Planet Football

It’s only been four years since Tottenham went to Old Trafford and thrashed Manchester United 6-1, but only two players remain from their starting line-up that day, underlining the wholescale changes at the club since Jose Mourinho sat in the dugout.

Mourinho enjoyed his return to his former club, as Spurs kicked off the behind-closed-doors lockdown campaign in fine fettle. But Spurs’ big win was no signpost of how things would end up that season, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer leading Manchester United to a runner-up placing while Mourinho was sacked before an eventual underwhelming seventh-place finish.

We’ve revisited Tottenham’s line-up that day and checked in on where they’re at today, four years on.

GK: Hugo Lloris

The former France captain left Tottenham after 11 years and almost 450 appearances last December, having fallen behind Guglielmo Vicario in the pecking order following the appointment of Ange Postecoglou.

“I needed something new, something different,” he explained on his decision to join MLS outfit LAFC.

“I had great moments in Europe. I was just looking for different opportunities, to experience a new continent, to experience a new life as well.”

The 37-year-old has been a near ever-present between the sticks for LAFC in the 2024 MLS campaign. They’re currently second in the Western Conference table, behind city rivals LA Galaxy, and are set to compete in the MLS Cup play-offs.

RB: Serge Aurier

The infamously erratic Ivorian has turned out for Villarreal and Nottingham Forest since leaving Tottenham in 2021.

Midway through last season he joined Galatasaray and played a fringe role in their Turkish Super Lig title victory, but he’s since departed the club and currently finds himself a free agent once again.

CB: Davinson Sanchez

At Galatasaray, Aurier briefly reunited the Colombia international, who was a regular starter in the Mourinho era at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Nowadays Sanchez finds himself as a direct adversary of his old boss, having remained at Galatasaray for a second season following his €9.5million move away from Spurs last summer.

CB: Eric Dier

Like Lloris, long-serving Dier fell out of favour in the early months of Postecoglou’s reign – his lack of pace making him ill-fitted to the Australian’s famously high line.

“Obviously, after the first six months of the season, to be playing in a Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid is something I am very proud of,” Dier reflected.

“I always believed in myself and always believed I should be playing at this level and yes, I kept a bit of blind faith in the first six months of the season and I am proud of the way I carried myself in those six months and that is what has enabled me to be in this position now.”

The 30-year-old could legitimately consider himself unfortunate to miss out on England’s Euro 2024 squad, having been entrusted to play a key role under Thomas Tuchel. But he’s taken a step back to the periphery under new boss Vincent Kompany, making just two substitute appearances amounting to 30 minutes so far this season.

LB: Sergio Reguilon

It’s all too easy to forget that the Spanish left-back remains a Tottenham player following his series of iffy loans away to Atletico Madrid, Manchester United and Brentford.

He’s yet to play a minute of football under Postecoglou, but he was named on the bench for Spurs’ recent League Cup victory over Coventry. A fourth loan away, or a permanent move, is surely on the cards for January.

READ NEXT: Where are they now? The 10 signings Jose Mourinho made as Tottenham boss

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Tottenham’s top 30 goalscorers in the Premier League?

DM: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg

Another one-time regular that had to stomach less of a guaranteed role under Postecoglou, experienced Dane Hojbjerg is currently out on loan at Marseille.

The Ligue 1 outfit have made a solid start to the 2024-25 campaign under new manager Roberto De Zerbi, unbeaten and up there at the top of the table alongside PSG and Monaco.

CM: Moussa Sissoko

Sissoko departed Tottenham when his contract expired at the end of the 2020-21 campaign. He joined newly-promoted Watford on a free transfer, signing a two-year deal, but left for Nantes following their relegation.

The 35-year-old is now back for a second stint at Vicarage Road, offering considerable experience in the heart of midfield for Tom Cleverley’s promotion-chasing Hornets.

CM: Tanguy Ndombele (Dele Alli, ’69)

Once Tottenham’s record signing, Ndombele never delivered on his big-money fee – but there was the occasional spark, such as his role in the mauling of Manchester United, that suggested he might just come good.

