Just a few short days after completing his loan move to Tottenham Hotspur from Bayern Munich, Mathys Tel was thrust into the action for his new club, making a second half appearance in Spurs’ 4-0 Carabao Cup semifinal loss to Liverpool at Anfield. He was far from the problem in what was a poor collective outing from a struggling Tottenham side that had gone into that tie 1-0 up on aggregate, but he did look energetic and hungry to make an impact.
At Bayern, Tel was simply not getting enough playing time for his liking under Vincent Kompany and it had gotten to a point where he voiced his concern with his lack of minutes, opening the door for a loan move away from Munich. While Tel had a preference to join either Arsenal FC or Manchester United, neither of those two clubs wanted him as much as he thought the might’ve and he wound up at Tottenham, a club he was able to hear quite a bit about from Harry Kane.
The England skipper recently explained that he and Tel had talked about Tottenham before Tel’s loan deal was made official, adding that the young French talent has already expressed how much he was impressed by Tottenham’s training grounds and facilities.
“He asked me [about Tottenham]. When the deal was done, he texted me and told me how great the training ground was. He was very excited. I wish Mathys all the best. Hopefully he gets a lot of playing time. That’s what he needs. He needs to develop and experience the highs and lows on the pitch. I know Tottenham well, they will look after him well. Hopefully he does well there. He should show what he can do at the highest level,” Kane told Sport1 (via @iMiaSanMia).
Of course, Kane’s presence in the Bayern squad is one of the big reasons why Tel missed out on minutes there, but he can play as a winger as well. At Tottenham, he likely won’t supplant Son Heung-Min or Dejan Kulusevski, but there is a window of opportunity for minutes with injuries to the likes of James Maddison, Brennan Johnson, and Dominic Solanke. Richarlison also sustained an injury in the losing effort against Liverpool, which Postecoglou said did not “look good.”
Looking for more thoughts and analysis from Bayern Munich’s 3-0 victory over Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga? Awesome, then check out our Bavarian Podcast Works — Postgame Show for a review of the starting XI, a rundown of the scoring and substitutions, and some final takeaways. You can get the show on Patreon, Spotify, or below: