The i Paper

Tottenham Hotspur are rivalling Inter Milan to sign Belgian defender Koni De Winter, the man seen as the next Vincent Kompany.

The i Paper has been told there has been contact between De Winter’s club Genoa and Spurs, and that the Italian side would be willing to accept just £22m for the international centre-back.

Bournemouth are also understood to be targeting the 23-year-old as they look to replace Dean Huijsen, who left for Real Madrid last month.

No bids have been lodged with Genoa as yet, but talks are ongoing.

The issue Spurs have is Champions League finalists Inter are further along in their negotiations with Genoa, with De Winter happy to stay in Italy, where he has spent the majority of his career to date.

In an interview with The i Paper in February, De Winter explained why he is seen as Kompany’s heir and the reasons England appeals to so many Belgians.

“All my life I have been told I play like Vincent Kompany,” he said. “I have this ability to make runs with the ball like he did, I have the same technical side.

“It’s a really big name, so I one day hope to be able to live up to him. You look at the other big names [who went from Belgium to the Premier League] and it is only right that they ended playing up in the best competitions.

“I just want to come as far as possible. It’s not that I say I have to play Premier League or I have to play Bundesliga, I just want the best, the best for myself. The Premier League is one of the best competitions in the world, so yes, I hear some nice things.”

As north London rivals Arsenal continue to spend big this summer, Spurs supporters remain a little restless at their team’s lack of activity.

Until the £55m capture of Mohammed Kudus was confirmed last week, Mathys Tel represented the club’s only major purchase of the summer transfer window after his loan from Bayern Munich was made permanent.

With the rigours of Champions League football to contend with next season, new Spurs manager Thomas Frank and the club hierarchy are going to have to get moving in the market.

De Winter’s reasonable fee should mean his transfer progresses quickly, so Tottenham are in a race against time with Inter.

Strengthening their backline without breaking the bank will leave funds for Spurs to ramp up their pursuit of Frank’s top target – Adam Wharton.

Frank is a long-term admirer of the Crystal Palace player and sees the midfield anchor role as a priority area for strengthening.

Palace’s £80m valuation of the England international, however, remains a stumbling block.

Manchester United, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur have been chased off Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, whose valuation stands at upwards of £70m this summer.

The winger features highly on the transfer wish lists of all three along with a number of overseas clubs.

Tottenham are understood to have shown the most interest as they look to strengthen the attacking options at Thomas Frank’s disposal.

But Bournemouth remain steadfast in their valuation and there is an increasing belief that he will stay at the club, who are set to be busy in the transfer market in July.

Spurs have stayed in contact with Bournemouth after making an initial enquiry last week but the latter are relaxed about the situation.

Newcastle had identified him as a potential alternative to Anthony Elanga though The i Paper understands he has now been removed from the list.

The feeling at the moment is that no-one is willing to meet his asking price.

That may sound steep but Semenyo is 25 and has only just signed an improved, four-year contract.

Crucially there is no need for Bournemouth to sell, having made a huge profit on defenders Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez, who have moved to Real Madrid and Liverpool respectively.

The £40m Liverpool paid for Hungary international Kerkez is informing other clubs around the Premier League targeting similar players.

Semenyo’s value is also being benchmarked against the prices quoted by Brentford for Bryan Mbeumo and the fee Manchester United paid Wolverhampton Wanderers for Matheus Cunha.

United will further drive the market when they advance on Mbeumo next week, with talks ongoing over the Cameroon forward.

As The i Paper revealed earlier this month, Brentford wanted United to match Cunha’s £63.5m release clause.

With United agreeing to pay £55m up front, the clubs are haggling over potential add-ons.

These sizeable fees are setting a trend for the rest of the summer, with Newcastle among the clubs hanging back in the hope that valuations become more realistic.

Whether that is the case is unclear given there has been a clear shift from Premier League clubs towards signing players with top-flight experience.

One recruitment executive cited the physical demands of playing in the Premier League as a reason why managers are so keen to recruit from the domestic market.

“Every attacking player you ask about is being put in the £60m bracket now,” one agent said this week.

Crystal Palace forward Eberechi Eze’s £68m release clause is further proof that this is now viewed as the going rate for attackers.

Ironically, Tottenham are one of the clubs in the market for Eze, and advancing on that deal may help ease their frustration over Semenyo’s valuation.

Tottenham Hotspur are closing in on the signing of Japanese defender Kota Takai after agreeing a £5m fee with Kawasaki Frontale.

The 20-year-old centre-back has been capped four times by his country and is being tipped to compete for a place in Thomas Frank’s squad next season.

Takai is set to become Tottenham’s second recruit since winning the Europa League, following Mathys Tel’s £30m move from Bayern Munich.

The i Paper spoke to Japanese football expert Dan Orlowitz for the lowdown on one of the country’s brightest young talents.