Unfortunately those box office days never occurred quite often enough and after five years and three loans away, Ndombele’s contract was terminated in the summer. He’s since returned to France, having signed a two-year deal with Nice.

It’s weird that he was ever substituted for Dele, with the two players’ time with Spurs feeling as though they belonged to distinctly different eras. The one-time fan favourite hasn’t had an easy time of it since his departure, having spoken candidly about his troubles with injury and addiction, but he’s revealed he’s ambitiously targeting a sensational England return for the 2026 World Cup.

After being released by Everton in the summer, Dele is currently searching for a new club. We’d love to see him come good and enjoy a renaissance.

FWR: Erik Lamela (Lucas Moura, ’46)

The Argentinian sh*thouse supremo spent three years with Sevilla, winning a customary Europa League while there, following his 2021 exit from Tottenham. Nowadays he’s at AEK Athens alongside Anthony Martial, who was sent off in the famous 6-1.

Lucas Moura made more appearances under Mourinho at Spurs than any other player, but found himself less favoured by subsequent coaches. He was released last summer and is now back at his hometown club, Sao Paolo, with whom he’s won a Brazilian Copa and Supercopa.

QUIZ: Can you name every manager to take charge of Tottenham in the Premier League?

ST: Harry Kane

Tottenham’s all-time top goalscorer’s agonising wait for silverware might be ongoing but he’s not doing too badly for himself since his club-record sale to Bayern Munich last year.

The England captain has notched 54 goals and 17 assists in just 52 appearances for the Bavarian giants, while last season he became the first Englishman to claim the European Golden Shoe since Kevin Phillips in 2000.

FWL: Son Heung-Min (Ben Davies, ’73)

Son scored two goals and assisted Kane for another in that 6-1 thrashing of Manchester United, one of his finest performances in a Tottenham shirt. He’s now approaching a decade of wonderful service to the club, having scored over 150 goals and played over 400 matches since he signed from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015.

His replacement that day is the only other player from that squad that remains something of a regular under Postecoglou, Davies is by no means a guaranteed starter but continues to provide usefulness as a squad player.

We’re just about getting to grips with the fact that FIFA 15 was released over a decade ago and we thought we’d check in on the eight Tottenham wonderkids from that game.

Coming right at the start of the Mauricio Pochettino era, Spurs had a couple of gems in their academy system that would soon become integral parts of the first-team.

Using the SoFIFA database, we’ve taken a closer look at Spurs’ eight wonderkids from FIFA 15 and have checked out what they are each up to in 2024.

Nabil Bentaleb

“I would be a hypocrite to say that I would not like to be there, and I am not a hypocrite,” Bentaleb told The Independent in February 2019, reflecting on his time at Tottenham. “But this is football.”

The Algeria international looked set to become an important squad member at Spurs, starting the 2015 League Cup final, but fell out with Mauricio Pochettino before being sold to Schalke in 2017.

Now 29, Bentlaeb is playing in Ligue 1 with Lille. That feels perfect for his level.

Eric Dier

After almost 10 years of service and well over 300 appearances, Dier departed Tottenham in January 2024 to take on a new challenge at Bayern Munich.

An initial loan spell was enough to convince Bayern to sign the defender permanently and Dier is now playing Champions League football while Spurs kick their heels in the Europa League.

Ben Davies

One of two players to join Spurs from Swansea in the summer of 2014, Davies arrived in a swap deal for Icelandic midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson. A highly-rated 21-year-old left-back, Davies remains at Spurs and has played over 330 games for the club.

The Wales international has come in for criticism at times, but, now 31, he is one of the more experienced members of the current squad and has overall been an excellent signing.

READ NEXT: 6 former Tottenham players we can’t believe are still playing in 2024

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player Ange Postecoglou has used at Tottenham?

Harry Kane

Disappeared into obscurity, sadly. Definitely didn’t become Spurs and England’s leading goalscorer before banging them in for Bayern Munich.

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every country Harry Kane has scored against for England?

