The New York Times

Tottenham Hotspur’s Europa League campaign is back in rude health after they clawed themselves past AZ and booked their place in the quarter-finals.

Wilson Odobert was the star of the show as he scored his first two goals in a Spurs shirt either side of a James Maddison strike to ultimately cancel out a 1-0 first-leg defeat in the Netherlands last week.

It was far from plain sailing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with AZ’s Peer Koopmeiners briefly making the tie 2-2 on aggregate and the visitors failing to make some late pressure count but Ange Postecoglou’s side booked their place in the last eight, where they will face Eintract Frankfurt in April.

Jack Pitt-Brooke and Elias Burke break down the main talking points from a pivotal Spurs victory.

A Europa League lifeline still burns brightly

Tottenham Hotspur kept their season alive.

Postecoglou’s men produced their best performance in months, energised by the return of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven at centre-back.

After a tentative first half, they clicked into gear after the break, creating enough chances to win the game easily and scoring twice more. Odobert scored his first two goals for Tottenham, producing his best ever display for the club. It was strikingly different from the flat performance in the first leg in the Netherlands last week.

This means that Spurs now have a European quarter-final to look forward to, their first since their legendary 2019 Champions League run. They will host Frankfurt on April 10 before travelling to Germany the following week.

This also means that Spurs are now just four games away from a potential Europa League final in Bilbao, which would be a remarkable finish to a season where they have struggled so badly in the league.

But with returning players developing some more sharpness, and the hope of Dejan Kulusevski coming back next month, a narrow but clear path still exists for this season to end with a historic triumph and vindication for Postecoglou, despite everything that has happened this year.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

Odobert opens his account at the right time

Odobert has teased a breakout performance in a Spurs shirt since his electric second-half cameo in last month’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester City. Fortunately for Postecoglou, it arrived when they needed it most.

The first sign that the 20-year-old was in the mood to torment AZ’s defence came in the 15th minute when he latched on a loose ball and embarked on a marauding dribbling run through their midfield. AZ quickly got bodies around him and Odobert eventually lost the ball on the edge of the box — but his desire to drive Spurs forward didn’t diminish.

The young Frenchman continued to attack AZ’s defence whenever he got the ball, and he earned his reward in the 26th minute. Son Heung-min blocked Wouter Goes’ pass down the line and won the loose ball, quickly squaring to an unmarked Dominic Solanke in the box.

Descending on goal, Solanke played a square pass to Odobert and the France Under-21 international fired into the top-right corner with his left foot. He was instrumental in their second, too, carrying the ball from his half into AZ’s, before laying a pass off to eventual goalscorer Maddison.

As it transpired, Odobert had a crucial hand in every goal on the night — even inadvertently playing a part in Koopmeiners’ finish that briefly brought the tie back on level terms as the ball bounced off him.

However, it would go down as Odobert’s night for all the right reasons, with the former Burnley man grabbing the winner from close range at the far post.

Elias Burke

Spurs rediscover their physical side

Perhaps the most exciting thing about this Spurs performance, especially in the second half, was the sight of them hitting a physical level we have not seen from them for months.

Ever since their injury crisis started in the autumn, Tottenham have had to try to survive from game to game, forced to use the same tiring core of players time after time.

But this was close to a full-strength side, with only Kulusevski injured and Rodrigo Bentanur suspended. And we saw a new physical intensity from Spurs, one not seen since December. The first goal came from Son pressing Goes, the bounce ending up with Odobert finishing well.

In the second half, Spurs cranked it up another level. Odobert drove through the middle of the pitch, leading to Maddison’s goal. Spurs were all over AZ, who could not live with their physicality.

Tottenham should have won the game early in the second half but they let AZ back into the tie. However, Postecoglou’s team kept going and the move for Odobert’s second was another sign of the level they can hit.

It felt like watching Spurs from earlier in the season, and suggested there may be some life in Angeball yet.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

Van de Ven’s transformative return

It’s been a long wait to see Romero and Van de Ven line up together — and they hardly missed a beat.

AZ striker Troy Parrott was a menace for Archie Gray and Kevin Danso in the first leg, with the former Spurs man often getting the better of that inexperienced centre-back partnership. On this occasion, he cut an isolated figure at the point of AZ’s attack as Romero and Van de Ven dominated on the ground and in the air.

Crucially, the Dutchman’s electric pace allowed Spurs to push up the pitch and pen AZ into their own half without the threat of their speed in transition. On one occasion in the second half, AZ winger Ernest Poku, who is no slouch, ran beyond the Spurs defence and looked to be bearing down on Guglielmo Vicario’s goal before Van de Ven sprinted back and eased him to the ground.

His partner Romero also contributed with several well-timed tackles to prevent AZ counters and passed the ball forwards intelligently, offering an incisive directness Spurs lacked from the backline in the first leg.

Almost immediately after Van de Ven was substituted on the hour, AZ pulled level on aggregate, with the Eredivisie side hitting Spurs quickly on the break. While Gray has deputised excellently in his absence, there’s no-one quite like Van de Ven in the Spurs squad.

Elias Burke

What did Ange Postecoglou say?

“(I) really liked the way the boys addressed the challenge tonight. It’s not easy when you’re 1-0 down before the game starts.

“I thought we started the game really well. Really composed and controlled. We didn’t create a lot but at the same time, we just had them camped in their half and they didn’t really venture anywhere near our goal.

“And second half started brilliantly; exactly what we wanted to do, got our goal — and then we gave them a goal. That puts the tie again on edge a little bit.

“But I thought our response to that was really good; scored another good goal, probably should have got another one or two to finish the game off.

“We probably didn’t handle the last 10 minutes very well but at the same time, when I’m having to change the back line so much, at such a critical time, it’s going to disrupt us. Again, I thought at the big moments, the boys stood up well.”

What next for Spurs?

Sunday, March 16: Fulham (away), Premier League, 1.30pm UK, 10.30am ET

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(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur defender Kevin Danso is out until after the international break due to a hamstring injury.

The Austria international, who joined the club for a €25million (£20.9m; $25.9m) fee from French club Lens in January, sustained the issue during Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth.

Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou confirmed Danso’s absence before his side’s Europa League round of 16 second leg against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday. Tottenham head into the game 1-0 down on aggregate after their defeat in the Netherlands last week.

“Kevin got a hamstring injury in the last game and he is out,” Postecoglou said in a news conference. “Ben (Davies) is back in. That’s the only change from the weekend, everyone else got through the game no problems.”

Tottenham have suffered an extended injury crisis this season, with their defence most heavily affected.

Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie, Radu Dragusin and Ben Davies have all had extended spells on the sidelines, with Danso starting every game for the north London side since signing a five-and-a-half-year deal.

Postecoglou confirmed that both Romero and Van de Ven made it through the Bournemouth game unscathed, although the amount of time that Danso is expected to be sidelined remains unclear.

“Hard to say at the moment,” he said. “He felt it right at the end of the game. We will see. Kevin looks after himself, he is a pretty good athlete. We have to let it settle down before we get clarity on it.”

Danso, 26, has made seven appearances, completing 90 minutes in all but one of those games, playing for 78 minutes during the 1-0 Premier League victory over Manchester United on February 16.

The injury will mean that the centre-back will miss Austria’s Nations League fixtures against Serbia on March 20 and March 23.

‘Postecoglou faces a huge call’

Analysis by Tottenham Hotspur correspondent Jay Harris

Danso was thrown straight into Tottenham’s starting XI after he joined them at the beginning of February and made his debut in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool because first-choice centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero were injured.

The Austria international quickly became the leader of a patchwork defence and has had three different centre-back partners across his seven appearances.

He aggressively follows strikers when they drop deep and is a powerful dribbler capable of progressing the ball with surging runs. Danso will be a huge miss for Spurs in their vital Europa League second leg tie against AZ Alkmaar.

Romero made his first appearance since December in last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth and made a mistake in possession in the first minute which nearly led to Andoni Iraola’s side scoring.

