Porro heading back into defence and Mohammed Kudus, marking his return from an eight-month injury, slotting in on the wing. Within another four minutes, Newcastle had their second through Yoane Wissa from a corner.

Premier League newbie Matthias Jaissle would seldom have been nervous as the clock ran down, despite Spurs having over half an hour to try and claw their way back into the contest.

Jaissle arrived at Newcastle with the club in flames. Eddie Howe had surprisingly stood down halfway through pre-season amid a flurry of high-profile sales, including Sandro Tonali’s to Tottenham for £100m. They weren’t expected to be ready for the Premier League campaign ahead, yet have taken an impressive four points from even more impressive performances against Liverpool and Spurs.

But what about Roberto De Zerbi? The supposedly elite coach who would be Tottenham’s X-factor in their ascent up the table? The man handed the blank cheque as reward for saving Spurs from relegation?

The Italian had a full pre-season with his team, save for the late returns from the World Cup and their most recent transfers. Even the players of inferior quality should show some cohesion given the time they have spent together, yet still they look like strangers. Spurs’ structure off the ball is among their worst qualities, with nobody too sure where they should be standing.

The rationale behind Spurs’ summer activity, buying exclusively from other English clubs, was that it would harden and embattle a weak group to ready for the rigours of the Premier League. Two weeks into the season, they are the least-ready team in the division.

The excuse for last week’s 3-0 humbling at Brentford was that it was a makeshift XI that would probably never be fielded together again. That’s fine in isolation, but that line doesn’t wash this time after the likes of Porro, Micky van de Ven and debutant Omar Marmoush stepped into the lineup.

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Prior to kick-off on Saturday, stadium announcer Paul Coyte tried to whip up the crowd with a rousing speech. “We’ve spent and we’ve spent. We’re back. We’re going places. We’re huge.”

Now, it is Coyte’s job to excite the fans and improve the atmosphere. He’s hardly to blame for the 90 minutes that followed. But it’s hard to shake the feeling that the Tottenham hierarchy have been thinking along the same lines this window.

The board have been so obsessed with trying not to be Daniel Levy that they seem to have strayed from ambitious to merely reckless. De Zerbi has been backed with each of his top targets, bar Liverpool starter Cody Gakpo, delivered before their first home league game. As best demonstrated by the Reds last year, the most expensive windows usually necessarily the most successful.

So here Spurs are, entering the final week of the transfer window already more than £300m deep, lumbered with a team that can’t defend or attack. That seems like a problem.

Tottenham will look to offset some of their £300m-plus summer spend with more outgoings planned before Tuesday’s transfer deadline.

Spurs have ripped up tradition by bringing in eight major signings with three deals – Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Savio – that shattered their previous record.

However, they have also operated shrewdly the other way, bringing in around £140m through the sales of Luka Vuskovic, Cristian Romero and Djed Spence. A further £35m has been raised by selling off fringe players including Will Lankshear, Alejo Veliz, Ashley Phillips, Manor Solomon and Alfie Devine.

Pape Matar Sarr is also expected to depart, with Nottingham Forest having overtaken interest from the Turkish Super Lig. The Senegal midfielder is valued at around £20m, but that fee could be pushed down the road with Forest considering an initial loan with an option to buy.

“Pape is good,” De Zerbi said of him on Friday. “We have to see in the last days of the transfer market what can happen with him.”

Roberto De Zerbi has been vocal in his wish to keep Lucas Bergvall, who was also monitored by Forest and Newcastle.

The arrival of Omar Marmoush has also potentially opened the door for Richarlison’s exit. Despite rumours linking him with a return to Everton, Saudi Arabia currently looks like a more viable option. The striker is also valued at around £20m.

De Zerbi is also allowing Jamie Donley to leave on loan, with the forward set to join Jack Wilshere’s Luton Town.

There is more uncertainty surrounding Mikey Moore, who had agreed a move to FC Koln but who has featured in both Spurs’ competitive matches this season, scoring the opening goal in the 5-1 Carabao Cup win over Charlton.

Moore spent last season at Rangers and was always expected to be sent on loan again to gain experience, with the Savio and Omar Marmoush deals making that more likely.