Cristian Ceballos

Signed by Tottenham from Barcelona, Ceballos never made it onto the pitch for Spurs in a competitive game before being released to join Charlton Athletic.

The Spaniard only managed five league appearances for the Addicks and now plies his trade for Azerbaijani club Sabah.

DeAndre Yedlin

There was plenty of excitement when Spurs signed Yedlin after the right-back had shone for the USA at the 2014 World Cup, but he made just one Premier League appearance – in a defeat to Aston Villa – before being loaned out to Sunderland.

The defender then dropped down to the Championship to join Newcastle permanently with Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier ahead of him in the pecking order.

He’s now back in the MLS with FC Cincinnati after spells with Galatasaray and Inter Miami.

Alex Pritchard

In the summer of 2015, Pritchard was coming off the back of a superb season on loan at Brentford from Tottenham in which he was named in the Championship team of the year and voted the eighth best player in the division.

His future looked bright. Spurs looked to have a gem on their hands.

But the attacking midfielder has failed to kick on since, spending a miserable loan spell at West Brom before leaving Spurs permanently for Norwich City.

Spells at Huddersfield and Sunderland followed before Pritchard joined Birmingham City in January 2024, reuniting with Tony Mowbray and signing a two-and-a-half-year deal.

But his time at St. Andrew’s was as short-lived as his old gaffer’s, and following their relegation to League One he joined Sivasspor for an undisclosed fee.

Shaquile Coulthirst

Another striker prospect who never kicked a ball in anger for Tottenham’s first team, Coulthirst was sold to Peterborough in 2016 after several loan spells away from White Hart Lane.

The most prolific spell of his career came at Barnet, where Coulthirst scored 33 goals in three seasons. Aged 29, he’s playing in the National League South for Maidstone United.

Tottenham Hotspur have won less points than Bournemouth in the Premier League since the start of November 2023.

After a fast start under Ange Postecoglou, who won eight and drew two of his first 10 league matches after taking over in the summer of 2023, Spurs have suffered an alarming dip in form.

The descent began with a madcap 4-1 home defeat to Chelsea where Spurs had two players sent off, and three defeats in their next four matches followed.

Postecoglou’s side slowly slipped out of the top four and finished fifth in the final 2023-24 standings, earning them Europa League football.

Despite their back-to-front campaign, Spurs fans were hopeful at the start of Postecoglou’s second season at the helm but the team has won just one of their opening four matches as criticism begins to mount on the manager.

Asked about his side’s weaknesses in defending set-pieces after their 1-0 loss to Arsenal, the Australian boss said: “For some reason, people think I don’t care about set pieces.

“It’s a narrative that you can keep going for ages and ages. I understand that. We work on them all the time but we paid the price today. It’s my burden to carry and I’m happy to do that.

“For us the way forward is to try and turn the football we are ­playing into something meaningful.”

After investing heavily over the summer, Spurs fans will be expecting Postecoglou to improve the side’s form quickly, but a look at the Premier League table of the past 10-and-a-half months suggests that might be easier said than done.

Note: all teams have played 32 games unless otherwise specified. Only teams that played in both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 Premier League seasons have been included.

READ NEXT: 6 former Tottenham players we can’t believe are still playing in 2024

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to score just one Premier League goal for Tottenham?

Arsenal underlined their title credentials with a dogged 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby.

The Gunners went into the game without their injured captain Martin Odegaard and the suspended Declan Rice, causing many to question their chances of winning the game.

Mikel Arteta’s side also knew that dropped points would see them slip further behind Manchester City, who had won all of their opening four matches.

But Arsenal produced a committed display, limiting Spurs to a handful of half-chances while posing a threat of their own on the counter-attack.

After a goalless first half, the winner came from a well-executed set-piece. Bukayo Saka swung the ball into the six-yard box and Gabriel thumped his header past a helpless Guglielmo Vicario.

Arteta’s side saw out the game comfortably and move into second in the Premier League table. They will face City at the Etihad next Sunday.