Japan’s ‘cream of the crop’

Despite his youthfulness, Takai has already played 78 times for Kawasaki Frontale, one of Japan’s most successful clubs.

He established himself as a first-team regular as a teenager, which is relatively uncommon in Japanese football and a testament to his early promise.

“Of all the really good Japanese players you’ve seen in recent years, a lot of them have come through the university system and then gone pro and then moved to Europe. [Brighton’s Kaoru] Mitoma is the big example,” Orlowitz explains.

Takai was named the J League’s Best Young Player in 2024, but has progressed to the major leagues quicker than expected.

“He’s a fantastic player, especially for his age. It’s not often in Japan that you get a player of 19 or 20 who’s that ready,” Orlowitz adds.

“I think Spurs fans should be excited, it’s a great signing. I think that Takai is the cream of the crop as far as domestic players who are ready to go to Europe.”

Quick, aggressive, but still learning

So, what sort of defender are Spurs getting?

“He’s got the speed considering his size and the kind of aggression that you want to see, but don’t necessarily see all the time from Japanese centre-backs,” Orlowitz says.

Takai is an accomplished ball-player, completing 88 per cent of his passes this season, and is quick, both on the ball when driving out from the back and out of possession to cover gaps in the backline.

He held his own against Cristiano Ronaldo and Jhon Duran when Kawasaki beat Al-Nassr 3-2 in the Asian Champions League in April, with neither striker on the scoresheet.

Nevertheless, the jump from the J-League to the Premier League is a big one.

“I think that the raw materials are there,” Orlowitz says.

“Obviously, he is going to have to get used to the physicality and the speed of the Premier League. That’s going to take time.

“He’s not great in the air; he’ll have to work on that. He’s good at duels, good on the ground, but he’s going to have to assert himself and not get pushed around. But the tool set is there.”

Spurs are also extremely well-stocked for centre-backs. Cristian Romero, Van de Ven, Kevin Danso, Ben Davies and Radu Dragusin are all in place, while Luka Vuskovic is finally available two years after joining from Hajduk Split.

The next Bergvall?

The deal for Takai is reflective of Tottenham’s strategy of acquiring top young talent from around the globe.

Of the 17 first-team players that Spurs have signed permanently since the 2023 summer transfer window, only three were aged 24 or over upon joining.

Three of the club’s four recruits last summer were teenagers, including Lucas Bergvall, who won the club’s Player and Young Player of the Season awards after establishing himself as a regular from January onwards.

Bergvall joined Tottenham from Djurgardens in Sweden and, after a tricky start, was able to adapt and flourish despite the significant step up. Spurs will hope Takai can do likewise from a similar starting point.

According to research from Opta Analyst, Japan’s J-League is the 14th strongest domestic league in the world, while Sweden’s Allsvenskan is 19th. The Premier League, meanwhile, tops the charts.

Good deal for all parties

While a £5m fee for a club of Tottenham’s resources is modest, it is a significant one for Kawasaki Frontale and Japanese football generally.

The deal will make Takai Japan’s most expensive footballing export once it has been completed.

“It shows you how undervalued Japanese players have been,” Orlowitz says.

“That’s fantastic business on Kawasaki’s part. Some amazing players have gone over [to Europe] for low transfer fees, and that’s not healthy for the J-League.

“[For Tottenham] it’s a reasonable one on someone who has the potential to be a top talent. I think the worst case is that if it doesn’t work out, they’ll at least be able to make their money back selling him on to someone else.”

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A boost for Tottenham’s Japanese fanbase

Son Heung-min has flown the flag for Asian footballers in the UK during his decade at Spurs, during which time the club’s South Korean following has grown exponentially.

South Korean flags are everywhere during home games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Perhaps surprisingly, given Japan’s emergence as a footballing force this century, Kazuyuki Todai is the only Japanese player to have represented Spurs, playing just four times in 2003.

Nevertheless, Tottenham have a large and loyal fanbase in Japan. Over 54,000 fans watched them beat Vissel Kobe in a pre-season friendly in Tokyo last summer and Takai’s imminent arrival will only help boost the club’s popularity.

“Spurs have one of the biggest Japanese supporter groups among EPL clubs, possibly the biggest,” Orlowitz says.

“Spurs Japan has a really solid following, and so for them to get a Japanese player in the men’s team [Mana Iwabuchi played for the women’s side in 2023] is big.”

Manchester United remain frontrunners to sign Bryan Mbeumo but must significantly increase their offer to convince Brentford to sell.

The i Paper understands that earlier this week United tabled an offer of £45m plus another potential £10m in add-ons, which is well below Brentford’s valuation of the player.

But the transfer looks set to rumble on for some time due to several factors and hurdles to overcome. Here, we take a look at how it could play out.

What’s the hold-up?