Postecoglou faces a huge call about whether he should risk starting van de Ven and Romero in such a crucial game when they are not operating at 100 per cent. Losing Danso only complicates the situation and increases the prospect of Ben Davies or 19-year-old Archie Gray starting.

Tottenham face Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday and then do not play again until after the March international break. Hopefully, Danso will recover in time for their clash against bitter rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on April 3.

(ANP via Getty Images)

The Premier League’s most-followed club on TikTok may not be who you expect.

Manchester United would be a safe bet to be at the top of the charts, but they only occupy third place on the TikTok table. It’s not Liverpool or Manchester City, either. Never mind Chelsea and Arsenal, who do not even break the top four.

On top of the pile is Tottenham Hotspur, who have 38.5million followers. That’s more than eight million ahead of second-placed City — and 30m more than their north London rivals over at the Emirates Stadium.

TikTok, launched in 2016 by Chinese technology company ByteDance, has rapidly grown in popularity this decade, becoming one of the world’s biggest social media platforms. It’s particularly popular with the Gen Z demographic, people currently aged between 15 and 24, who spend almost 30 hours on the app per month in the UK. That’s nearly double the average across all age demographics (14), according to Statista.

Appealing to a younger target audience requires a different social media strategy from what clubs may adopt on other platforms. Spurs identified this early and used it to grow beyond their ‘big six’ competitors, who have much larger followings on other social platforms.

“They’ve got such a good eclectic mix of content,” says Chris Reeve, managing director of Reeve Social Media, a social media agency. “It would be easy for a Premier League club, especially an elite one like Spurs, to do purely polished content, but one of their content strands is something called #WeeklyWithSpurs, which is a round-up of pictures from behind the scenes taken from an iPhone by the players.

“For example, one of their players is in the gym taking a selfie in the mirror. One of their players is on the coach with the man of the match award. There’s another walking through the doors of the training ground.

“They’re able to strip it right back, as well as doing the polished stuff. I think many big brands are afraid of doing that, but showing authentic, raw content is highly effective on TikTok. It gives people a reason to follow because it differs from what they see on Instagram or Facebook. It means that more Spurs fans across the world will follow their TikTok because they know they get something unique rather than just the same generic content from other channels.”

While Spurs were not the Premier League’s first club to post on TikTok, they joined the platform before the initial Covid-19 lockdown supercharged its popularity. When the Premier League paused in March 2020, and people worldwide began working and studying from home, Spurs’ social media team catered their content accordingly.

For example, in check with the government’s handwashing guidelines, Spurs released a series of videos of iconic moments and goals counting down from 20 with #washyourhands and #staysafe in the caption. When the players returned to training ahead of the league’s resumption, there was a steady flow of behind-the-scenes footage. As people began using the platform to stay updated with current news and policies, the trending hashtags drew users to Spurs’ account.

Efficient use of hashtags and concise captions have been an important factor in Spurs’ growth, but it is hardly unique within the Premier League. Arguably, Spurs’ primary asset on TikTok has been plastered all over their page from the start: Son Heung-min.

“They have the No 1 influencer in Asia, in my opinion, which is, of course, Sonny,” says Reeve. “Now you would think, ‘Oh, well, that’s just it — they just plaster Son everywhere, right?’ But they mix Sonny strategically with all the other stuff whilst making the most of him, too.

“I think some clubs are almost afraid of doubling down on their most marketable players because they don’t want to be all about that, whereas Spurs are like, ‘Look, we know that Sonny is our best, most valuable and most marketable player’, particularly in the Asian market, where TikTok originated from. It’s an absolutely phenomenal influence to be able to have.

“If you look at any mention of Son in the videos, or even in the thumbnails they’ve used for their short-form videos on TikTok, they always do better than not having Sonny. They’ve even got a video where it’s just Son’s two assists (vs Ipswich Town). Not many other clubs would celebrate a player making two assists as a TikTok video, but Spurs know it works phenomenally well for the Asian market. It’s very clever.”

@spursofficialSonny reacts to some of your favourite moments 🤩 … and tells us his own 🤍♬ Cooking, bossa nova, adults, light(950693) – Kids Sound

Son does not have a public TikTok account, allowing Spurs to cash in as the primary beneficiaries of his fame in Asia. To illustrate his stardom, the 32-year-old has several fan pages with hundreds of thousands of followers, but the most popular, ‘sonheungmiin’, has 1.4m followers at the time of writing. That’s more than several Premier League clubs.

The platform has experienced a recent rapid surge in South Korea owing to the introduction of TikTok Lite, a streamlined version of the platform launched in January 2024. According to statistics gathered by Mobile Index and reported by South Korean outlet ChosunBiz, TikTok’s monthly active users reached a combined total of 9.32m — around 18 per cent of their population — in December 2024, more than Facebook (8.64m) for the first time in the company’s history.

There is more to the idea that ‘South Korean star equals TikTok views’, as TikTok initially struggled to gain a foothold in the country’s social media landscape and plenty of successful videos do not involve him. Still, Son represents a near-incomparable level of fame in that region. Spurs continue to make the most of that fame through geo-targeted localised content to cater to different areas’ tastes.

Another face frequently pops up on their best-performing videos: Celine Dept, a 25-year-old Belgian social media creator. Dept has 16m followers on TikTok as well as more than 40m subscribers on YouTube and has made videos with Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar. A video where she attempts to create the ‘perfect dap’ (a variation on a handshake) with various first-team players has 37m views, by far Spurs’ most popular video of the past 12 months.

Other Premier League clubs, including Manchester City, have collaborated with her in the past year, indicating her value in bringing new faces and more viewers to their profiles.

“It’s extremely smart for football clubs to have a celebrity and/or influencer interview because it’s guaranteed engagement,” says Reeve. “She’s young, she’s modern, she’s in line with their new branding— that’s going to be hugely impactful. West Ham have used JaackMaate (Jack Dean) really effectively. He’s got millions of followers across all his platforms, so it’s a very similar and highly effective tactic.

”These off-the-cuff, on-the-street style interviews work well, especially if they’re asking the questions that fans want to hear, which they would be more likely to ask. Instead of asking Sonny how his injury is going, she might be asking what he eats for breakfast. Stuff like that builds a closer connection with the players.“

They’re also unafraid to cash in on interactions with celebrity fans. Last month, Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter film franchise, visited Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the 2-1 defeat by Leicester City. Spurs’ TikTok team filmed his interaction with James Maddison, who showed Grint his Harry Potter-inspired tattoos. Their most viewed video on the platform is Son interacting with film star couple Zendaya and Tom Holland, the latter a lifelong Spurs fan.

“They’ve clearly got, what I would call a ‘content culture’ within the grounds of their football club,” says Reeve. “Other clubs don’t do that. With Spurs, it’s very evident that players are told that there are cameras everywhere following them around all the time, and they just need to say yes and get on with it.

“The other video they lucked out on big time, which has had a million views, is when King Charles came to visit. This is something that obviously doesn’t come around all the time.

@spursofficialThe moment Sonny and Bethany met His Majesty.♬ original sound – spursofficial

“It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime situation, perhaps. So Spurs did incredibly well with that and made the most of it.”

It may not be the trophy fans were after, but increasing global profile and popularity with the Gen Z audience is certainly worth something in the year 2025.

(Top images: Tottenham Hotspur; TikTok)

Ange Postecoglou called it “a night made in Tottenham”.

Last month, Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-0 win at home against Elfsborg sealed a top-eight Europa League finish and confirmed their spot in the round of 16. They needed 70 minutes to score but it ended up being a routine victory, registering 80 per cent possession against a Swedish side technically in their pre-season. More significantly, Tottenham finished with four academy graduates on the pitch, including three of the goalscorers.

Goalkeeper Brandon Austin filled in with Guglielmo Vicario injured and Antonin Kinsky not registered for the European squad. Dane Scarlett scored four minutes after coming on, then Damola Ajayi doubled the lead on 81 minutes, three minutes after his arrival. Mikey Moore put the icing on the Tottenham cake in stoppage time.

“We were enjoying it. You should enjoy it,” said Postecoglou. “People can say, ‘Look at the opposition’, but it’s a European night, you’ve (got) young Tottenham boys out there. It’s a special night for the club.”

A special night in a difficult season. Tottenham are 12th in the Premier League — they have not finished in the bottom half since 2008. They recently won consecutive league games (1-0 vs Manchester United and 2-0 vs Brentford) for only the second time this term, and it was their first instance of back-to-back clean sheets since October 2023.

They followed up those wins by beating Ipswich Town 4-1 on Saturday but recent form is papering cracks. Postecoglou, a man of his playing principles, has repeatedly defended his team’s performances in an injury-hit season. “We’ve been doing this since the middle of November,” he said this month.

“I don’t know how else to explain it. This team is trying its hardest to play under the most extreme two and a half months, asking 18-year-olds, 17-year-olds and senior players, with no rest, to play Thursday-Sunday.

“If you think that is not a factor in how this team is performing then there’s nothing else I can say. There’s got to be a better appreciation for what a very small group of players have been doing.”

It begs the question: why is the squad “very small”? These are the moments when having an academy-to-first-team pathway is essential, to provide depth and rotation options. To help satisfy profit and sustainability regulations (PSR), it is increasingly important for clubs to generate a profit from academy-trained players. Developing talent is a means to acquire the funds (or balance the books) to fuel recruitment strategies.

Five of the Premier League’s conventional ‘Big Six’ sides are the top teams for minutes given to ‘club-trained’ players this campaign. Club-trained is defined as being at the club for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21. Tottenham, who have only given 1.2 per cent of minutes to academy graduates, are the exception.

Playing academy graduates does not guarantee success. Manchester United are having a worse season than Tottenham. Manchester City have more defeats than wins since the start of November and the FA Cup is their last realistic chance of a trophy this season. However, look at any of the ‘Big Six’ clubs' success stories — from Chelsea’s Champions League, Manchester United’s FA Cup, City’s Premier League titles, Arsenal’s evolution and this season's runaway Liverpool team — and they owe to their academy in some form.

Tottenham and Postecoglou are not opposed to playing youngsters. The average age of their starting XI in this season's Premier League is the joint-third youngest (25.9, with Bournemouth). They have actively recruited youth: Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, Wilson Odobert and Yang Min-hyeok were teenagers bought under Postecoglou, who has also developed Brennan Johnson (23 years old), Destiny Odogie, Pape Matar Sarr (both 22) and other young players.

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It is a shift and overcorrection from the older teams used by Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte in an (ultimately fruitless) effort to earn silverware. Tottenham were losing Champions League finalists in 2019 and sensed they could win something.

Academy-to-first team pathways tend to be closed loops. Young players are more likely to join clubs with a clear route to the first team — and players stay there after breaking in.

Only six players born in 1990 or later have come through the Tottenham academy and made 100-plus Premier League appearances (at Tottenham or elsewhere): Harry Kane, Adam Smith, Harry Winks, Kyle Walker-Peters, Steven Caulker and Andros Townsend. Oliver Skipp, on 93 Premier League games and now at Leicester City, is close to making that six. Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal have 14, 15 and 13 graduates born since 1990 with over a century of Premier League appearances.

When Ryan Mason was Spurs' caretaker head coach in the spring of 2023, after Mourinho departed, he said, “Of course I see the value in the academy and having homegrown players — but at the same time, players have to be good enough. They have to earn that opportunity. It’s not an easy route to the top, especially at a club of this size.”

He was speaking from experience, having broken through under Pochettino in 2014 after loan spells at five clubs. Mason is archetypal of the players who have made the jump from academy to first team at Tottenham: a diminutive, technically proficient central midfielder. It is the type of player coaches tend to love and help control games, but is rarely a matchwinner. Skipp, Winks, Tom Carroll, Alex Pritchard and Jamie O’Hara are further examples.

Of course, the glittering graduate is Kane. The north London boy joined aged 11 after being released by Arsenal. Like Mason, he needed multiple loans in English football's lower divisions before breaking into Spurs' senior side. He scored more than 200 Premier League goals for Tottenham, then fetched €100million (£86.4m; $110m at the time) when he joined Bayern Munich in August 2023. The mural by the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium proudly describes him as “one of our own”.

Academies, though, are not to solely be judged on their singular generational talent — Phil Foden (Manchester City), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) — but rather the consistency with which young players break into the first team and become established starters or fulfil squad roles.

There have been too many examples of players leaving Tottenham’s older academy age groups and forging careers elsewhere: Noni Madueke once captained Tottenham’s under-16s, left at 18 for PSV, then earned the Dutch side £28.5million when he joined Chelsea four years later.

Likewise, Walker-Peters. He is a versatile full-back who was man of the match on his Premier League debut (a 2-0 win at Newcastle United) in 2017, and became the second-youngest player to assist three goals in a Premier League game in December 2018. Walker-Peters only made 12 league appearances for Tottenham, then joined Southampton permanently (for £12m) after a loan spell for the second half of 2019-20, and is closing in on 200 club appearances.

Marcus Edwards is another. Pochettino once said he had stylistic resemblances to Lionel Messi. Tottenham earned nearly €8m when he joined Vitoria Guimaraes in 2019, having made one first-team appearance. He has since played Europa League and Champions League football with Sporting CP, winning the Portuguese title last year. He joined Championship club Burnley on loan in January.

There is an argument that the talent has just not been there. London is one of football’s hotbeds. Arsenal and Chelsea have enjoyed age-group success and maintained a pathway to the first team in recent years. West Ham United’s academy has a formidable reputation, while even former Premier League teams Watford (Jadon Sancho) and Charlton (Ademola Lookman, Joe Gomez and Ezri Konsa, all from their 1997-born generation) have recent academy success stories.

Queens Park Rangers (2022-23), Arsenal (2018-19), Chelsea (three times) and Watford (2024-25) have all knocked Tottenham out of the FA Youth Cup since 2017. They have not reached the semi-finals of the competition — the under-18 equivalent of the FA Cup — since Chelsea beat them 9-2 over two legs in 2017.

Their 4-2 FA Youth Cup defeat at Vicarage Road last week was symptomatic of first-team problems. Tottenham conceded twice in eight first-half minutes to go 2-0 down and shot themselves in the foot with red cards either side of half-time. They still tried to play with a high line and the left-back rolled inside during build-up. A video of Watford under-18 assistant Lloyd Doyley played before kick-off, and he made the point that these games are a test for youngsters as they bring “family, cameras and expectation”, which are not always there in their league games.

Importantly, Tottenham’s youth teams have been successful in recent seasons. The under-21s finished top of the Premier League 2 last term. In the 2022-23 season, the under-17s and under-18s won the Premier League Cup — they beat Aston Villa (3-1) and Nottingham Forest (5-1) in their respective finals, at their opponents’ stadiums.

That group of Tottenham under-21s is scattered (and that age group this season is 22nd out of 26 teams). Jude Soonsup-Bell and Yago Santiago left permanently for Spain’s second tier, joining Cordoba and Elche. Brooklyn Lyons-Foster went to HJK in Finland and Nile John is with Feirense in Portugal’s second division. Again, that can be viewed as players not seeing a pathway and not being prepared to wait, or the talent not being of sufficient quality.

Meanwhile, defender Alfie Dorrington (Aberdeen) and forwards Jamie Donley (Leyton Orient) and Will Lankshear (West Bromwich Albion) are on loan spells. Donley is playing well in League One, scoring six goals and five assists in 25 appearances and forcing an own goal with a halfway-line strike against Manchester City in the FA Cup. Lankshear was the top scorer (18) and player of the year in the Premier League 2 last term. A powerful runner in behind, he started the campaign with the first team, notably scoring the opener before being sent off away to Galatasaray in a Europa League match.