As the away supporters begin their celebrations, we’ve picked out 11 stupendous stats from Arsenal’s latest victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

READ NEXT: The last 10 Arsenal academy graduates who moved abroad – & how they fared

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every Arsenal player to score vs. Tottenham in PL since 2000?

– This was Arsenal’s first Premier League without both Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice since the latter joined from West Ham in the summer of 2023.

– There were seven yellow cards in the first half of today’s derby, the joint-most cards ever shown in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League match.

– Saka has been directly involved in more Premier League goals vs. Tottenham (6) than any other side he has faced during his career.

– The England international has now scored or assisted 87 goals for Arsenal in the Premier League, one fewer than Mesut Ozil managed for the Gunners.

– No defender has scored more Premier League goals than Gabriel’s 15 since September 2020.

– And the Brazilian has become the fourth Arsenal player to score 10+ headed goals in the competition.

– Three of Arsenal’s last four Premier League goals against rivals Tottenham have been from corners – only three of their previous 88 north London derby league goals had been from corners before this.

– And Arsenal have now scored 22 goals from set-pieces in the Premier League since the start of last season. No team has scored more.

– Sterling became the first player to make his competitive debut for Arsenal in a north London derby since Isaiah Rankin in December 1997.

– Mikel Arteta has become the first Gunners’ boss to win three successive Premier League matches away at Tottenham.

– This is also the first time Arsenal have won three consecutive north London derbies at the home of their arch enemy since September 1988.

Tottenham have played in every season of the Premier League era – but can you name every player to captain the side in the competition?

What we want you to do here is name every player to have been appointed club captain – not those who just wore the armband a couple of times – since the English top-flight was rebranded in 1992.

You’ve got 15 minutes to get to name all nine. Full marks should be well within your grasp.

Once you’ve completed this quiz, have a go at naming Tottenham’s 25 most expensive sales in history.

If you enjoy our quizzes, head to our new Football Games home where you can search an archive of over 1,000 quizzes and play them all in beautiful full-screen mode.

Good luck, and don’t forget to tweet us your scores at @planetfutebol.

Tottenham Hotspur have had quite the churn of players over the years, leading to a long list of former Spurs men that you’d be surprised are still turning out away from the spotlight.

Whether they’re cult heroes or players who barely scratched the surface at White Hart Lane, all of these have continued playing for a long time after leaving Tottenham. They’re clearly doing something right.

Here are six former Tottenham players we can’t believe are still playing in 2024.

Nacer Chadli

Is Nacer Chadli contracted to a club and actually playing football professionally right now? Well, no.

But the 35-year-old Belgian was turning out in his home country for lesser-known Westerlo, following three years away at Istanbul Basaksehir, as recently as a few months ago.

He was released at the end of last season and is presumably now looking for another club, having shown no intention of hanging up his boots just yet.

Feel cheated with that one? Well you can have Paulinho, Benjamin Stambouli, Federico Fazio and Jake Livermore as bonuses. All are in the same boat as Chadli, veteran free agents after leaving their respective clubs in the summer. Call it five for the price of one.

Vlad Chiriches

Another long-forgotten name from Tottenham’s infamous “sold Elvis but bought The Beatles” era, the Romanian centre-back Steaua Bucharest in that heady summer of 2013. He failed to convince during his two years in North London and was promptly sold on to Napoli, where he spent five years but was similarly underwhelming.

After almost a decade in Italy, 34-year-old Chiriches returned to Steaua last summer – albeit the Romanian club is technically a different entity nowadays, known as FCSB.

Lewis Holtby

The former Germany international was talked up as a technical midfield maestro when he signed from Schalke as a fresh-faced youngster way back in 2013.

But it soon became clear Eriksen Mk.II Hotltby was not and after a couple of loans away he signed for Hamburg in 2015.

A few years later he made an eyebrow-raising return to English football, going on to play over 50 times in the Championship for Blackburn Rovers.

Then he dropped off the footballing radar once again, signing for German second-tier outfit Holstein Kiel in 2021. He’s captained the club to promotion and is now playing in a major European league again for the first time in six years.

READ NEXT: Spurs’ crown jewel has punched his ticket to the Premier League – & future England stardom

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player Ange Postecoglou has used at Tottenham?

Iago Falque

Signed as a promising teenager from Juventus, Falque made a grand total of one Premier League appearance for Spurs.

The Spanish forward never quite convinced in a series of loans away, and eventually he was sold on to Genoa. He subsequently spent the next years as something of a journeyman in Italian football before the left-field switch to Colombian club America de Cali in 2022.

Now he’s turning out for Costa Rican giants Liga Deportiva Alajuelense.

Here at Planet Football, we love it when a European makes the lesser-travelled path across the Atlantic. Jamal Lewis at Sao Paulo will take some beating on that front.

Adel Taarabt

Better known for tearing the Championship a new one at Queens Park Rangers, the streets won’t forget Taarabt but they’re unlikely to remember his unremarkable time on the fringes at Tottenham.

The mercurial Moroccan made a grand total of nine Premier League appearances for Spurs before moving on to Loftus Road.

You might recall his latter years at Benfica, in which he would occasionally catch the eye on the European stage, but since 2022 he’s been playing away from the spotlight out at Al-Nasr – the United Arab Emirates club, not to be confused with the Saudi Pro League outfit that employs Cristiano Ronaldo.

Luka Modric

Look, we know we’re not telling you anything you don’t know here.

Modric is still turning out for the biggest club in world football, and just last season won his sixth Champions League title with Real Madrid. You don’t get much more renowned than that.

But take stock for a second and the fact that Modric is still turning out at such a high level is absolutely ridiculous.

He turns 39 next week and is still captaining his country on the international stage, having well over a thousand games and god knows how many minutes in his legs already.

The Croatian icon was almost 27 when he left Spurs for Los Blancos way back in 2012, and it’s now six years since he broke Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Ballon d’Or duopoly as a celebrated veteran.

So yes, taking the headline literally, we really can’t believe Modric is still going like this.

Now is the time when many of the Premier League’s young starlets are loaned out to various clubs to gain vital experience that might just help them fulfil their potential as footballers.

Tottenham have just made Alfie Devine, Jamie Donley, and Ashley Phillips available for loan, in the hope that a good club maybe abroad or a little further down the football pyramid will give their hot prospects some game time.

Do you know who’s not going out on loan, though? Mikey Steven Danny Moore, that’s who.

And, no, it’s not Michael Steven Daniel Moore—his name is straight to the damn point, it’s not wasting any time, it’s getting sh*t done as quickly as possible, and that is just as true of the kid to whom the name is attached.

Mikey Moore has just turned 17, he’s just signed his first professional contract, and it looks like he’s going to be brought into Tottenham’s first team under Ange Postecoglou this season, which tells us one thing with a baller of his calibre.

Breakthrough.

Spurs’ academy director Simon Davies recently told the Evening Standard of Big Ange’s desire to let the kids play, as the club looks to rediscover an identity in the form of being a hub for young players to prosper.

“I speak to the manager regularly and he’s got a real thirst for youth development. He understands the fans’ and the club’s ambitions to have several—not just one—but several of our own in the first-team.”

That’s smart because Moore might just be the catalyst for a new generation of success at Tottenham if things go to plan.

The teenager prefers to play centrally or on the left and appears to be equally effective in both roles. His close control is exceptional, his speed is scary, his passing is deft, his shooting is superb, and his vision is off the charts.

He seems to be able to go all Matrix bullet-time when he’s in possession. In fact, we reckon Keanu Reeves would’ve never gotten the gig if Moore had been born a little earlier.

Don’t just take our word for it, though. The proof is in the eye test.

More than once in the clip above, Moore is well outside the penalty area when he catches a keeper off his line and knocks the ball over him before anyone else on the pitch has figured out what’s going on.

He also has the presence of mind, even when surrounded by players in the penalty area, to notice the keeper is about to go to ground, and dink him from close range.

There’s a new MM in town. His mates must call him Eminem. Got Marshall Mathers wondering if he is, in fact, the real Slim Shady.

Moore doesn’t have a go-to trademark finish, he tailors his finishes depending on the situation, and that’s how you do bonkers numbers.

Of course, there were players like Thierry Henry and Arjen Robben who, more often than not, you’d know what they were going to, they simply couldn’t be stopped. But Moore seems to be able to rapidly assess the situation in front of him and execute the right finish at the right time.

READ NEXT: Tottenham’s 11 wonderkids on Football Manager 2024: Udogie, Sarr, Moore…

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the 7 players Tottenham signed to replace Gareth Bale in 2013?

It’s that presence of mind and lightspeed improvisation that is going to see Mikey Moore go right to the top, in our opinion. We shouldn’t get too carried away, though. Simon Davies won’t be happy with us.

“It’s encouraging that the manager sees something in Mikey but it is just potential at the moment. I spoke to him this morning while he was having his breakfast about staying calm and consistent and keep working hard every day, do the small things right [because] the small things get noticed.” Davies told reporters at the back end of last season.

Clearly, Moore has taken on Davies’ advice, because Big Ange has been playing the teenage sensation in preseason.

Against QPR, Postecoglou deployed the England under-17 on the right instead of the left. And while we reckon he’s probably far more natural on the left, where he can cut inside and drive at the heart of the defence, or even in the centre where his vision and awareness can shine, it’s about seizing the opportunity.

And seize he did. Throughout Spurs’ entire pre-season campaign.

Ultimately, it’s a waiting game now.

Spurs aren’t short of players in Moore’s position—Son Heung-Min, Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke, Richarlison, and Timo Werner to name a few—but don’t be surprised if we see more of Mikey Moore in the Premier League or domestic cups this season.

We’ll let Simon Davies have the last word.

“He’s super mature for a young boy so let’s hope his potential is fulfilled. But, unfortunately, we haven’t got a crystal ball, so we just have to do all the small things right every day, and stay consistent and calm.”

Real Madrid, Barcelona, Tottenham, Leeds United, Argentina and Portugal all feature in our list of football matches we can’t believe have never happened.

There’s a strange quirk of fate when it comes to the luck of the draw, in which some of the biggest clubs in the world have somehow continually avoided one another. We’ve taken a look through the football history books and identified seven matches we’re sure must have happened at some point… but somehow didn’t.

Note: We’re talking competitive meetings only here, not friendlies.

Real Madrid vs Flamengo

Given the different orbits they inhabit, it’s perhaps not that much of a surprise that Real Madrid haven’t played against Flamengo.

But when you consider that Flamengo are one of the biggest clubs in South America, boasting the biggest fanbase in Brazil, you’d have thought that these two behemoths of their respective continents would have met at some point.

Madrid have been a frequent fixture of Club World Cups, given how often they win the Champions League. Los Blancos have faced off against the likes of Gremio, San Lorenzo and Boca Juniors in FIFA’s flagship intercontinental competition, but they’ve never faced Flamengo.

The Brazilian giants missed a golden opportunity to book a glamour tie against Madrid back in 2022. They won that year’s Copa Libertadores but lost to Saudi side Al Hilal 3-2 in their Club World Cup semi.

Barcelona vs Marseille

We scoured Barcelona’s all-time list of opponents and invariably almost all the elite clubs you’ve heard of feature. They’ve faced pretty much all the big dogs from England, Germany, Italy and France… apart from Marseille, who are conspicuously absent.

You could argue that Marseille are a bit… Europa League-y, so it’s not all that surprising. But historically they possess a fine European pedigree.

AC Milan vs Valencia

Some kind of Mandela effect thing going on with this one.

If you’d told us that Carlo Ancelotti’s Milan had beaten Rafael Benitez’s Valencia 3-1 over two legs of a Champions League Round of 16 in 2002-03 we’d have no reason not to believe you.

In fact, it’s downright weird that the two clubs didn’t do battle at some point in the early noughties. It just feels right.

