Despite showing sporadic glimpse of brightness at Bayern Munich ever since making his move from Stade Rennes in France, it just never fully clicked for Mathys Tel with the German Rekordmeister. After it became clear midway through this season that the French youngster’s minutes would remain to be few and far between under Vincent Kompany, it was decided that a loan spell to Tottenham in the Premier League would be the best option for his continued development. For Spurs, there is an option to buy Tel at the end of the loan, but his loan spell has not exactly gotten off to a flying start.
Ever since moving on loan to North London at the end of the winter transfer window, Tel has made a total of five appearances across all competitions, four of which were starts largely due to the massive number of injuries to Tottenham’s attack and midfield. He scored in the 2-1 FA Cup loss to Aston Villa at the beginning of the month and that remains to be his only goal contribution to date for the struggling Spurs side.
Manager Ange Postecoglou recently offered his thoughts on Tel, fully recognizing that there was no expectation for the 19-year old to hit the ground running in England and light the world on fire. “With Mathys, he hadn’t played a lot, we’ve thrown him in and kept him in there because I want to build up his fitness. But if anyone is expecting him to come in as a 19-year-old and take the Premier League by storm by scoring multiple goals, it’s not realistic. It just can’t happen,” the Australian manager explained (via @iMiaSanMia).
Before Tel made his loan move to North London, he had made a total of 14 appearances for Bayern under Kompany, the majority of which were appearances coming off of the bench. Knowing that, one of the first goals for Postecoglou was to get Tel’s fitness levels up and then maintain them for the remainder of the season. “What we’re trying to do is work with him. He needs to get his physical fitness up because he hasn’t played a lot of football. At 19, I see really outstanding attributes in him that I think he could be a really good No. 9 and he can play wide as well. He’s not going to be a Dom [Solanke] or [Liam] Delap, he’s a different type. But looking at him in training, his movements are becoming a bit more fluent, he’s getting used to the way we play,” the manager explained.
For what it’s worth, there are also things that Postecoglou has seen from Tel already that he really likes. With the work he’s putting in and the way he’s been performing, Postecoglou feels that goals and assists will naturally start to come, which Tottenham desperately need at the moment. “He’s doing the things we need him to do at the moment to help us. He may not be getting the goals and the accolades but he’s certainly contributing to the way we want to play. That’s the most important thing. He’s got so much growth in him and I’m sure we’ll see that,” Postecoglou stressed.