As Mason and Kane’s routes to the first teams show, development is rarely linear. It requires patience. Success at the academy level is not a guaranteed predictor of first-team performance. Successful youth teams do not necessarily produce outstanding individual players, but it is a marker of improvement.

The biggest challenge is for Tottenham’s academy players to perform at — and maintain — the physical levels that Postecoglou’s system demands. According to the Footovision graphic below, Tottenham are sprinting in and out of possession more than any other Premier League team.

Research shows physical output is significantly greater at first-team versus academy level, but that gap is even greater at Tottenham. Postecoglou said recently that academy players have been required to make up numbers in first-team training sessions. Adaptation to increased loading does not happen all at once — it takes time and careful management.

Moore, who can play out wide or as a No 10, jumped straight from the under-18s to the first team this summer. The 17-year-old missed two months at the end of 2024 (due to a virus, not a muscular injury), which prompted Postecoglou to say, “We’re going to take our time” with his development. “We will protect him, and we’ll be guided by how he feels,” the head coach added. Speaking to The Athletic in May 2024, one coach who worked with Moore said, “He’s the first (academy) player for a long time who has a good chance of breaking into the first team.”

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The benefit for Tottenham is that Wayne Burnett and Stuart Lewis — their under-21 and under-18 head coaches — have been in place since the summers of 2017 and 2021. Simon Davies, part of Manchester United’s famous 1992 academy generation, joined the club in 2022 (as head of coaching methodology) and has been academy director since June 2023. That stability is essential to support players progressing through age groups.

Part of the reason Tottenham spent £45million to build the Hotspur Way training ground in 2012 was to boost the academy. Their vision was “to be one of the world’s leading football clubs renowned for a long tradition of developing young talent that plays football the ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ way”. The training ground was to be the “elite environment that attracts, retains and develops top quality players, providing an ongoing supply of academy graduates to the first-team squad”.

Over a decade later, their return on investment is underwhelming — but this generation looks more promising than the ones that preceded it. Postecoglou needs more nights “made in Tottenham” and he might have them soon.

(Top photo: Andrew Milligan/Getty Images)

Back in my early twenties, I was at a party at a rooftop bar trapped in a round of small talk with a friend of a friend. Scrambling around for conversation, I asked her where she came from. “Folkestone,” she said. If you don’t know, that’s a coastal town in Kent, in the south east of England.

Without hesitation, I replied: “Folkestone Invicta” — the name of the town’s local non-league club, currently playing in the seventh tier of English football. To this day, I have never forgotten the look on her face: one of almost total boredom and indifference, but for a trace amount of pity.

Yet, to paraphrase a certain Premier League club’s ‘Brand Playbook’: in a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers, there is only one Invicta — Folkestone Invicta.

And back in 1936, if the club’s founders had thought ‘Invicta’ was unique enough to be the club’s name on its own — no need for the ‘Folkestone’ part — then not only could I have avoided that moment’s awkwardness decades later, but those founders would have been almost a century ahead of their time.

As The Athletic revealed on Friday, Tottenham no longer want you to call them Tottenham. It is ‘Spurs’ for short, thanks. And that’s not the only bit of preferred nomenclature.

“When referring to the team or the brand, please use ‘Tottenham Hotspur’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’ or ‘THFC’,” the club wrote in guidance sent to Premier League broadcasters this month. “Never refer to our Club as ‘Tottenham’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur FC’ or ‘TH’.” Never. Or else.

It raises many questions, not least, what is the material difference between the terms ‘Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’ and ‘Tottenham Hotspur FC’? I don’t know. But I’m going to use the prohibited versions for the rest of this column in the hope of provoking somebody at Tottenham Hotspur FC into telling me.

There is a reason for the ‘Spurs’ preference, at least. Tottenham argue Tottenham is the name of the area, not the name of the club, and this has been their policy for years. Trawl through search engine results and you’ll do well to find a single use of ‘Tottenham’ without ‘Hotspur’ attached to it on the club’s website.

Tottenham have consistently been referred to as ‘Spurs’ in fixture listings on the Premier League’s official website for some time now. Go back through the league’s official social media feeds and practically the only mentions of the word ‘Tottenham’ are references to the ‘Tottenham Hotspur Stadium’.

In a way, the club is merely going back to its roots. When a group of schoolboy cricketers founded the club in 1882, their choice of name was ‘Hotspur FC’. The ‘Tottenham’ was only added two years later because, as the possibly apocryphal tale goes, they began receiving another club called Hotspur’s post.

It is not as if the club has actually changed its name and eradicated any geographical marker altogether, either. Another in north London set the precedent for that back in 1913 upon relocation from Woolwich. So, does any of that make this diktat more explainable?

In response to Friday’s news, some Tottenham fans have rightly said that with Ange Postecoglou’s side in the bottom half of the table, after being knocked out of both domestic cups in the space of three days this month, they and the club itself have bigger things to worry about.

Others have suggested it is simply related to copyright, as the term ‘Spurs’ would be easier to trademark than the name of the surrounding area. Except Tottenham already list the word ‘Tottenham’ among their registered trademarks.

And even if they didn’t, what would that have to do with how the club is referred to on Soccer Saturday’s vidiprinter?

But it is hard not to agree with another strand of the reaction, from the Tottenham fans and supporters of other clubs who see this as a disappointing sign of where football is currently at; another small brick paved in a road that the sport as a whole has already travelled a long way down.

Many Manchester United supporters still lament the removal of the words ‘Football Club’ from the crest in 1998 — controversial at the time, but the same words or the initials ‘F.C.’ are now regularly dispensed with little comment.

Six years ago, Liverpool failed in an attempt to trademark the city’s name for merchandising purposes. Chelsea had more success of a sort earlier this season, celebrating their 120th anniversary with a new, alternative club crest featuring their lion rampant regardant above the letters ‘LDN’.

Similarly, in 2016, West Ham United added the word ‘London’ to their newly-designed crest, although at least put that to a vote among supporters first.

And this sort of thing is far from a Premier League phenomenon. Paris Saint-Germain’s rebranding accentuated the word ‘Paris’ on their logo, not so much the ‘Saint-Germain’, and UEFA uniformly refers to the club as ‘Paris’ rather than ‘PSG’.

On the surface level, Tottenham’s ‘Spurs’ preference is different from some of those examples. Rather than more closely associating themselves with a larger metropolitan surrounding, they have gone the other way: drawing a line between ‘Spurs’ the team and ‘Tottenham’ the area in its justifications.

But there is a common thread between such decisions. All are fundamental attempts to make a club’s identity something that can be more easily swallowed and digested. In other words, something that can be consumed, especially on the global market.

Too often, that comes at the expense of what a club is: its history, its culture, its locality. It is said often enough to be a cliche nowadays, but it is still ignored enough to bear repeating: football clubs are representations of their communities first and foremost, global brands second.

The overwhelming majority of clubs recognise that in the creditable work they do within those communities, but are quick to forget that responsibility in their marketing departments when it is time to think about what will sell better on a plastic water bottle.

Tottenham are by no means alone in that. In fact, it often feels like clubs who want to get ahead in football’s present landscape have to prioritise where they are going over where they have come from. Referring to the club as ‘Spurs’ rather than ‘Tottenham’ is a small but not insignificant shift. And enough to remind me that, one of these days, I might have to get myself down to Folkestone Invicta.

(Top photo: Jacques Feeney/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur defenders Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero should return from injury issues for their Europa League last-16 first leg.

Romero has been absent since the 4-3 defeat by Chelsea on December 8, while Van de Ven last played in the Europa League league-phase win over Elfsborg on January 30. That was the Dutchman’s first appearance since that Chelsea game.

Earlier on Friday, Tottenham were drawn against Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League round of 16. That match will be played on Thursday, March 6, with Spurs facing Ipswich Town on Saturday and Manchester City next Wednesday beforehand.

“No new concerns,” head coach Ange Postecoglou told a news conference on Friday. “From last week, everyone got through OK. The three guys who picked up a knock last week (Kevin Danso, Son Heung-min, Rodrigo Bentancur) are all good. They’ve had a full week to recover. The other guys are ticking along.