Mbeumo, who scored 20 Premier League goals last season, has indicated that his preference is to move to Manchester United to become a prominent part of Ruben Amorim’s club rebuild.

United hoped this would allow them to sign the 25-year-old winger for a lower fee, but Brentford remain in a strong negotiating position and will resist attempts to be lowballed.

There is substantial interest in the Cameroon international, who ticks key boxes with his age profile, skillset and Premier League experience. Not short of options, Brentford will seek to maximise his value.

Why do Manchester United want him?

United manager Amorim is keen to strengthen his attacking options after the club finished 15th in the Premier League, scoring a record low 44 goals, and has been eyeing proven top-flight talent.

Players signed from overseas leagues generally take longer to acclimatise and recruiters at Premier League clubs place a premium on stars who have already shown they can perform in England.

In that vein, United moved swiftly to sign Matheus Cunha from Wolves, triggering the Brazilian’s £62.5m release clause at the start of June. It is a flat fee, without add-ons. Cunha signed a five-year contract.

Cunha is only a few months older than Mbeumo and has produced similar numbers since he moved to Wolves from Atletico Madrid for £44m in 2023.

Cunha scored 17 goals in 36 games last season. The season before he scored 14 in 36 games.

Mbeumo, meanwhile, scored 20 goals in 42 games last season, and nine in 27 Brentford games the year before.

Does Frank’s move to Spurs change anything?

Absolutely. Tottenham Hotspur are believed to have a firm offer on the table and they had hoped Mbeumo’s relationship with Thomas Frank, whom they poached from Brentford last week to replace Ange Postecoglou, could convince the player to choose them ahead of a move to Old Trafford.

Mbeumo worked with Frank, who Spurs paid around £10m in compensation to appoint, for the entirety of his six years at Brentford and formed a strong bond.

Player development is one of Frank’s key strengths and Mbeumo’s progression is a standout example.

As soon as Frank joined Spurs the club made signing Mbeumo a priority.

Mbeumo is not thought to have completely ruled out a reunion with Frank. The i Paper revealed this week that he is tempted by the prospect of staying in London.

Spurs also offer the prospect of playing Champions League football next season, securing qualification after beating United in the Europa League final.

Like United, Tottenham are seeking to reinforce their forward options. They face the prospect of losing Son Heung-min, who only has 12 months left on his contract, this summer.

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It emerged this week the club are open to selling the winger at the right price, but only after the club’s pre-season tour of Asia. They have friendlies in Hong Kong and Seoul at the end of July and start of August.

There is strong interest from the Middle East to sign Son.

They have already made the loan signing of forward Mathys Tel permanent, agreeing a fee of around £30m with Bayern Munich for the 20-year-old.

Why are Brentford relaxed about the situation?

Mbeumo’s contract runs until 2026, but Brentford have the option to extend it for another year, putting them in a strong negotiating position.

The fact there is significant interest in him also allows them to hold out for a higher fee.

Transfer fees in any given window are often based on the first move of a similar player, and Cunha’s price tag presented a baseline to work from.

Brentford sources have told The i Paper they do not feel pressured to make a deal with United.

The club’s experience with Ivan Toney – resisting offers and keeping the player for an extra year – taught them that it was worth waiting, despite the decline in value.

Marco Silva has been sounded out about the Tottenham job on more than one occasion, with some insiders believing it could be down to a fight between him and frontrunner Thomas Frank to succeed Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou was dismissed on Friday despite leading Spurs to a Europa League triumph in May, paying the price for the club’s dreadful Premier League campaign which saw them finish 17th and suffer 22 league defeats.

Fulham are yet to receive a formal approach but Silva has long-term admirers at Spurs and was a candidate to succeed Antonio Conte in 2023.

The i Paper understands that Silva’s representatives have been contacted about the vacancy, with the 47-year-old emerging as an alternative after impressing on a small budget at Fulham.

Sacking Postecoglou was a ruthless decision from Daniel Levy but the signs were ominous. The i Paper reported on Monday that contact had been made with representatives of Brentford boss Frank, who appears to be the firm favourite for the role.

All the indications are that Tottenham are looking to make a rapid appointment and Brentford are braced for an approach.

The i Paper understands that the west London club expect some contact from Spurs but, as of late on Friday night, there has been no communication whatsoever on Frank.

Although the timing of Postecoglou’s sacking raised eyebrows, a little over two weeks after the Europa League final, insiders say Spurs were conscious they needed clarity so they can begin planning for the transfer window and give potential targets a clear answer as to who they would be playing for.

There has been a major overhaul of the board in recent weeks, with Levy’s key ally Donna-Maria Cullen leaving and chief football executive Scott Munn also on his way out. Munn was closely linked to the Postecoglou project, arriving in 2023.

