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This past summer transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur tried to sell off Yves Bissouma but were unsuccessful. He suffered a rough knee injury in August and was then stretchered off in October in international duty with another serious appearing knee injury, too.

But even before the injuries precluded a transfer, Spurs struggled to sell Bissouma because he was so underwhelming last season that no clubs were falling over themselves to take him on - and take on his wages. Aside from some lukewarm interest from clubs in the Turkish Super Lig, Bissouma had no real suitors.

That's an important thing to keep in mind. Bissouma is bured on the Tottenham roster, even when healthy, for good reason. He isn't good enough, and even the club have acknowledged that Bissouma is the kind of player Spurs are better off without.

Tottenham are not better off without Yves Bissouma

But here's the thing, and this is where Tottenham have to be brutally honest with themselves. If last season's version of Bissouma, which played a key role in them winning the Europa League, were to start next weekend in the place of Rodrigo Bentancur or Joao Palhinha, would Spurs be worse off? Would Spurs have a worse record now if Bissouma were starting every week in midfield in the place of literally any other midfielder in the squad?

The answer is no. And it's not no because Bissouma is better than any of the midfielders Spurs currently have, though you could argue that Rodrigo Bentancur, who earned an extension whereas Bissouma is getting the boot, is just as bad.

But even though Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Joao Palhinha, and Pape Matar Sarr are all better football players than Yves Bissouma in the year 2025, Tottenham would not be a worse team functionally or in the table with Bissouma in the starting lineup.

That right there should be taken as an indictment of how poorly Thomas Frank has done as a manager. He has a midfield filled with young talent that he either does not use at all or uses improperly. Or in the case of Xavi Simons, he vacillates between both options.

Bissouma is a baseline replacement level Premier League midfielder. Tottenham has turned some of the league's best players into replacement level producing players over the past couple of months. That there has been no upgrade from the caliber of player of a Bissouma on the pitch even though the actual players themselves are better is further evidence that Frank is not nearly doing well enough for Spurs.

Tottenham Hotspur’s triumph in the Europa League last season made them one of the least impressive Champions League teams in recent memory. However, qualifying for Europe’s Big Dance allowed them to retool (or heck, buy out a whole section of their local hardware store) in the summer transfer market.

The transition has not been the smoothest. New coach Thomas Frank has occasionally looked overmatched, and Spurs are currently sitting 10th in the Premier League table after picking up a solitary point in their last four matches.

On the other hand, 10th looks pretty good to their supporters after their 17th-place finish last season, and they are performing respectably in the Champions League. That 4-0 destruction of Copenhagen, even after Brennan Johnson’s red card, is the sort of result that a contending English team should expect.

Daniel Levy looks like a genius for leaving Tottenham with this parting gift

A major reason for that was a blatantly obvious move in the transfer market, orchestrated by the man who left Tottenham, Daniel Levy.

Randal Kolo Muani suffered through a disappointing first season with Paris St.-Germain in 2023-24, and the French giants eagerly loaned him out to Juventus last season, where the Frenchman scored eight goals in 16 Serie A matches. That decent haul was still not enough to crack PSG’s loaded starting lineup, and so the Champions League holders made him available for loan again this season.

Spurs snapped up a player whose flashy talent couldn’t drum up much demand, and now he has transformed the look of their offense. While Kolo Muani is big and strong enough to score with his head on crosses, his main value is as a speed threat up front to complement the physical play of Richarlison.

This allows Tottenham to start matches with two strikers, which gives opposing defenses a look that they haven’t seen since the partnership of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. The combination of power and speed that Kolo Muani and his Brazilian teammate offer is a time-tested way to give all manner of defenses trouble. The fact that he’s playing with a broken jaw should also answer any questions about his toughness.

Of course, this combination isn’t foolproof, as witnessed by Spurs’ ineffectual 2-1 home defeat to Fulham over the weekend. However, Kolo Muani registered an assist in the win over Copenhagen, and the two goals he scored against his parent club in a 5-3 defeat in Paris had to feel good. If Kolo Muani can continue to improve his chemistry with his fellow Spurs attackers and not lose his eye for goal, it will portend better days for the Tottenham faithful as this season moves on.

Thomas Frank's utilisation of Xavi Simons has come under scrutiny, with the Dane fatefully opting to start Spurs' most creative available player on the bench against Fulham.