“We’ve got two games in quick succession in the league. It’s an opportunity for us to get some match minutes in the guys who’ve been out for a while.

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“We saw Brennan (Johnson) and Wilson (Odobert), Vic (Guglielmo Vicario) come back last week, Destiny (Udogie) as well. We need to get them some match minutes and these two games give us the opportunity to do that.

“Then we’ve got a week before the first Europa game. A weekend off. That’s about the time guys like (Cristian) Romero and Micky (van de Ven), they should be in and around that sort of mark. Richy (Richarlison) and Dom (Solanke) not too far behind.

“(After that) we’ve got two games until the international break. We’re kind of mapping it out and trying to navigate a way where we can have as fit and healthy a squad as we’ve had all year for the run-in.”

Spurs travel to Ipswich having won their last two Premier League games. Postecoglou’s side are 12th in the league, 11 points behind seventh-placed Newcastle United.

(Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)

James Maddison’s early goal fired Tottenham Hotspur to victory over Manchester United in the battle of the Premier League’s great underachievers.

In a face-off between two struggling teams starting the day 14th and 15th in the table, it was Maddison, making his return from a calf injury, who struck the only goal of the game with 13 minutes on the clock, with the midfielder reacting quickest to convert after Andre Onana had palmed away a Lucas Bergvall effort.

Spurs claimed back-to-back league wins for the first time since September (one of those came when they won 3-0 at Old Trafford) and extended their unbeaten run against United to six matches in all competitions.

United, meanwhile, who were forced to name a bench made up almost exclusively of untested academy players, remain firmly rooted in the depths of the bottom half of the table after failing to find an equaliser.

Here, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Carl Anka, Stuart James and Anantaajith Raghuraman break down the main talking points from Spurs’ win.

Tottenham just about get the job done

You would struggle to call this a textbook performance from Tottenham, but it still felt like a step in the right direction. By beating Manchester United 1-0 here in the bitter cold, Spurs completed consecutive Premier League wins for the first time since September.

Back then, just one month into the season, they beat Brentford at home and then United away. At that point, it felt like Spurs were heading for a good season, but since then, injuries have made it impossible for them to show any consistency.

This month, they have recorded wins against the same two teams: that hard-fought 2-0 win away at Brentford two weeks ago and now this. Between those two games, Spurs were knocked out of both domestic cup competitions, which is why it might not feel like they have much momentum. But they are at least moving up the league table.

The fact Spurs welcomed back five players from injury here, two into the starting 11 and three onto the bench, was also significant. Maddison scored the only goal, cleverly pouncing on a rebound from Onana, and dictated possession while he was still on the pitch. Guglielmo Vicario made plenty of saves, keeping Spurs in it as they conceded chance after chance against United.

After pre-game protests against the ownership and the risk of a mutinous atmosphere, it was exactly the result Tottenham needed, even if they cannot play like this every week.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

Garnacho is United’s best goalscoring option — and that’s a problem

The 23rd minute of the game saw United squander a chance of the ‘how have you missed?’ variety.

The xG bods ranked Alejandro Garnacho’s shot at only 0.15 expected goals, but when Bruno Fernandes smuggled the ball past Pedro Porro’s attempted interception and into the path of the young Argentine forward, he looked certain to score. Garnacho may “only” have 13 Premier League goals to his name (in 81 appearances), but he has become United’s most dangerous forward.

The remaining attacking players in Ruben Amorim’s 2024-25 squad lack Garnacho’s ability to attack space and pick up the ball unmarked in the final third. Neither Rasmus Hojlund nor Joshua Zirkzee have Garnacho’s go-getter attitude, where the Carrington academy graduate gets onto the ball and decides to run at defenders as fast as possible, just to stress-test the possibilities. It is unlikely that any United forward will reach 15 Premier League goals this season, but Garnacho is enough of an attacking pest to push closest to it.

However, for all of this faint praise, Garnacho missed a golden opportunity in the 23rd minute. The 20-year-old had time and space to apply his preferred finish, but his decision to strike the ball early and with power, all while leaning back, sent his shot wildly off target.

It was a miss that saw Amorim shake and turn back to his dugout in disappointment. Garnacho’s dismal shot off-target was followed by three much better shots on Vicario’s goal at the end of regulation time. The goalscoring burden rests uneasily on the young forward, who often ignored the runs of Patrick Dorgu at left wing-back as he was so preoccupied with going for glory himself.

Garnacho is nowhere near the finished product. He is only 20 years of age and 2024-25 is only his third season proper as a senior-team player. Yet the current situation means United — one of the biggest football clubs in the world — frequently turn to this relative rookie in the hope he might drag this attack kicking and screaming into competency.

There are matches where Garnacho’s ‘run at the defence until they break’ approach can just about get it done. This Sunday was not one of them.

Carl Anka

An uncomfortable afternoon for Casemiro

For Casemiro, who was making only his third Premier League appearance in 12 matches after spending much of his time since the start of December confined to the substitutes’ bench, this was always going to be a big ask.

At times in the first half, it was uncomfortable viewing, not helped by United’s curious setup out of possession. With Fernandes asked to pull out to the right, Casemiro was left horribly exposed in the middle. “It’s embarrassing. You wouldn’t see this in under-9s or under-10s football,” Gary Neville, the Sky Sports pundit, said in relation to the chasm between Casemiro and Fernandes.

There were multiple United mistakes in the lead-up to the only goal of the game, including the way that Diogo Dalot, with his body position closed, was caught ball-watching at the far post, oblivious to the presence of Son Heung-min behind him and far too preoccupied with Mathys Tel, who Noussair Mazraoui could and should have been marking. But Casemiro was so passive before all that.

When Rodrigo Bentancur strayed out to the right to pick up possession, Casemiro jogged over to the Spurs midfielder. To describe it as half-hearted pressing would be polite — it was the sort of thing you see in the 93rd minute, not the 13th. Bentancur passed inside to Porro, Casemiro followed the ball, and the Spurs right-back stepped around the Brazilian as if he wasn’t there. All the while, Garnacho clocked off, allowing Bentancur to run in behind. A catalogue of errors.

A yellow card later in the first half for a challenge on Son that was only going to end one way reinforced the feeling that Casemiro’s race is run at this level. It was hard, at that stage, to see him getting through the game. That he lasted until the 91st minute said more about the threadbare nature of United’s squad than Casemiro’s influence on a game that has long got away from him.

Stuart James

Tottenham’s midfield takes advantage of United’s brittle middle

United recorded just 34 per cent of possession in the first half at Spurs, their lowest possession percentage in a first half all season.

Tottenham deserve credit for their impressive performance, particularly in midfield where Bergvall, Maddison and Bentancur all brought their A-game. They outworked United, whose structure without the ball was questionable at best and outright poor at worst.

The absence of a right No 10, with Amad out injured and Dorgu at left wing-back, meant Amorim had a selection headache. With Garnacho on the left, the teamsheet suggested Zirkzee would play there.

When Spurs had the ball in the initial stages, United pressed in either a 5-2-3 or 5-3-2 shape, with Garnacho tucking into midfield or joining Hojlund and Zirkzee up top. Tottenham worked their way through this easily due to consistent rotations between Bergvall, Maddison and the inverting Porro, which caused impatience in the United ranks. The pressing structure gradually came apart as Fernandes repeatedly got dragged out of position, leaving gaps that left Amorim frustrated on the sidelines.

After Casemiro fouled Son and play stopped as both recovered from the incident, Amorim called Dalot over and discussed a change in shape. After the restart, right centre-back Mazraoui briefly pushed into midfield, but that experiment was abandoned before it began.

In between these concerns, United’s best chances came from their counter-pressing, which was an occasional plus-point as they seized on mistakes high up the pitch from Spurs, only for Garnacho to spurn their best chance of the half, skying over when faced with Vicario inside the box.