It is a measure of how well-run Brentford are that any approach for Frank would demand significant compensation. He signed a long-term contract in late 2022 that included a buyout clause of around £10m – although Tottenham may try and negotiate on that figure.

Sources suggested to The i Paper on Friday that it was no “done deal” that Frank would leave Brentford, where he benefits from working in an exceptional structure, for Tottenham.

Last summer there had been intimations that he believed he had taken the Bees as far as he could but the understanding is still that he would only leave for the right opportunity.

One Premier League executive at a rival club suggested Frank – as one of the “smartest coaches” in the division – should think long and hard about leaving Brentford for a job which a much shorter shelf life than the seven years he has been at the Gtech Community Stadium.

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Silva has been at Craven Cottage since 2021. They finished 11th in the Premier League last season but a clear playing identity emerged and smart recruitment has helped establish them in the division.

Whether Fulham, who repelled mega money offers for Silva from Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal two years ago, would rebuff Tottenham’s interest is unclear.

He has a year left on a contract signed in 2023 and it previously emerged that there was a £6m release clause for any rival clubs interested in trying to lure him away. The i Paper understands Fulham have been in informal, ongoing discussions with him over an extension but no agreement has been reached yet.

Spurs are in a healthy position when it comes to finding the money for any compensation package, though they have already had to fork out £4m to pay off Postecoglou.

A third possibility – Andoni Iraola – appears more distant. While Iraola has also attracted interest from Spain in recent months, Bournemouth believe he plans to stay with them after encouraging end-of-season meetings and there has been talk of a new contract to reward Iraola for his work last season taking the Cherries to the brink of European qualification.

Whoever arrives risks walking into an unhappy dressing room, with a number of players understood to be “shell-shocked” by Postecoglou’s departure.

Tottenham Hotspur have sacked Ange Postecoglou just two weeks after winning the Europa League and made Brentford’s Thomas Frank the main target for their new manager.

Postecoglou ended Spurs’ 17-year wait for silverware but did so during a torrid Premier League campaign where they finished 17th.

“Whilst winning the Europa League this season ranks as one of the club’s greatest moments, we cannot base our decision on emotions aligned to this triumph,” the club said.

“It is crucial that we are able to compete on multiple fronts and believe a change of approach will give us the strongest chance for the coming season and beyond.

“This has been one of the toughest decisions we have had to make and is not a decision that we have taken lightly, nor one we have rushed to conclude. We have made what we believe is the right decision to give us the best chance of success going forward, not the easy decision.

“We have a talented, young squad and Ange has given us a great platform to build upon. We should like to express our gratitude to him. We wish him well for the future – he will always be welcome back at our home.”

While aware of interest in their manager, it is understood Brentford have not yet had any formal contact from Spurs over Frank and the club are relaxed about the situation.

Were that to change, the club would leave it to the Dane to make a decision on his future – provided Spurs were able to agree a deal over compensation.

But one Premier League executive contacted by The i Paper counselled it would not be a done deal.

“Thomas is one of the smartest coaches out there and he’s working for one of the best run clubs in the club,” they said.

“I’m sure he’d want to know what Tottenham had planned before he made that kind of call.”

Meanwhile, The i Paper understands that Bournemouth are confident that Andoni Iraola will rebuff any approach from Tottenham, having held detailed talks with the club hierarchy on plans for the summer.

There have also been tentative discussions on a new contract as Iraola prepares to commit for another season at least.

Postecoglou declared himself a “serial winner” after the Europa League final win over Manchester United, but appeared to question chairman Daniel Levy’s own managerial selection process when adding: “Even Daniel said, ‘we went after winners, it didn’t work and now we’ve got Ange.’ But mate, I’m a winner.”

Now Levy has given the Australian the boot, the Europa League and a season in the Champions League were a parting gift but ultimately not enough to keep the 59-year-old in a job.

Spurs’ 22 league defeats was the most by a club in a 38-game Premier League season without getting relegated, and the joint-most in the club’s history, matching a tally from 1934-35.

Sacked Postecoglou: ‘We’ve laid the foundations’

In his own statement, Postecoglou said his overwhelming emotion was one of “pride”, calling the Europa League triumph “the culmination of two years of hard work, dedication and unwavering belief in a dream”.

He added: “There were many challenges to overcome and plenty of noise that comes with trying to accomplish what many said was not possible.

“We have also laid foundations that mean this club should not have to wait 17 more years for their next success.

“I sincerely want to thank those who are the lifeblood of the club, the supporters. I know there were some difficult times but I always felt that they wanted me to succeed and that gave me all the motivation I needed to push on.”

Thomas Frank incoming?

Spurs are believed to have made contact with the representatives of Thomas Frank, the current Brentford manager.

Frank took charge of Brentford in 2018 when the west London club were in the Championship, and since promotion in 2021 he has guided the Cherries to two top-10 finishes.