Xavi has endured a slow start to life in north London, with the Dutchman failing to notch a single Premier League goal contribution after he teed up Pape Matar Sarr on his debut against West Ham United.

His best performance arrived in the emphatic Champions League win over Copenhagen, and Frank gave Xavi the chance to build on that showing against Manchester United a few days later.

Since the November international break, though, the former RB Leipzig star has been reduced to cameo roles off the bench. Frank's plans for the North London Derby and daunting trip to Paris Saint-Germain were predicated on principles that rendered the crafty playmaker surplus to requirements.

However, the vast majority expected Xavi to come back into the XI for Fulham's visit on Saturday night. Instead, Frank opted for a similar approach from their midweek defeat in Paris, which provided positives, no doubt, but the Dane's team selection once again came back to bite him, and former Tottenham defender Michael Dawson has called the manager out.

Michael Dawson believes Thomas Frank is mishandling Xavi Simons

We're only a few months into his Tottenham career, and perhaps we shouldn't expect Xavi to be purring right away. Frank has discussed the player's need to adapt and adjust to a different environment, and his recent selection calls suggest he's trying to put Xavi out of the limelight.

I can somewhat understand his exclusions for the Arsenal and PSG games, but his omission at the weekend was just flat out silly. Once again, Spurs were found wanting on home soil. Frank's cross-heavy approach simply didn't come off, and we were subject to another wretched watching experience.

He hasn't hit the ground running, but there have been glimpses from Xavi that suggest he could really help out a side so devoid of invention and craft, despite the manager's primitive approach that is failing to maximise his skillset.

While Frank has spoken almost exclusively positively about Xavi's development since joining the club, he currently isn't giving the 23-year-old much of a chance to find his flow. And Dawson pointed that out after his 31-minute cameo.

“For a player to get confidence and belief, you have to play consistently," Daws said.

Frank seemed to have worked it out, starting Xavi in five of the six games before the November break, and we saw genuine improvement from the Dutchman in the Copenhagen win. It seemed like he may have been hitting his stride despite the tactical issues around him, and he scored for the Netherlands against Lithuania, too.

He must've returned to N17 in high spirits, confident that he'd make the difference in two significant upcoming games, but Frank instead picked supposed duel-winners and midfield engines in favour of guile and craft.

The Dane's working with a talent so bright he could emerge as his jewel in the crown, but too much tinkering has prevented Xavi from developing a groove, and Spurs are suffering as a result.

Pedro Porro took to social media to explain his shenanigans after a horrific home defeat to Fulham on Saturday night.

Regarded as a must-win for Thomas Frank after back-to-back defeats, Spurs laughably found themselves 2-0 down inside a few minutes and were unable to mount a comeback despite Mohammed Kudus' strike at the start of the second-half.

Once again, Frank's side struggled to inspire a home faithful that's becoming increasingly restless, with extortionate ticket prices only exacerbating their exasperation at the current ongoings in north London.

For the most part, the Lilywhites have been a torrid watch this season, and strong concerns remain over the scalability of Frank's ideas, having worked wonders at Brentford. Spurs, right now, are a stodgy, cross-heavy mess bereft of the defensive security Frank believed he was installing.

Key to the manager's approach is right-back Pedro Porro, one of few standout technicians at Frank's disposal. However, Porro has been out of sorts in recent weeks, especially in possession. His delivery from the right has been erratic at best, and his antics were the main talking point from a tense post-match atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Relationship between Spurs players and fans is at its lowest

Porro initially stormed past Frank after the final whistle blew, but returned to the field to seemingly have a go at teammate Lucas Bergvall, who was in the centre circle applauding those that remained in the ground.

The reason for Porro's outburst wasn't initially clear, but he provided an explantion on Instagram the morning after: "Football is emotions," his story caption started, "In Football, as in life, there can always be mistakes, what in will not tolerate is hearing the disrespect from the fan to my teammates, hence my frustration at the end of the game.

"And we will get up we remind you 6 months ago, everything was so bad, and in the end is not how it begins but how it ends. To the true Spurs fan, I love you."

Aristotle-like.

Anyway, I'd love to know who this singular fan is. There's only one of us?

