The New York Times

Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven has signed a new contract with the club.

The Athletic reported on Thursday that the centre-back was close to agreeing a new long-term deal, with his previous terms set to expire in 2029.

Van de Ven is the third Tottenham player this summer to sign a new contract after right-back Pedro Porro and goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky both renewed with the club.

The 25-year-old made 45 appearances in all competitions last season, scoring seven goals, as Spurs narrowly avoided relegation and finished 17th in the Premier League. He captained the side on 18 occasions last season in the absences of Cristian Romero and James Maddison in the starting lineup.

“I’ve always loved Spurs, from the first day I stepped in here. I love the club, I love the fans and I’ve developed really well here,” Van de Ven said after his new contract was announced.

“It’s clear the direction the club wants to go in and I want to be a part of it. I’m excited about what’s to come.”

Tottenham head coach Roberto De Zerbi described Van de Ven as “one of the best centre-backs in Europe”.

“He has the qualities, mentality and ambition that we want at Tottenham Hotspur, and I am very happy that he has decided to continue his journey with the club,” De Zerbi added.

“We are building something strong here, and players like Micky are an important part of that future. His decision to sign a new contract shows his belief in what we are creating together.”

Van de Ven joined Tottenham in August 2023 from German side Wolfsburg in a deal worth £43million (€50m) including add-ons. He has featured 96 times for the north London club, helping the side win the Europa League in 2025 under Ange Postecoglou and ending a run of 17 years without a trophy.

Everton are in talks to sign Brennan Johnson from Crystal Palace in a deal that could see Dwight McNeil move to Selhurst Park.

Johnson and McNeil are set to undergo medicals at their prospective new clubs on Monday.

Johnson, 25, only joined Palace from Tottenham Hotspur in January, while McNeil, 26, has been at Everton since the summer of 2022. The latter was close to a move to Palace in the winter transfer window, before the transfer fell through due to the relevant paperwork not being completed on time.

However, talks between the two clubs are continuing over a move that would see the two wingers complete transfers.

McNeil has one year remaining on his Everton contract while Johnson has been a long-term target for the Merseyside club, dating back to his spell at Nottingham Forest which preceded his move to Tottenham Hotspur.

Johnson joined Palace in a deal worth £35million (€40m; $47m), a then-club record transfer fee, from Spurs earlier this year.

However, the Wales international has failed to make a significant impact at the south London club. He has made 26 appearances, starting 16 games and providing two assists. He was an unused substitute in Palace’s UEFA Conference League final victory over Rayo Vallecano in May.

McNeil, meanwhile, has spent four seasons at Everton since moving from Burnley four years ago. The former England youth international, who previously spent time in Manchester United’s youth academy, has scored 15 goals and provided 19 assists in 128 games for the Merseyside club.

Last season, the versatile winger, who has also been deployed in attacking midfield roles, was deemed surplus to requirements at Everton. McNeil saw a deadline day loan-with-obligation move to Palace collapse late in the window. He had undergone a medical and a deal sheet had been filed, granting Palace a further two hours after the deadline to complete the move, but the final paperwork never arrived. The deadline passed without further communication from the south London club.

McNeil shared a lengthy Instagram post from his partner Megan Sharpley following the collapse of the deadline day deal. The post read: “(To have something) torn away from you at the last second, with absolutely no explanation.

“Going from everything — to radio silence, no phone call, no communication, and be left, broken hearted with nothing but confusion hurts more than I can say.”

As Cristian Romero pulls on the famous red shirt, he hums the words to North London Forever before making his way into the tunnel at the Emirates Stadium.

As the team walk out onto the pitch, Romero high-fives mascot Gunnersaurus, who points to the Argentinian’s brand new ‘Once a Gooner, always a Gooner’ tattoo on his right calf and gives a thumbs up.

Unlikely? FantasyLand? Well, if Arsenal pursue their surprise interest in the 28-year-old centre-back, perhaps not.

Not that Tottenham Hotspur appear willing to consider an approach from their neighbours and bitter rivals for their captain, let alone sanction a sale.

He may have been born in Cordoba, northern Argentina, but after five years at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the notion of Romero being allowed to head the four miles south to the Emirates feels extremely problematic at best, sacrilegious at worst.

And yet, it wouldn’t even be the most controversial transfer in the history of the Arsenal-Spurs rivalry, let alone English football and certainly not globally. It would, though, add to the list of highly-disputed mooted moves that never happened.

“I was asking myself why he’d choose Arsenal when you know how much it’s going to affect your personal life,” ex-Spurs defender Stephen Clemence previously told The Athletic. “That’s what surprised me most about his decision. You turn your whole life upside down with a move like that.”