The Dane’s admirers have therefore grown in numbers, with Brentford largely punching above their weight given the financial resources of those below them.

Brentford finished 10th last season, 18 points clear of Tottenham, with Bryan Mbeumo scoring 20 league goals and Yoana Wissa 19.

Frank was therefore credited for softening the blow of losing striker Ivan Toney to Saudi Arabia, drawing praise for his pragmatic style and ability to foster a cohesive squad.

He signed a contract extension back in 2022, running until 2027, meaning Spurs may have to pay sizeable compensation to prise the 51-year-old away.

A sixth manager in six years

The next manager of Tottenham will become the fifth permanent appointment since Mauricio Pochettino was sacked in 2019.

Jose Mourinho lasted 86 games, Nuno Espirito Santo just 17, while Antonio Conte oversaw 76.

Postecoglou therefore became the first Spurs boss post-Pochettino to surpass the 100-game mark, totalling 101 during his two years in charge.

The Europa League final happened to be No 100, when Postecoglou’s side rallied and defied their league form to beat Manchester United 1-0 in a forgettable affair.

Postecoglou had insisted the Europa League was the priority from January, and during the trophy parade that followed, he told the gathering supporters: “All the best TV series, season three is better than season two.”

The Postecoglou show has since been cancelled, and despite delivering Spurs their first trophy since they won the 2008 League Cup under Juande Ramos, the cycle starts again.

Arsenal had reached the nadir when Vinai Venkatesham decided it was worth addressing all the club’s staff to explain why things were not quite so bleak as they appeared in the league table and in posts shared by fans on social media.

They had lost the first three league games of the 2021-22 season, scored none, conceded nine goals, including five in a demoralising defeat to Manchester City in their most recent game. In Arsenal’s worst start to a season in 67 years, they were bottom of the table.

Venkatesham had been at Arsenal for eight years but had only been chief executive for the last 12 months. He had been promoted, at the relatively young age of 39, in troubling times, the club ending the previous season eighth with an FA Cup trophy papering over deep cracks.

“While we would love to jump from where we are to where we want to be in an instant, we need to be realistic that the gap is too large to do that,” Venkatesham wrote to Arsenal’s 500-plus staff.

“As such, our activity this window has been focused on youth.”

He listed the players they had signed, noting their ages: Nuno Tavares (21), Ben White (23), Albert Sambi Lokonga (21), Martin Odegaard (22), Aaron Ramsdale (23) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (22).

Mikel Arteta was under enormous pressure – it was the closest he has come to being sacked. But over the next three years, Arsenal became title challengers for the first time in decades and the club’s revenues almost doubled from £340m to £615m, transforming Venkatesham’s standing in football.

From oil trader to Deloitte strategy consultant, to London 2012 Olympic Games commercial manager, to various roles at Arsenal in the charity, marketing and commercial departments, to one of the most sought-after executives in the game.

Since he stepped down in July 2024, Newcastle United are believed to have tried to tempt him to oversee Saudi Arabia’s ambitious project, but Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy, who he has known for several years, convinced him to bring his considerable expertise to the bitterest rivals of his former club.

Why did clubs want him so badly? How does he operate? What can his past at Arsenal tell us about Tottenham’s future?

Vision for the academy

As Arsenal’s managing director for two years, between 2018 and 2020, Venkatesham had observed the work of Raul Sanllehi, the head of football, in establishing a new club model more fitting for the modern game.

Arsenal’s most recent success had come in the all-powerful, all-seeing manager era, when Arsene Wenger had been in charge. But football was changing.

The manager became “head coach” – focused solely on the players and preparing them for matches. In the new structure, which they drew in a diagram full of boxes and flow arrows, the first team sat at the top, the academy the bottom – two crucial departments forming the top and bottom vertebrae in the club’s spine.

In a world of increasing spending, Sanllehi had analysed successful clubs of any given period, and found academy players at their heart.

It is a philosophy Venkatesham has carried into his work, academy teams playing the same style of football as the first team to ready them for the leap.

Between the two main departments sat all the high performance, data, analytics and medical staff, underpinned by a football operations lead – controlling the budget, the logistics, player contracts – and the technical director, the conduit between the academy and first team, who deals with transfers.

A data and AI specialist

One source, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said that Venkatesham had little dealings with agents while at Arsenal, preferring to delegate responsibilities to experts in respective fields.

Venkatesham sees the people around him as crucial to his work and the success of the club. He believes great hires make great clubs, and would rather take longer getting it right, than employ someone quickly to fill a hole.

Starting work at Spurs this summer, it will be an uncertain time for existing staff at the club, particularly chief football officer Scott Munn – who has been widely tipped to leave – and technical director Johan Lange.

Arsenal were one of the bigger clubs to bet early on data. Now Venkatesham considers artificial intelligence the game’s next powerful edge finder.