Portugal vs Argentina

Okay, technically speaking, Argentina and Portugal have played one another quite a few times. On no fewer than eight occasions, in fact. But all of those are friendlies, admittedly with the 1964 ‘Copa das Nacoes’ and 1972 ‘Brazil Independence Cup’ debatable on that front.

Money-spinning Messi vs Ronaldo matches have been arranged in 2011 and 2014, with the latter at Old Trafford among the most dismally forgettable games this writer has ever attended.

Given their quality, each consistently making it out of World Cup groups and winning continental titles in recent times, it’s a bit odd they’ve not come up against each other at some point. But at least in avoiding it we’ve all been spared a Pessi vs Penaldo social media apocalypse of epic proportions.

READ NEXT: 12 forgotten footballers overshadowed by their superstar family ft. Messi, Maradona, Alonso…

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the Premier League’s 25 most expensive foreign sales ever?

Leeds United vs Wrexham

We did some deep digging around the 92 clubs of the Football League to come up with an all-English British tie and this was the best we could muster in terms of profile of the respective clubs. Think you’ve got a better one? Let us know @planetfutebol.

Google tells us that Leeds and Wrexham did meet in a pre-season friendly back in 1964, with Leeds legends like Billy Bremner, Paul Madeley and Norman Hunter lining up at the Racehorse Ground.

They’ve never met in a competitive setting, which is a bit mad when you think of their odysseys up and down the English football pyramid and the countless times they’ll have featured in the same cup draws.

In 2024-25, Wrexham find themselves just one tier below Daniel Farke’s side. Might they find themselves in the same division some day?

PSV vs Celtic

Earlier on in this piece we stated that Flamengo and Real Madrid occupy different orbits. But PSV and Celtic are very much part of the same orbit, namely.. Champions League group stage numbers-makers-up, that might go on a run in the Europa League if they finish third or mess up the qualifiers.

Even Brenden Rodgers would nod along if you recalled the time that Celtic suffered a costly 1-0 defeat at the Philips Stadion in October 2017. Hirving Lozano with the only goal of an attritional game. But nope, never happened. Somehow.

READ: 8 sets of footballers we can’t believe were teammates: Messi & Ramos, Martial & Silva…

PSG vs Tottenham

What, you don’t remember the six-goal thriller in the… *checks notes*… International Champions Cup back in 2017? Spurs won 4-2 at the wonderfully named Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

Talking proper football only, Spurs and PSG have never faced off. Which you’d expect would’ve happened at some point, with the two clubs being regulars in the Champions League throughout the 2010s, getting as far as the final in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

We’re not advocating for warmed balls, but some kind of system to offer more variety in the Champions League would be welcome. Manchester City vs Shakhtar Donetsk and PSG vs Barca seem to happen every year.

Over 275 different players have played for Tottenham in the Premier League – but can you name their top appearance maker for every initial in the competition?

No player with a surname beginning Q or X has played for Spurs in the Premier League, but that still leaves 24 players to get – and it’s not as easy as you might expect.

We’ve given you 15 minutes to try to name them all and have listed the number of games each player played for the club in the competition as a clue. An asterisk indicates the player is still at the club.

If you want another challenge after this, why not try to name every manager to take charge of Tottenham in the Premier League?

If you enjoy our quizzes, head to our new Football Games home where you can search an archive of over 1,000 quizzes and play them all in beautiful full-screen mode.

Good luck, and don’t forget to tweet us your scores @planetfutebol.

Tottenham pocketed over £80million for the sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid in 2013 – but can you name the seven players Spurs signed to replace their Welsh talisman?

Bale was named PFA Player of the Year in the season before his sale to Madrid, indicating the difficulty any team would have had in replacing him.

But Spurs infamously spent the money on a succession of duds, with only a few of the seven signings achieving any success at White Hart Lane.

We’ve given you 10 minutes and both the transfer fee and position of each player.

If you want another challenge after this, why not try to name every manager to take charge of Tottenham in the Premier League?

If you enjoy our quizzes, head to our new Football Games home where you can search an archive of over 1,000 quizzes and play them all in beautiful full-screen mode.

Good luck, and don’t forget to tweet us your scores @planetfutebol.