Porro was clearly peeved by the dissent shown by the crowd towards Saturday's performance, but he perhaps took most offence to the boos that Guglielmo Vicario was subject to immediately after his woeful mistake that allowed Fulham to take a 2-0 lead. Thomas Frank chimed in, too, perhaps unwisely in the current climate, but he had to back his goalkeeper.

I've never been one for booing. I don't see what good it does, but supporters are paying a lot to endure a product that's currently failing to deliver on any sort of level. Discontent is to be expected. That's sport!

Still, it's all so bleak at Tottenham right now. Frank was a great unifier at Brentford, but he has a huge job on his hands if he's to restore the connection between this group of players and those who follow them so intimately. The relationship is creaking, and I can hope Saturday was the final deterioration.

I probably said that after Chelsea.

One of the most annoying trends among the AI bots of the Tottenham Hotspur fandom that has happened recently is this contrarian take that Richarlison is actually a good striker because he scores goals at an efficient rate, as if being set up on a platter in front of the six yard box by Randal Kolo Muani or having the ball fortunately bounce off your back after a great shot by Wilson Odobert are really any credit to the Brazilian international's work.

While Richarlison isn't all bad and was once legitimately one of the best Premier League forwards as the savior of Everton, he has come nowhere near his 60 million pound price tag at Tottenham. Most people assumed he would have been sold this past summer, but, once again, Richy wanted to stay at Spurs, and while you have to admire that, cynically, perhaps, there is an understanding among Spurs supporters that Thomas Frank and the club siply knew that nobody was going to pay for him anyway.

Prone to injury, even more prone to missing sitters, and frustratingly anonymous in terms of his creation or even one on one ability at this stage of his already advancing career, Richarlison has been a liability in most Tottenham games this season.

Thomas Frank has to realize he's on the line

Yet Thomas Frank, with his job starting to actually be on the line, continues to entrust him with starts. Tottenham laid yet another egg on Saturday night, squandering a must win game against an easier London rival, falling 2-1 to Fulham.

And Richarlison did precisely nothing to help the team. Hooked off at 59 minutes after recording no key passes, no dribbles completed, and no shots on target (or even shots at all ), Richy was invisible in another important game and unable to ride the coattails of Kolo Muani.

That's not because RKM, who contributed to three goals in a heroic Champions League performance against his parent club and the reigning winners of European football's most prestigious club competition, wasn't present. He was there and somehow looked dangerous despite playing next to a cavernous hole of a striker. It's just that Richarlison was so hopelessly poor nothing could have coaxed a good game out of him.

Dominic Solanke's return can't come soon enough, but, in truth, Spurs would have been much better off starting Mathys Tel over Richarlison anyway. Frank has seen Richy fail time and time again, and yet every single game pretty much, he starts him. It is a foolish stubborness so puzzling, you almost wonder if Frank is trying to sabotage himself back to Brentford.

What Tottenham Hotspur produced in front of their home fans on Saturday night against local rivals Fulham was, once again, simply inexcusable. And with inexucsable loss after inexcusable loss stacking up in the very early reign of manager Thomas Frank, Spurs supporters are left with a very unsettling feeling that, at no point thus far after the first few purple patch games, has Frank given them a tangible sense that he is the guy to lead this franchise to its next chapter.

Tottenham have been laughable in several important Premier League fixtures this season, including this one. They surrendered two rapid fire goals in the first 10 minutes and, at no point looked like they were going to come back in it. The fact that the scoreline was just 2-1 was down to luck more than anything, and the individual brilliance of Lucas Bergvall and Mohammed Kudus to produce something of quality out of sheer nothingness.

In truth, there was only one player who looked like a true star for Tottenham in this defeat, and center back Micky van de Ven surely has to be wondering somewhere in the back of his mind just what on earth he is doing out there.

Micky van de Ven is ready for the elite

As the world's best young center backs get eyed up by the elite clubs in Europe, the 24 year old Van de Ven may soon be growing weary of being the man amongst boys and a leader of players who should be more his senior. But when you have Pedro Porro, Guglielmo Vicario, and Djed Spence acting like petulant children and playing like rubbish in games of importance, cleaning up their messes can become grating.

While Tottenham eye up a fat new contract to keep the former Wolfsburg man appeased at the wreckage that is the current N17 under Frank's management, they have to be honest with themselves and worry that, somewhere underneath the surface, they are driving Van de Ven away by their sheer incompetence.