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Having begun the summer with a threadbare attack, De Zerbi now has Marmoush, Dominic Solanke, Mathys Tel and Savio to accommodate. Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert and long-term absentee Dejan Kulusevski are currently sidelined and James Maddison is also set for a spell out after fracturing his shoulder in the 3-0 defeat to Brentford.

De Zerbi has already delivered on his promise of a major “bomba” this summer and faces a crucial test against Newcastle in the Premier League this weekend after a horror start in west London.

Spurs have been set back by injuries and players’ delayed returns from the World Cup, with Pedro Porro, Micky van de Ven and Kudus all missing the opening day and Fernandes only fit enough to feature in the second half.

Tottenham Hotspur have confirmed the signing of Savinho from Manchester City in a deal expected to rise to £85m.

Roberto De Zerbi described the Brazilian as a player “who brings energy, imagination and quality in wide positions. He has the courage to attack defenders and the ability to change a game with his creativity.”

Spurs will pay £75m plus £10m in add-ons, taking the club’s summer spending past the £300m mark.

That shatters the club’s previous record of £160m forked out in the summer of 2024 on players including Dominic Solanke, Archie Gray and Wilson Odobert.

Omar Marmoush isexpected to follow Savinho from City on a deal until 2031, with a fee closer to £55m. That would mean Manchester City would avoid having to pay Frankfurt a 15 per cent sell-on fee, which only applies if he is sold for more than the £63.4m they originally paid for him.

De Zerbi is seeking to be active in the transfer window after his side endured a nightmare start to the new Premier League season with a 3-0 defeat at Brentford.

He demanded sweeping changes this summer after taking over in March and keeping Spurs up on the final day.

A combined £185m was spent on Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes in midfield, £52m on centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke, and Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Martin Dubravka coming in on free transfers.

How Tottenham can afford Savinho

That is not quite the eye-watering amount of money it appears. Tottenham have raised over £100m organically through the sales of Cristian Romero, Djed Spence and Luka Vuskovic. All three wanted to go and while Spence could have gone for more had he stayed in England – there was some surprise Everton did not push harder given their need of a right-back – £25m was felt to be an acceptable fee for him to move to Serie A, which is not awash with the conspicuous consumption of the Premier League.

Tottenham are the ninth richest club in the world and have boosted the coffers with non-football events – from boxing and NFL to Beyonce, Guns N’ Roses, Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Gorillaz concerts.

Make no mistake – there would not have been such a drastic change in direction had they not come so close to the brink in May. But Daniel Levy’s departure has seen Vinai Venkatesham pivot to a more urgent approach, with the chief executive and Johan Lange still overseeing transfers despite reports of a restructure at the start of the summer. The search for a second sporting director to replace Fabio Paratici is ongoing.

Owners Enic recently injected a further £100m into the club and Spurs have also agreed an advance with Macquarie Bank on TV revenues from December 2026 to June 2027 – a practice which is becoming fairly standard across the Premier League. Last season alone it gave them a £90m boost and frees up even more funds to be spent on transfer fees and increasing wages, which has been another priority.

Despite reports, there has been no confirmation of a new naming rights deal for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but there is the potential for a further fillip there down the road. It is estimated the front-of-shirt sponsorship value has dipped by as much as £20m because of Spurs’ form last season.

They are not dependent on that – they are nowhere near breaking the threshold for the Premier League’s new financial rules (known as squad cost ratio). That’s worked out as a percentage of income, and Tottenham have one of the largest incomes in the league – hence why they are able to outspend clubs like Newcastle and Aston Villa, even when they are underperforming.

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Squad cost ratio is calculated over a three-year period, and fees like Tonali’s £80m, which look staggering on paper, can be amortised, or broken down, over several years of the contract.

Crucially, there is also expected to be further money coming in before the window shuts. Pape Matar Sarr is exploring the possibility of a move away and there has been interest in Richarlison – who would only be able to leave if Marmoush is signed as a replacement. Bids for Lucas Bergvall have been rejected.

A decision will be made on a potential loan for Mikey Moore, who spent last season at Rangers, as any departure was dependent on Savinho’s arrival.

GTECH COMMUNITY STADIUM – Meet the new Tottenham Hotspur, same as the old Tottenham Hotspur. Roberto De Zerbi needs a little time to get this right, but hey big spender, the Premier League can be an unforgiving place.