He places data at the heart of everything, from training sessions, to games, to medicine, to scouring the transfer market for value and comparing fees. But the sheer volume of data poses new problems that AI can solve.

“It can help you get through data quickly and find conclusions you might not otherwise find,” Venkatesham said at the recent Financial Times Business of Football Summit during a discussion about transfers.

This is one area in which he excels.

How he thinks about transfers

His ethos is to be as well prepared for the transfer window as possible, but ready for the inevitable unpredictability that will ensue. Planning for a summer window begins in October time – around eight months in advance.

He considers transfers a sort of inexact science, breaking them down into “macro” and “micro” factors. Macros such as the profile of the player, how many are available that fit it, how many clubs are also in the market for one.

Then micro factors that include age, nationality, if they have Premier League experience. He seems to enjoy the fun and games and brinkmanship of negotiation.

The biggest challenge any club faces, he believes, is balancing the short-term and the long-term. And everyone has to weigh this in their thinking.

A source who has been in the room with Sanllehi says that he is calm, measured, sharp, brilliantly intelligent. Softly spoken and an excellent communicator.

Easing tensions with the board

Venkatesham is credited by many of the people The i Paper spoke to with reconnecting Arsenal’s fans with the club when he became chief executive. Another skillset that will come in handy at Tottenham, where fans have staged protests about ticket prices, called on Levy to resign, expressed anger with the ownership.

A disconnect had opened at Arsenal towards the end of the Wenger years. Tensions simmered in the stadium. Swathes of empty seats could be found where season-ticket holders had not turned up, and, so apathetic, had not even bothered to pass on their ticket.

Working with Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST), they introduced the “use it or lose it” policy, meaning season-ticket holders had to attend a certain number of games, give unused tickets to friends or sell them on the ticket exchange – Venkatesham agreeing to remove the fee – or risk losing them.

Tim Payton, AST spokesperson and long-standing board member, describes it elegantly as “rebuilding the atmosphere at the Emirates”. It got bums on seats.

“Suddenly the ground was fuller again with a much better atmosphere,” Payton adds.

“You’re running hand-in-hand with a more successful team fans want to watch, but there was a lot of improvement on ticketing.

“He listened to us and reversed the decision to remove the senior citizen discount. He greatly expanded the concessions for young adults and juniors.”

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Venkatesham oversaw a mammoth consultation process, with fan groups, forums, ex-players, players’ parents, about new artwork for the stadium. Fans felt like they belonged to their club again.

“He’s got a feel of the fans’ role in the game,” Payton says. “He was willing to engage, he was straight with supporters. He listened to us. You could trust what he said. It was a loss for Arsenal.”

Cool in a crisis

Venkatesham championed the women’s team, pushed for them to be an integral part of the club, and had the vision that they would play home games at the Emirates.

He weathered unpredictable storms and navigated crises. The game stopped by the pandemic, forcing a raft of redundancies to cut costs and squeeze funds for the first team, which included making mascot Gunnersaurus redundant – a decision that caused an inevitable backlash.

He saw captains go on strike, key players attacked with a knife, Granit Xhaka swearing at his own fans.

He was chief executive when Arsenal agreed with their Big Six counterparts to join the breakaway European Super League.

Even then, as fans protested in their thousands, “he was the only chief executive of the Big Six in that remarkable 72 hours who made himself available,” Payton recalls. “He had a call with me in the middle of all that. Afterwards he was very straight that it had been a major error.”

And during all this Arsenal got better. Turning an eighth-place side into one finishing in successive seconds and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in 14 years before he stepped down.

Are Arsenal fans worried what he might achieve at Spurs?

“Well, he’s not a miracle worker, is he?” Payton says, laughing. With possibly the faintest hint of nerves.

When Thomas Tuchel and his staff first assessed Eberechi Eze and his potential for the squad they are building capable of winning the 2026 World Cup, they conceded he didn’t have the numbers to compete with the extraordinary range of available options. But they felt he warranted a closer look.

Tuchel took a trip to Selhurst Park in one of his last games before naming his first squad back in March, texting Eze and the growing England cohort in the Crystal Palace squad before the match against Ipswich, letting them know he’d be there.

Eze didn’t have the best of games, especially by recent standards. He was one of the weaker players in the narrow win. And yet there were a few things that stuck out for Tuchel.

He liked the way Eze spoke to other players, encouraged them, his unassuming manner, his focus in the warm-up, his response to mistakes. Eze’s demeanour was exactly what Tuchel is looking for in his World Cup winning building blocks.

Tuchel saw enough to call him up. The transformation since has been remarkable.

Eze came off the bench to score against Latvia, his first goal in almost three months, which became a first of 10 in 14 games, including a winner in the FA Cup final as Tuchel sat in the Wembley stands.