There is no club on this planet that would not accept Van de Ven as a transfer. Even the mighty Real Madrid would pray for a center back as technical, fast, athletic, strong, and personable as Van de Ven. He is a truly special player whom Spurs cannot for a second take for granted, and as Spurs failed Harry Kane and Son Heung-min for years in their primes, they must push for better as a club for playres like Van de Ven who are their true future.

This simply cannot happen. For at least the fifth time this season alone, Guglielmo Vicario made a costly error for Tottenham Hotspur in an eventual loss to an inferior opponent, as Spurs surrendered two goals within 10 minutes, with VIcario completely getting caught out like a bumbling fool to concede a goal that ended up effectively dooming Spurs to defeat.

Tottenham have now lost back to back games in the Premier League to Arsenal and Fulham in embarrassing fashion, and while Thomas Frank is a far bigger villain in this story, Spurs are in a sore spot right now and have more than enough room to spread the blame around.

While Vicario is a talented goalkeeper with cat like reflexes who can single handedly keep Spurs in games, as he did against Bournemouth and Monaco this season alone, when you add it up, he's had more games where he as cost Spurs points with mistakes than he has had points earned for Spurs with those very saves.

Guglielmo Vicario has the wrong mentality

Like so many other players on Tottenham, as well as the new coach, Vicario has the mentality of a bottom feeder club. He plays like he did at Empoli. He lacks focus, he is more concerned with throwing himself wildly at shots for the highlight reel, and he must have no interest in the basics, because at his age, it is simply inexcusable for him to be making this many fundamental errors that screw his team over completely.

Tottenham fans have not felt safe with Vicario in goal, regardless of his raw talent or highlight reels. They don't feel safe because he flails at crosses, he has no security on the ball, he runs out of his goal like a headless chicken, and when he makes mistakes, he repeats them. He never learns from them. If anything, he tries to throw his teammates under the bus by immediately yelling at everyone around him instead of saying "My bad" and taking accountability for his errors.

Sure, he'll apologize to the fans after the game after roundly being booed so he can look like the good guy. But on the pitch? To his teammates? Vicario acts like a relegation goalkeeper, which is his background from Empoli. He has to be the hero making the big stops. And if he isn't doing that and he makes an error, it's everyone else's fault.

That's not how the best goalkeepers at the real Premier League title contenders act, and if Spurs want to finally reach that level, they have to be ruthless when planning their future. There are bigger fish to fry than Vicario, but, deep down, Spurs fan know as important as he can be when things are going good, goalkeepers and leaders are defined by how they are when things aren't. And when things aren't, Vicario is a problem.

Another game, another Xavi SImons snub. At this point, Thomas Frank's treatment of the biggest Tottenham Hotspur signing of the summer 2025 transfer window is bordering on managerial malpractice, and as Spurs continue to lose games and look like a unit bereft of any productive attacking ideas, Frank's almost personal vendetta against the Dutchman looks increasingly ridiculous.

Tottenham were beyond hopeless against Arsenal last weekend without Simons in the starting lineup, and if you take out the fact that Randal Kolo Muani contributed to literally every single one of the three goals Tottenham scored in their 5-3 loss to PSG on Wednesday night, they weren't all that much better at creating chances without him again in the Champions League, too.

So when Frank left Simons out of the starting lineup entirely yet again on Saturday night in what was obviously a must win fixture against Fulham in the Premier League return after the North London Derby debacle, you could hear the collective groan from the Spurs supporters scrolling social media as they saw that news.

Tottenham aren't any better without Xavi Simons

Predictably, Tottenham were dreadful without Simons. Aside from Pedro Porro spamming useless crosses and Mohammed Kudus practically falling over himself by doing too much in a game with his worst West Ham tendencies, the lone Lucas Bergvall assist was the only real moment of creative brililance from this Tottenham team.

Spurs are clearly not better without Simons in the starting lineup. Yes, Simons has been disappointing compared to his price tag and the quality he showed at RB Leipzig and PSV before this big move to Spurs, which he chose over London rivals Chelsea.

And you have to wonder if he is regretting that decision at this point as Frank either starts him in an isolated role where he has no prayer of succeeding or simply eschews him without explanation entirely. Frank has no idea how to manage an elite team or how to come up with creative attacking solutions within a structure, and him simply giving up on Simons is a very biting sign of his own limitations.