United improved in the second half, with Dalot pushing higher up the pitch on the right to help their press against a tiring Spurs team. It drew mistakes and created a more open game, with chances at both ends. Garnacho forced two good saves from Vicario, while Zirkzee headed just wide from a cross.

But the overall performance raised plenty of concerns about how United will cope if Manuel Ugarte, Kobbie Mainoo and Toby Collyer all remain out for an extended period.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

What did Ange Postecoglou say?

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Postecoglou said: “We made it hard for United to get out and that certainly helped to get a grounding in the game. We looked sharp. The front third movements were missing a bit.

“We lacked a bit of fluency in the front third. We will improve and we need to, but it was a decent effort. They’re all keen to get out there, but game rhythm comes with playing games.”

Discussing the criticism he has faced recently, the Spurs boss added. “Everyone likes an impending car crash. I am sure we had a lot of people willing that scenario on. I know how hard these players have worked.

“Our training was better and I was confident that we would put in a good shift. The focus is still on trying to win games. In the background, we are doing it our own way. We are looking into ways we can do things better, but we are not going to be the only ones.”

What did Ruben Amorim say?

Speaking to BBC Match of the Day after the game, Amorim said: “It was the difference of the game, they scored and we didn’t. We had the opportunities. We had situations in transitions, trying to get a result, but in the end, they scored and we didn’t.

“We want to recover the players, I think we can recover some players for the next game. We have to be together to finish the season and start over.”

When discussing the young players on the bench, the United boss said, “I am trying to be careful with them. I felt the team was pushing for the goal and I felt I don’t want to change. But they will play.

“I am not worried. I understand our fans, what the media think about it. I hate to lose, that feeling is the worst.

“The rest I am not thinking about. I am here to help my players. I understand my situation, my job, I am confident on my work and I just want to win games.

“The place in the table is my worry, I am not worried about me.”

What next for Tottenham?

Saturday, February 22: Ipswich (Away), Premier League, 3pm GMT, 10am ET

What next for Manchester United?

Saturday, February 22: Everton (Away), Premier League, 12.30pm GMT, 7.30am ET

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(Top photo: Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)

It’s safe to say this has so far not been a vintage season for Tottenham Hotspur or Manchester United.

In the past 10 days, Spurs have been eliminated from both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, and for the time being must turn their attention to climbing higher in the Premier League than their current position of 15th. United have at least made it through to the last 16 of the FA Cup, but they too are currently languishing in the bottom half of the league table, one place above Spurs in 14th.

The pair have just three Premier League victories between them over the past two months, and will see winning the Europa League, where both are in Friday’s round of 16 draw, as their only chance of returning to the Champions League next season, and salvaging anything resembling progress on 2023-24.

The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke (Tottenham) and Carl Anka (Manchester United) discuss what has gone wrong for the two clubs this season, any morsels of optimism that can be gleaned from what’s happened so far, and how confident they are of seeing each other at that Europa League final in the Spanish city of Bilbao on May 21…

What has gone wrong this season?

Jack Pitt-Brooke: It is impossible to ignore the injury crisis that has ripped a hole in the Tottenham squad. For much of the past few months, head coach Ange Postecoglou has been without at least 10 players, and has had to cope with long-term absences for some of his most important ones — Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero among them. This has made it impossible for Postecoglou to rotate his team, thereby exhausting those players who have avoided injury. That has made it impossible for Spurs to play the sort of football Postecoglou wants, and they’ve fallen further down the table than anyone could have expected. We could talk all day about the causes of their injury crisis, but that is the simple reason why Tottenham have done so badly.

Carl Anka: How long have you got? Erik ten Hag, United’s manager for the first three months of this season, spent many a press conference talking about the club’s ongoing “game model”, but it was hard to ascertain what the Dutchman was trying to achieve. Successor Ruben Amorim has been very clear on his tactical approach but also about the fact the current squad lacks the requisite physicality to compete with the best teams in the Premier League. Amorim often uses the word “suffering” when talking about United. He’s in charge of a poorly constructed and expensive squad that lacks many key ingredients for dominating modern football matches. United are often slow when using the ball and second-best when competing for loose balls.

How badly does the manager need a positive result right now?

Pitt-Brooke: The remarkable thing about this season is that Spurs’ record in the Premier League has been worse than anyone ever thought possible. They have lost 13 league games (out of 24 played) already and are only 10 points clear of the relegation places. It has been clear for some time that Postecoglou and Spurs can only have a successful season via the cups, which now means just the Europa League. So their season will hinge on that last-16 tie in early March. That said, Spurs have only won one Premier League game in two months, at Brentford a couple of weeks ago. So victory against United on Sunday would certainly help, if only to stop the mood from getting even worse than it already is.

Anka: Amorim’s 20 matches in charge have yielded 10 wins (one of them on penalties), two draws and eight losses. United fans hoping for a ‘new manager bounce’ to heal some wounds and fire the club back into the Champions League are feeling rather underwhelmed. The 40-year-old is a confident and charismatic speaker, but his repetition of how much players and fans will have to “suffer” in the short-to-medium-term future has gotten people antsy. United aren’t very good right now, so Amorim could do with a positive result (not to mention performance) against Spurs to reassure the fans that things will be improving soon.

How close is the team to playing the way the manager wants?

Pitt-Brooke: The lesson of the past few months is that Spurs cannot play ‘Angeball’ without having something closer to a full-strength squad. They have not played it for almost two months now, since the period in the middle of December when they beat Southampton 5-0 in the league and Manchester United 4-3 in the Carabao Cup. For it to work, they need to be able to build up from the back, which means playing left-footers on the left side of their defence. And they need the physical energy to be able to press high up the pitch. When injured players come back and new signings get settled in, they might be able to do that. But with this exhausted, depleted squad, they simply cannot.

Anka: Amorim’s preferred tactical approach is a tad more bespoke, due to its use of wing-backs and how it asks a trio of centre-backs to take care of early build-up play. The arrival of Patrick Dorgu in January should bolster things out wide. Still, the team lack ball carriers and progressive passers in central midfield, and neither Rasmus Hojlund nor Joshua Zirkzee is in great goalscoring form up front. Amorim’s shopping list isn’t full of diva-ish demands, but it might be a little too lengthy to solve in one summer window, especially at a time when United aren’t flush with spending money.

How far away are they from being a top-six team?

Pitt-Brooke: The strange thing about Tottenham this season is that their top level is easily good enough to make them a top-six team. They have produced a handful of brilliant performances — the two wins against Manchester City, the two against Manchester United, the one against Liverpool — and when they are at their best, they are very difficult to stop. The problem, of course, is that Tottenham have only produced that level of form a few times, and have had far more bad days than good ones. Which ultimately is because of their injury crisis, and having a squad that is too thin to compete on multiple fronts. If they want to get back into the top six, they will have to make sure they have a deeper, more robust player pool, so they can find the consistency they have lacked all season.

Anka: Heart says United will be back by the end of 2025-26. Head says it may take longer. It’s not just that Amorim will need a considerable amount of time, money and luck to improve the side to get them back into the top six. It’s also the fact he might need one or two of their rivals for one of those spots (including Spurs) to all have mini-implosions at the same time to open up space. Manchester City are unlikely to be this bad again next season. Arsenal will probably spend money in the summer. Chelsea with a better goalkeeper are a greater threat. Newcastle and Aston Villa aren’t going away any time soon. Nobody expected Nottingham Forest or Bournemouth to be this good. It’s a slugfest to get into the top six and then stay there season on season now.

How do the fans feel about what is happening off the field?

Pitt-Brooke: Not great. The mood among the Spurs fanbase has been more negative this season than it has for years. That is largely down to the struggles of the team on the pitch but is not limited to that. Their anger has been largely directed towards chairman Daniel Levy and the board, with chants of ‘Levy out’ becoming louder and louder at every game. On Sunday, there is a march planned outside the ground before the United match from a group calling itself ‘Change For Tottenham.’