Before England’s last camp, Eze had scored only two goals from 83 shots in the league this season, a conversion rate of 2.4 per cent – the second worst in the league. Since the March camp, he’s scored 31.6 percent of his shots, a rate bettered only by one other player.

Meanwhile, Tuchel and Eze have spoken several times.

“He’s flying,” was the way the England manager described Eze shortly after naming him in his latest squad.

“I feel more hunger, more determination to score, to be decisive. He did fantastic. The quality he showed in training was outstanding and I’m happy that he could prove it after camp, and even step up his level.”

It’s precisely the response Tuchel wanted: a player loving camp, thriving in the environment, improving rather than shrinking under the increased pressure and intensity.

From his first day in charge, Tuchel has given the sense his World Cup squad will not necessarily be a starting XI and fringe group with the biggest stars all crammed in, however they fit.

Tuchel wants the right shape and feel and balance. He is still enjoying the luxury of taking a bigger picture perspective, giving some outsiders a chance, getting to know them, leaving out more established stars who could return if others don’t impress.

But the England manager expects by the autumn camps, when they come thick and fast from September through to November, he will narrow focus. A sculptor who has spent months working out the vague size of his statue finally chipping away to reveal the finer details.

It was striking that when Tuchel was discussing his forward options, the profile of his strikers, where goals might come from, the attacking midfielders with striker instincts, entirely unprompted he name-checked Eze in the same breath as Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden.

“We have offensive midfielders who almost play as strikers,” Tuchel said. “If I see Jude moving into the box, the hunger that he has to score. He almost behaves as a striker. Phil is normally for me a half nine, half ten-ish player. Ebbs scores a lot lately.”

It is – perhaps – a faint hint at how he has started to see the Palace player. who offers something a little different, a quality hard to put your finger on.

There are shades of unpredictability, chaos and randomness to how Eze plays. Qualities that can be hard to quantify on spreadsheets and data charts. It’s possibly – alongside side his comparatively small size – why so many clubs turned him away as a teenager before he was given a lifeline at Queens Park Rangers.

A few years ago, The i Paper spoke to one of the QPR coaches who oversaw his Eze’s trial and why they gave him a chance. Paul Hall recalled the way Eze “can turn a dour moment into a magical moment with one movement of his body”, how they nicknamed him “Drunken Master” for the way he shimmied and swayed so deceptively on the pitch.

Their keen eyes turned into a £19.5m profit when Eze signed for Palace in 2020. His value has trebled – and then some – since. And ahead lies a pivotal summer, when a release clause of £60m, including another £8m in add-ons, will be active once more.

But one that should be handled delicately.

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Last summer, Palace knew Michael Olise was leaving for Bayern Munich and feared Eze’s release clause would be triggered. Instead, executives were shocked not to receive any bids. Especially as Manchester City had scouted the player so extensively.

Palace now would like Eze to sign a fresh contract but are braced for interest. Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and City are expected to keep an eye on developments. Bayern Munich have also been scouting him, although sources indicate they are not expected to bid this summer.

Already Tuchel has made clear that playing for Champions League clubs isn’t a necessity. Equally, it can’t hurt. But then first seasons at new clubs are notoriously hard for players.

Eze has the numbers now. What he does with them will be fascinating to watch.

A host of top Premier League clubs could miss out on one of their top transfer targets this summer, with Napoli and Juventus set to battle it out for in-demand Jonathan David’s signature.

The i Paper understands Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham, Newcastle, Liverpool and West Ham have all enquired about securing the Canadian striker’s capture on a free transfer.

David will leave Lille when his contract runs out this summer.

All six remain keen, but Serie A champions Napoli have moved to the front of the queue having made David’s representatives a concrete offer. Juventus entered the race late to start what one source said would be a “bidding war” between the two Italian giants to sign the 25-year-old’.

It is not too late for a Premier League club to make a late move, but the player is not necessarily solely focused on sealing a move to England this stage of his career, having previously expressed a desire to play elsewhere in Europe. Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan have also previously declared an interest.

David has spent five prolific years in France with Lille, where he has continually plundered goals in Ligue 1 season after season. This term, David finished fourth in the French top-flight goalscoring charts.

The Canada international announced his decision to leave before the club’s final match of the season, with sources claiming David believes he has gone far enough in France and is ready for a move to another top European league.

Tottenham did try to sign David in January, but he elected to see out his contract with Lille and then assess the options available to him in the summer.

Newcastle are similarly keen to bring David in to provide cover for Alexander Isak. Callum Wilson is set to leave, with David’s versatility especially appealing to a side short of options across the entire frontline.

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The player’s camp are understood to have been impressed by what Graham Potter is planning for West Ham, but London rivals Chelsea are less appealing, given the number of forwards already on the books.

Liverpool have since moved their focus onto other strike targets, with Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike their current top pick in the central striker role.