Sol Campbell was heading towards Tottenham-legend territory. Born a 30-minute drive from White Hart Lane in the Plaistow district of east London, academy graduate Campbell was still a teenager when he made his first-team debut for Spurs and would blossom into one of the Premier League’s best defenders, an England regular, their captain who lifted the League Cup in 1999 and a player who made more than 300 appearances for them.

Then, aged 26, he left on a free transfer to further his career ambitions. Disappointing, yes, but understandable. Inter of Italy and Spain’s Barcelona were possible destinations, but instead Campbell shocked English football and caused unimaginable consternation and fury… by joining Arsenal.

Spurs fans took this very, very well.

They hung an effigy of Campbell from a lamppost on Tottenham High Road, flooded their stadium with ‘Judas’ banners when he returned as an Arsenal player, threw drink bottles and missiles in his direction and endlessly chanted ‘scum’, among many worse words. His new Arsenal team-mates had booed Campbell in training to prepare him for the reception but, well, nothing could quite compare to the abuse he took.

“In hindsight, I’m not sure if I would sign him again, bearing in mind the difficulties he faced,” Arsenal’s then manager Arsene Wenger later said.

It was the most controversial transfer in modern English football history, but one Campbell could justify via the two Premier League titles and three FA Cups he won in six seasons with Arsenal. “Spurs fans have not forgotten it, but it was the best thing I could have done for myself,” Campbell said.

Fellow defender William Gallas may have gone in the opposite direction to Tottenham (also on a free) a few years later, but nothing has compared to Campbell’s move since.

Imagine Bruno Guimaraes ditching this week’s Arsenal move to join Sunderland from Newcastle United instead, or Erling Haaland swapping Manchester City for neighbours United and you’d have something comparable.

The latter switch is not without precedent, though.

Carlos Tevez sort-of swapped Old Trafford for the Etihad Stadium in 2009; he had won two Premier League titles in two seasons having been loaned to United for two years from West Ham but, having elected not to join the club permanently that summer (despite United wanting to sign him), he instead went to City.

This was before their dominance era, so the old noisy neighbours wanted to make a big song and dance out of the deal and erected a huge ‘Welcome to Manchester’ billboard to reflect what would soon be a changing of the guard in the city.

It was a marketing idea laced with genius, although United manager Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t quite see it that way, calling the stunt “stupid and arrogant”.

The Manchester rivalry is fairly hate-filled, so Wayne Rooney’s dalliance with City when he submitted a transfer request at United in 2010 was pretty controversial, ditto Cristiano Ronaldo’s flirtation with the Etihad in 2021 before he returned to Old Trafford after more than a decade with Real Madrid and Juventus. But it’s nothing compared with United’s rivalry with Liverpool.

Players swapping one of those clubs for the other is almost unheard of, to the extent that it has not happened since 1964, when Phil Chisnall moved to Anfield for £25,000 ($34,000) when the rivalry was devoid of the intensity that fills it now.

Even playing for both clubs in a career is rare, with only two men doing it in the Premier League era: Paul Ince (in 1997, two years after leaving United for Inter) and Michael Owen, with the latter seen by many Liverpool fans as a traitor for moving to Old Trafford in 2009, five years after leaving Anfield for Real Madrid.

Only one player has come close to leaving one for the other in modern times, although given United’s staunch opposition to the mooted deal, it perhaps never came that close at all.

Defender Gabriel Heinze wanted to leave in 2007, having lost his place in the team to Patrice Evra. Liverpool were his preferred destination and submitted a bid of £6.8million, which they believed met a minimum-fee release clause.

But United rejected it, and the dispute became bitter. Heinze believed the offer should legally have been accepted, so it went all the way to a Premier League tribunal, which ruled in United’s favour. Heinze never played for them again, eventually joining Real Madrid that same summer.

The Argentina international defender, now a coach at Arsenal, came to regret the saga. He said in 2011: “I was aware of the rivalry, I knew the risk of going from Manchester to Liverpool and what it means. I hope it doesn’t tarnish the way they (supporters) see me and they will remember the three years I had in the team.”

Given how unpopular United are with many other fanbases, moving there can destroy a legacy, like when Robin van Persie joined from Arsenal in 2012, or Alan Smith, who was Leeds United through and through before he broke Yorkshire hearts when signing for the team they despise like no other in 2004.

Steven Gerrard had his Liverpool legacy and connection in mind when he rebuffed Chelsea in 2005 after a long, protracted dalliance with the best team in England at the time, albeit he had just won the Champions League under Rafael Benitez.