Anka: This week saw The Athletic report that co-owner INEOS is continuing with another round of cost-cutting at the club, with over 100 more people set to lose their jobs. There is a growing awareness that United are in a bad way. But also a growing awareness they don’t have much financial wiggle room to get out of that situation. The mood is pretty bleak, with some of our readers getting in touch to ask for reasons to be cheerful.

What is the lesson each club can learn from the other?

Pitt-Brooke: How not to forge an identity

The lesson Tottenham might learn from United is maybe more of a negative than a positive one. United have spent the past 12 years jumping from idea to idea, from personality to personality, without any clear sense of what their ethos is. It has been hugely expensive and has seen their team get worse rather than better. Spurs are not quite there yet but they have now spent five years changing ideas, hierarchies and managers, and have got nowhere with it. They have far less of an identity today than they did when Mauricio Pochettino was in charge. If they are going to avoid making the same mistakes United have, they will need to show more of a consistent strategy, rather than being drawn from one idea to the next.

Anka: How do you best go about moving stadiums?

Spurs’ new home is an architectural masterpiece, taking cues from American sports culture as to how to make your ground an all-day visit instead of a “kick off-to-full time” viewing experience. United have been in contact with Populous – the architectural design firm behind Spurs’ stadium – and have looked at how they might approach either refurbishing Old Trafford or building a new stadium entirely. United fans should be talking to every Spurs supporter they know about what happens when your club moves to a new home, and what mistakes they need to look out for, before the higher-ups at the club wander into any traps.

What are their reasons to be positive for the future?

Pitt-Brooke: Tottenham have a squad including some of Europe’s most exciting young players. Archie Gray has been brilliant this season in different positions and is still 18 years old. Lucas Bergvall has grown into English football since his arrival from Sweden last summer and only turned 19 this month. Mikey Moore, the most talented player to come out of the Spurs academy for a generation, is 17. Even among the more established players, Mathys Tel is 19, Antonin Kinsky is 21, Destiny Udogie and Pape Matar Sarr are 22 and Radu Dragusin, Brennan Johnson and Micky van de Ven are 23. (Not to forget Wilson Odobert at 20, and Luka Vuskovic, who will be 18 when he arrives in the summer). Put them all together and Spurs have a squad that will surely only get better over the next five years.

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Anka: United’s training base at Carrington continues to develop promising young players.

The first daffodils of spring have been spotted around Manchester, indicating this crap winter weather is nearly finished. If you’re reading this and are based in the northern hemisphere, you’ve just got through the six darkest weeks of the year. Onwards.

Confident of these teams meeting again in the Europa League final in May…?

Pitt-Brooke: Not really. Of course, Spurs are good enough that in theory they could beat anyone and make it through three two-leg ties to reach the final in Bilbao. But we have to be honest about the fact they have not played anywhere near their best in months. Yes, players are now coming back from injury, but recent weeks have shown that not everyone who returns will be able to stay in the team. And their core players — Dejan Kulusevski, Pedro Porro and Son Heung-min — are so exhausted now that they cannot play their best football. Maybe these two free midweeks they’re having this week and next will give those players enough of a rest, and Spurs will be a team transformed in March, just in time for their knockout ties. But if you have watched Tottenham playing recently, would you really bet on it?

Anka: Bilbao is an incredible place to watch football. So much so that friends recommend I book my flights and hotel now, regardless of who makes the final. It’s nice that both teams avoided the competition’s play-off round this month and went straight to the round of 16. Unfortunately, they both have obvious flaws and troubling tendencies to play down a level against “beatable” opposition.

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(Top photos: Getty Images)

Ange Postecoglou’s 18-month spell in charge of Tottenham Hotspur has been defined by an uncompromising commitment to a free-flowing brand of football.

When everything clicks, Spurs can produce impressive results — they have beaten Manchester City and Manchester United twice each already this season. Even when things go wrong, they tend to put up a fight. They lost in a chaotic manner to Liverpool and Chelsea in December but still managed to score three times in both those games.

All of this is what makes their 4-0 away defeat against Liverpool in the second leg of a Carabao Cup semi-final last night so difficult to process. Liverpool suffocated Spurs, who barely put up any form of resistance. It was a soulless performance, and the worst possible way to be eliminated from a competition when so close to a Wembley final.

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Tottenham’s passive approach at Anfield was slightly understandable when they were still holding onto their 1-0 lead from the first leg and in the immediate aftermath of Cody Gakpo’s half-volley which cancelled it out on 34 minutes. When Antonin Kinsky brought down Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah converted a penalty to give Liverpool the lead on aggregate five minutes into the second half, there was no response.

Tottenham were missing a lot of key players, including record signing Dominic Solanke up front, first-choice centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, plus Guglielmo Vicario in goal, playmaker James Maddison and full-back Destiny Udogie.

Liverpool would no doubt have struggled to play with the same fluency without six members of their starting XI but it was the lack of urgency from the visitors which was so concerning. Spurs seemed to lose every 50/50 challenge and be second to every loose ball. Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai was still charging around and crunching into tackles in second-half stoppage time when his team were 4-0 up and assured of that Wembley meeting with Newcastle United on March 16. It is difficult to recall any Tottenham player showing as much hunger and desire, even when the tie was still hanging in the balance.

Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski, their long-serving captain and best player this season respectively, were barely involved.

In Kulusevski’s defence, he looks shattered. The Sweden international has been vocal in the past about how his incredible running capacity, he covered the biggest distance (13.36 km/8.3 miles) of any Premier League player in a single match last season during a 2-1 victory over Everton, sets him apart from his peers but even a Lamborghini can be overtaken by a Vauxhall Corsa if there is not enough petrol in it.

Kulusevski has featured in all 38 of Tottenham’s fixtures this season across four competitions and that workload is obviously taking a toll.

There is no excuse, though, for how awful Spurs were in possession.

Liverpool pressed them into passing the ball backwards until it eventually wound up at the feet of goalkeeper Kinsky. The Czech Republic Under-21 international would then have striker Darwin Nunez darting towards him, so repeatedly hit it long where, inevitably, Virgil van Dijk won the aerial duel against Richarlison and Liverpool regained control.

Tottenham were hopeless when they tried to string a sequence of passes together in central areas. Kevin Danso, making his debut after arriving from Lens on loan with an obligation to buy over the weekend, powerfully surged forward out of defence on a couple of occasions. He would drop the ball off to Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr or Rodrigo Bentancur for them to try to build an attack but, within seconds, would be running back towards his own goal to thwart another Liverpool offensive. Bissouma’s misplaced pass to Sarr led directly to Gakpo’s leveller.

Spurs’ midfielders were creating problems instead of relieving pressure. It was no surprise when Bissouma and Sarr were substituted 10 minutes into the second half, with Tottenham now 2-1 down on aggregate, but do not forget that both of them have been struggling for fitness recently. Yet with limited alternative options, they had to play last night.

There is one statistic which neatly encapsulates this lethargic performance.

Tottenham failed to register a single shot on target in a match for the first time since Postecoglou took charge in summer 2023 and finished with an xG (expected goals) figure of 0.18. The closest they came to scoring was Son’s second-half effort which struck the bar.

This squad had the chance to reach a final and potentially win the club’s first silverware since this same competition in 2008. Why then did they approach the game like it was a meaningless dead-rubber tie at the end of a European group stage? Why did they not pose Liverpool any serious problems? Why did they lose in such a meek manner?

“We’ll learn from tonight, but the major lesson to learn is that we can’t go into games like this looking to protect or try to get results in other ways than what’s got us to this point,” Postecoglou said in the post-match press conference. “I’m sure the players will learn from that, I’m sure they’re disappointed by that. As much as we’ve missed an opportunity to get to a final, what probably hurts even more is that we didn’t really give ourselves a chance with our performance.

“We set the team up and our intent was to go out and play the same way we play every week. We were trying to put pressure on them and unsettle them but it never really materialised. We didn’t really have conviction when we had the ball either, which allowed them to get control of the game.”