United’s interest was more tentative, with David not the profile of striker Ruben Amorim is looking for as he attempts to transform the club’s fortunes. A late change of heart cannot be ruled out, however, after Ipswich’s Liam Delap snubbed Ineos’ project in favour of a move to Chelsea, while Alejandro Garnacho nears an Old Trafford exit.

Should Napoli get that deal over the line, they could be in for an impressive start to the summer transfer window, with Garnacho their other top target they are looking to capture quickly.

Shakhtar Donetsk’s Georgiy Sudakov, another linked with several Premier League clubs including Manchester City, Spurs and Bournemouth, could also make the move to Naples in the coming months.

Tottenham 1-4 Brighton (Solanke pen ’17 | Hinshelwood 51’, 64’, O’Riley pen 33’, Gomez 90+3)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM – Someone at Berocca ought to be getting a pay rise. It has been a season of football miracles but the fact these Tottenham players managed 90 minutes after partying like it was 1984 has to be right up there.

Goals are supposed to be the only statistic that matters but there was much number-crunching to take in during the final day thrashing by Brighton. Goals conceded: Four. League defeats: 22. Position: 17th. Forty points? No. Brighton attempts: 23. And fans inside the stadium who cared about any of the above? Absolutely zero.

It couldn’t have really been any other way. How do you make sense of a season in which Spurs recorded their lowest finish since 1977 and still provided their supporters with the best night of many of their lives in Bilbao?

The one man who has to weigh up that peculiar paradox is Daniel Levy, a chairman who does not usually illicit much sympathy. Yet not many would want to be in his shoes as he ponders Ange Postecoglou’s future.

It was just three minutes into the game that the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium began singing the Australian’s name. “Ange In” read the banner.

Throughout the match, there was an outpouring of love for him and once the lap of honour was done, his was the final chant echoing around the ground. They bellowed it in defiance at jibes from the Brighton end that he was getting “sacked in the morning”.

On Friday, 220,000 people had lined the streets of north London to serenade Postecoglou, who delighted them with another prophecy.

In September, he promised that he “always wins things in his second season”. Now he declared that “in all the best television series, season three is better than season two”, though he later joked he should have given that analogy more thought. “Sometimes they kill off the main character.”

That was not his only brilliant one-liner. “Dickens said it the best,” he told the club’s in-house TV. “It’s been the best of times and the worst of times.”

Despite everything, Spurs are only three or four signings away from building on their Europa League triumph and Champions League qualification has added at least £100m to their transfer kitty.

A central midfielder, a winger, another centre-back and left-back will be the priorities this summer, along with keeping their existing stars – particularly Cristian Romero, who is attracting interest from La Liga.

Levy has to decide whether Postecoglou, having guided Spurs to their first silverware in 17 years, has earned the right to oversee that rebuild. Whatever call the chairman makes is likely to be divisive and emotion cannot be a factor in his decision.

The only real downer on Spurs’ end-of-season party was when Levy briefly appeared on the big screens – he was met with jeers, that were fortunately drowned out by the rendition of Glory, Glory Tottenham Hotspur blaring from the PA system.

Will the Europa League likewise drown out memories of everything else that has happened over the past 10 months? In terms of Postecoglou’s legacy, whether he stays or goes his status as a legend is cemented. In his own words, “we’ve given them a night and a couple of subsequent days that will live with them forever.”

“I’m so confident about what we can build at this football club,” he said afterwards. “And I want to push on and take it to the next level and we’ll see whether that happens or not.

“My gut feeling is I feel right now that I’ve done something that no one believed I could. And I shouldn’t be sitting here talking about it [my future].”

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There is often a contrast between matchgoing fans and those on social media but it was clear those present on the day felt indebted to him. Whatever is said online, before the final in Bilbao Postecoglou also noted how “kind” the supporters he met had been to him. For some, they will still want change but would be happy to see him go out on a high. There will be plenty of others who have no more appetite for another change of manager.

When a group of club legends gave the squad a guard of honour and Son Heung-min brought out the trophy, there was a particularly distinguished guest at the end of the line. Keith Burkinshaw is a month shy of his 90th birthday but the last Spurs boss to win a European trophy before Postecoglou was there on the pitch – curiously, that 1984 Uefa Cup was his parting gift as he had already resigned due to differences with the board.

This time around it is ultimately a question of whether Levy believes the prognosis that injuries derailed this season and that the league was sacrificed in pursuit of a trophy. There will also be pressure to invest heavily to prevent another such injury crisis, particularly with Champions League football ahead.

Levy deserves credit for persevering with the Postecoglou project even if there were plenty of moments when they might have parted ways.

The atmosphere against Brighton may well have backed him into a corner, however, and dispensing with such a popular head coach would be controversial. This is a football club that for the last few days has felt high on life – and any chairman would be reluctant to disrupt that.