On paper, Tottenham Hotspur right back Pedro Porro should be one of the best players in the Premier League at his position, and, therefore, an invaluable player to Spurs. He should be considered one of the top, top players in the league, and while he has all the tools on both ends of the pitch and is a nailed on starter for Spurs, it never feels like he is accepted as a top class player.

And that's because there is always something missing with Pedro. He works hard, he wins the ball, he puts in crosses, he creates chances, but at the end of the day, he is a regular starter on a losing team and never has the same importance in games as the true core of Tottenham players like Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.

In Saturday's 2-1 loss to Fulham, Porro proved why Tottenham fans just can't trust him as a core player or consider him anywhere near world class, even if he is a very talented player and statistically a great right back.

Pedro Porro is a stat padder

Because, once again, Porro had the statistics. He had three key passes, three tackles won, and three interceptions for Tottenham. And what did those statistics mean for Tottenham on Saturday night against Fulham? Absolutely nothing. They were empty calories and emblematic of Porro's playing style. Selfish, focused on his own numbers, and with no regard for the team.

Porro is a player who makes basic positional errors and sacrifices stability tactically in order to win the ball to pad his stats. He focuses more on spamming crosses instead of focusing on precision or waiting until there is someone available to receive in the box. And his shots from outside the box? They are basically a gift to the opposition, not even worth trying.

Compounding all of that, Porro has a serious attitude problem. After a game in which he had 3 of 16 accurate crosses and made defensive lapse after defensive lapse off the ball, he decided to throw a tantrum and make Lucas Bergvall a target of his ire. Bergvall, who has far more talent and team spirit than Porro, actually played a decent game and was interacting like a normal, reasonable person with the fans after a tough loss. Porro decided to scream at him and hurry down the tunnel like a petulant child.

Mad about a loss? That's perfectly fine. Yelling at a young star a few years your junior? Unacceptable and a clear sign that Porro is not a leader. At the age of 26, you have to expect more maturity from Porro, but immaturity is exactly what Spurs have come to expect from the Spanish international, whose stat padding over the last couple of seasons has belied the fact that he is a very average player with the ego and attitude of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Cristiano Ronaldo.

The fallout from Tottenham Hotspur's latest entirely unacceptable loss has yet to truly conclude, and things figure to reach a boiling point soon as Thomas Frank continues to antagonize fans with poor results on the pitch and even more cowardly football that is simply not what Spurs supporters have come to expect from their teams.

Compounding matters is Frank's bizarre, passive aggressive attitude at press conferences that strike a level of obliviousness that is concerning and runs counter to the style of manager that usually succeeds at a bigger club like Tottenham - as opposed to, ahem, a mid table side that Frank is more accustomed to managing.

Following last weekend's humiliating 4-1 North London Derby vs. Arsenal, Frank was stunned again by a London rival. Spurs were down 2-0 within 10 minutes to Fulham at home and never looked like getting back into the game, creating a paltry 0.01 xG in the first half - an indictment of how woeful Frank's attacking tactics have been.

Thomas Frank is coming off clueless

During the game, the entire team, particularly Frank, were serenaded with boos, with goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario specifically targeted after yet another inexcusable individual error to effectively doom Spurs to a loss right as the game was getting under way.

Frank was well within his right to defend his veteran goalkeeper, but the way in which he did it will not go over well with Tottenham supporters at all. The manager said to the fans, via The Spurs Web, "That's not a true Spurs fan".

Now that will absolutely make Spurs fans blood boil. The people in the crowd haven't necessarily been the most supportive this season, true, but they are also working people who pay hard earned money to watch their team play and have understandably grown tired wtih a manager and group of players who make the same basic errors over and over again.

They booed Vicario out of frustration with a player who has made repeated mistakes and yet immediately yells at his own teammates as his first reaction. And they booed Vicario as part of a collective response and rebellion against a manager and team that has continually let them down to the point where a feeling of apathy feels almost inevitable at this point.

Who on earth is Frank, a new comer from Brentford with no real coaching pedigree to speak of, to say who is or isn't a true Tottenham fan? How can a failing manager be so oblivious as to adjudicate which paying members of the audience are valid or not? The more Frank opens his mouth, the more clueless he sounds at this point.