Reading between the lines, it feels like Postecoglou is admitting either that he decided to deviate from his usual approach in the biggest game of the season or that the players were incapable of carrying out his instructions. If he tweaked his tactics to be more pragmatic, and the starting midfield combination did suggest that’s what happened, then it backfired. If the players are at fault, then it is hard not to come away thinking that they crumbled under pressure.

It felt apt that the final four players to leave the pitch after applauding the travelling supporters then facing the long, late-night trek back to London were Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Djed Spence and Mathys Tel. Last summer’s signings Bergvall and Gray are supposed to be bright-eyed teenagers but they are now weary veterans of a gruelling campaign.

Spence is the former outcast who has become an integral part of Postecoglou’s plans and should have been utilised more at the beginning of the campaign to give others, including Udogie and Pedro Porro, sufficient rest. He was deployed at left-back and, for a brief 15-minute spell, on the right wing against Liverpool. It was a desperate roll of the dice which, unsurprisingly, did not work.

Tel represents the future. The 19-year-old French forward, signed initially on loan from Bayern Munich on deadline day at the start of the week, and Spurs as a whole, have a lot of potential, but are the conditions right for them to maximise it?

GO DEEPER

Listen: Can Mathys Tel provide a much-needed spark to Tottenham's front line?

A huge burden is being placed on the shoulders of these four players,

Richarlison’s calf injury which forced him off at half-time last night suggests Tel will make his first start away to Aston Villa in the FA Cup’s fourth round on Sunday. These youngsters should be leaning on the senior players for support and guidance in games of this magnitude, not the other way around.

This was always going to be a huge week for Spurs and Postecoglou. They have failed their first test of it and cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes at Villa Park.

(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)

The last few days of the transfer window were a whirlwind for Tottenham Hotspur.

On Thursday, Ange Postecoglou was looking forward to welcoming Micky van de Ven back from a six-week absence as their injury crisis showed signs of clearing up. Van de Ven played the entire first half of a 3-0 victory over Elfsborg in the Europa League and was replaced at the break by Radu Dragusin in a planned substitution.

Dragusin hobbled off the pitch 20 minutes later after landing awkwardly and clutching his right knee in pain. The Athletic revealed on Monday that the 23-year-old defender suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

Van de Ven missed Sunday’s victory over Brentford, while Cristian Romero’s recovery from a quad injury has been described as a “slow burner” by Postecoglou. Spurs were heading into the biggest week of their season, with important cup ties against Liverpool and Aston Villa, once again with question marks over who would play at the back.

They sprang into action over the weekend by hijacking Wolverhampton Wanderers’ move for Kevin Danso and launching an audacious but unsuccessful bid to sign Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi. A proposed move for 19-year-old forward Mathys Tel appeared to have collapsed on Friday, but 72 hours later, it was resurrected and he joined on loan from Bayern Munich with an option to buy for €55m.

Here, The Athletic takes a deep breath and breaks down a manic month…

Was this window a success or a failure?

Tottenham desperately needed defensive reinforcements and a new goalkeeper in this transfer window. They ticked both of those boxes with Kinsky and Danso, but the latter did not arrive until the day before the window closed. Spurs played nine games in all competitions over the past month and, ideally, the 26-year-old centre-back would have arrived from Lens a lot earlier to ease the burden on Archie Gray and Dragusin.

Even with Danso’s acquisition, Spurs are still short of options in defence. Acquiring Guehi from Crystal Palace would have been a statement signing, but they did not come close to pulling it off.

Postecoglou has spoken publicly on multiple occasions about the need for more firepower. Tottenham failed in their pursuit of Randal Kolo Muani early in the window but eventually managed to sign the talented but raw Tel.

Despite completing three deals, Spurs are in a similar position to the start of the window. The squad is full of holes due to their injury crisis and it will be a challenge to perform at a high level in four competitions over the final few months of the campaign.

How much did they spend and how much did they bring in?

Spurs paid Slavia Prague £13.3million for Kinsky, while Danso’s loan deal includes an obligation to buy for €25m in the summer.

Tel has joined on loan until the end of the season, but the move can be made permanent. Tottenham have not actually spent a lot of money in this window but have committed to some big fees in the summer.

They did not raise any money as the only departures were loans, with 19-year-old striker Will Lankshear moving to West Bromwich Albion and Yang-Min hyeok heading to Queens Park Rangers.

Was there a standout signing?

Tel’s career has stalled with Bayern Munich but he is still an exciting prospect, while Danso should slot into the starting XI straight away. Both will hope to make an impact as big and as quick as Kinsky.

He made his debut for Spurs in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool. It was a huge challenge for the 21-year-old, who had spent the previous couple of weeks relaxing during the Czech Republic top flight’s winter break. He had just jumped out of the sauna when he received a phone call about Tottenham’s interest in signing him.

Kinsky only trained with his new team-mates twice before he produced a superb performance and kept a clean sheet in an important 1-0 victory over Liverpool that has given them a chance of reaching Wembley.

Fraser Forster had been deputising for the injured first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and he looked awkward playing the ball out from the back. Kinsky’s calmness in possession means he is a significant upgrade on Forster and will challenge Vicario long-term.

The Czech Republic Under-21 international has made one or two sloppy mistakes in other games, including the north London derby when Kai Havertz blocked his pass inside the box, but it is important to remember he is a young player who has been thrust straight into an underperforming and injury-ravaged team.

Did they lose anyone they would have wanted to keep?

None of the senior players left as even those who had previously been on the fringes, including Sergio Reguilon and Djed Spence, have received significant game time in the past couple of months.

Are there still any obvious gaps in the team?

The day before Spurs lost to Bournemouth in December, Postecoglou spoke about providing club-record signing Dominic Solanke with more support up front.

“There’s no doubt we need some bolstering in that front third over the next couple of transfer windows,” he said. “Dom coming in has been great, but again, we can’t overload him either because ultimately, you know, even if he stays fit and nothing happens, performance will invariably drop if his energy levels drop. So it’s something we’re aware of and need to plan for.”

Richarlison’s return from injury was supposed to help the situation, but Solanke then suffered a knee injury in training. Son Heung-min has underperformed this season, while Timo Werner has only scored twice in his last 30 top-flight appearances. Werner’s last league goal came in a 4-0 victory at Aston Villa in March 2024. Meanwhile, Wilson Odobert’s first year in north London has been disrupted by a persistent hamstring injury.

Spurs managed to sign Tel to boost their numbers, but it would be unfair to place too much pressure on his shoulders. They still need to sign an elite, peak-age forward who is capable of covering multiple positions.

Are they now strong enough to achieve their goals for the season?

The real question here is: ‘Do Spurs have a strong enough squad to beat Liverpool in their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg on Thursday evening?’

Van de Ven managed 45 minutes on his return from a hamstring injury against Elfsborg but then missed Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Brentford, while Dragusin will not feature again this season.

There is a group of six players, which includes Destiny Udogie, James Maddison and Brennan Johnson, who are due to return in the next week, but might not recover quickly enough to feature at Anfield.

Postecoglou has to decide whether to give Danso his debut against Liverpool or stick with Ben Davies and Archie Gray at centre-back. Solanke’s absence is a blow, but Richarlison has scored twice in his six games since returning from injury.

It is going to be difficult to beat Liverpool, but looking further ahead, when everybody is fit and healthy, they have a squad capable of reaching the Europa League final and progressing deep in the FA Cup.

What is their priority for the summer?

Signing an elite, multi-functional forward who can relieve some of the goalscoring burden from Solanke.

What is their strongest XI now the window is shut?

The full list of ins and outs

Ins:

Mathys Tel (Bayern Munich, loan with option to buy)

Kevin Danso (Lens, loan with obligation to buy)

Antonin Kinsky (Slavia Prague)

Yang Min-hyeok (Gangwon FC)

Outs:

Will Lankshear (West Bromwich Albion, loan)

Yang Min-hyeok (Queens Park Rangers, loan)

(Top photos: Getty Images)