This was a poor imitation of the £300m+ squad that took a stun-gun to the transfer market this summer. They did not have their first-choice back line, midfield or front three, but the lack of fight was inexcusable. Spurs looked like they were still milling around on an Oceanian pre-season tour. Is it just possible they “won” the transfer window because they had the most to do and selling clubs saw them coming a mile off?

Superb Brentford bullied their abject midfield. That matters, because it is in those central channels where De Zerbi-ball will live or die. The centre-backs are supposed to play out to two narrow holding midfielders. All four were a shambles and on this evidence, they could be in for a disastrous wake-up call.

It would be premature to panic, and there were plenty of mitigating factors. Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro were unavailable. Xavi Simons, Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus and Wilson Odobert are long-term absentees; all improve that attack. Mateus Fernandes could be the signing of the summer but for now, that accolade looks more likely to go to Mamadou Sangare. For the Bees, an extraordinary upgrade on Jordan Henderson who is already attracting N’Golo Kante comparisons.

It is easy to see why De Zerbi prioritised such a hefty spend on the likes of Sandro Tonali when so much relies on the anchor they lacked at the Gtech. The game was lost when Fernandes, nursing a calf injury, spent the first half on the bench, placing seismic responsibility on Lucas Bergvall. The Swede spent the summer mulling a £40m move to Newcastle or Nottingham Forest and this was meant to be either his point to prove or his shop-window moment. Defensively, he produced his worst display in a Spurs shirt.

Gallagher’s role was neither here nor there. The midfield three was so utterly lost it was hard to envisage them getting up to speed soon. Brentford overloaded the middle and inevitably worked out De Zerbi’s system.

Joao Palhinha has left big boots to fill after not enough was done to sign him on a permanent deal. Under Ange Postecoglou, it was Rodrigo Bentancur who looked muddled between the No 6 and No 8 roles; now Bergvall is suffering a similar fate. De Zerbi showed a ruthless streak by hauling off both Bergvall and Gallagher for Fernandes and Bentancur. Only then did Spurs begin to enjoy the lion’s share of the ball.

The centre-backs, Marcos Senesi and Jan Paul van Hecke, were too easily dribbled past and Brentford’s press ensured they offered few of the ball-playing qualities for which they were signed. First, Brentford’s record signing Sangare waltzed into the box to set up Keane Lewis-Potter, before Bergvall lost it again for the second.

Antonin Kinsky blundered Mathias Jensen’s effort towards Vitaly Janelt, and Kinsky parried again from Sangare’s shot for Michael Kayode to bundle in Brentford’s third. Igor Thiago’s missed penalty was the only reprieve. There is already huge scrutiny on Kinsky replacing Guglielmo Vicario as No 1 – not least because there were doubts about him before that ignominious night at Atletico Madrid.

There is no suggestion that this is the finished product. Why, for example, was Mikey Moore made to start on the right, missing two 1on1s? Why are Spurs the only major side so far away from fielding the manager’s preferred team? Archie Gray was playing at right-back and named the youngest captain in the club’s history – despite being fifth in the pecking order – by virtue of no one else being fit.

There is hope of an immediate salvage operation in attack. Omar Marmoush will be a welcome addition from Manchester City and will likely replace Richarlison. Savinho, on the other hand, exhibits many of the same limitations as Mathys Tel, who was blocked from running inside to create any tangible end product.

And so the Thomas Frank jokes began, the relegation chants, and just about every other endurance of the last 12 months played on repeat. De Zerbi, starting from the lowest of bars after two successive 17th-placed finishes, spoke beforehand of restoring “pride”. There is no need for hysteria but Tottenham cannot afford to look so eminently beatable and devoid of self-esteem. He has to prove this is not just a reheated, rehashed version of the same haphazard project.

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One of Frank’s final matches as Spurs boss came here in west London and had the away end lamenting a “boring, boring Tottenham”. This was more like downright bizarre. Chief executive Vinai Venkatesham looked on from behind a pair of sunglasses which must have hidden a bemused expression.

Not all of his new signings failed to gel. Andy Robertson made a superb challenge to deny Dango Ouattara. Fernandes looked reasonably tidy after his introduction.

Still, the sense of urgency is not misplaced. Tottenham have gone all in on this. They can describe themselves as half-fit, unready and waiting to hit top gear. Those excuses will only get them so far.