“I’d have regretted it for the rest of my life,” Gerrard said recently of moving to Stamford Bridge.

“I went to see my dad and my brother, who are two Liverpool fans, and they completely took all the external out of it and just said, ‘If you go and win two or three Premier Leagues, or a European Cup, with Chelsea or Inter Milan, or Real Madrid, will it be good?’

“And I went, ‘Yeah, of course it will be good, because you’ve won’. They said, ‘But will it be good or better than if you win one more trophy with Liverpool?’ And I said, ‘No, I’d feel better to do it with Liverpool’. They said, ‘Well, just make it all go away’. And it all went away.”

Transfers just do not happen between certain clubs, like Glasgow’s big two Celtic and Rangers, for example, given their deep-seated rivalry which encompasses far more than football.

Rangers famously had an unwritten policy against signing Catholic players, which was smashed in 1989 when former Celtic striker Mo Johnston joined from French club Nantes. It was hugely controversial.

Johnston’s agent Bill McMurdo later said: “After the signing, Maurice and I had security with us 24 hours a day. I had people stay in my house for six months, and Maurice had a minder with him all the time.”

It takes an audacious player to sign for both Celtic and Rangers during their whole career, with Kenny Miller and Steven Pressley among a very small post-Second World War number to have done it.

It’s a similar story with Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain. Only a handful have moved directly between the clubs in the past 50 years, such as Argentine striker Javier Saviola in 2007 (he joined Madrid on a free transfer after his Barca contract expired) and Spain midfielder (and now Paris Saint-Germain head coach) Luis Enrique, who went the other way in the same circumstances in 1996.

When he returned to Camp Nou in a Madrid shirt, glass whisky bottles were thrown onto the pitch by angry fans, and every time Figo took a corner, the game had to be halted due to the barrage of missiles hurled in his direction.

“When we warmed up and saw that atmosphere, I’d have been happy if the referee decided to call off the game,” then Madrid full-back Roberto Carlos said.

It got worse two years later, when a pig’s head was thrown at Figo during a Barca-Madrid match.

Romero may or may not have it that bad at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as an Arsenal player if he makes this move, but it might be wise not to find out.

West Ham United have reached an agreement in principle to sign winger Manor Solomon from Tottenham Hotspur.

The Athletic reported that talks between the clubs were on hold for financial reasons, with West Ham not willing to agree to the bonuses Spurs were asking for if West Ham were to achieve promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

However, the two teams have now reached an agreement in principle on a deal for the Israel international that includes a £5million transfer fee plus £2m in potential add-ons. The deal would also include a 10 per cent sell-on clause.

Solomon, 27, has featured prominently in pre-season for Tottenham this summer but has only played six competitive games for the club since joining in 2023 as a free agent, with his most recent appearance coming as a substitute against Liverpool in September of that year. He suffered a meniscus injury in his right knee shortly after, ruling him out of the rest of the campaign.

The following season, Solomon enjoyed a successful loan spell at Leeds United, helping the side achieve promotion to the Premier League as Championship winners, scoring 10 goals in the second tier.

In 2025-26, Crystal Palace held talks over signing Solomon before he joined Spanish side Villarreal on loan. He was recalled in January and subsequently loaned out to Fiorentina in Italy, where he scored twice in 19 appearances.

Solomon’s proposed move would be the second deal between the two clubs this summer after midfielder Mateus Fernandes left West Ham for Spurs in a deal worth £85m.

He is set to be the second new arrival of the summer at the London Stadium following the signing of former Brighton & Hove Albion defender Joel Veltman as a free agent. Winger Keiber Lamadrid also had his loan spell converted into a permanent move.

West Ham played their first competitive game of the season on Saturday, defeating Portsmouth 3-1 in the first round of the Carabao Cup. Nuno Espirito Santo’s team get their Championship season underway with a visit to fellow relegated side Burnley on August 16.

Tottenham Hotspur’s transfer activity this summer has taken just about everybody by surprise.

We are not talking only about spending nearly £250million on six new signings, breaking their transfer record twice in the process with the arrivals of Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali from West Ham United and Newcastle United respectively, but also making strategic sales.

Chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham has spoken publicly on multiple occasions about how Spurs need to improve at selling. Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester City are the best examples of top clubs who are unafraid to cash in on their young talent and reinvest the fees received into the first-team squad.

Luka Vuskovic was 16 years old when Tottenham agreed to sign him from Hajduk Split in his native Croatia. Vuskovic officially moved to north London only last summer after turning 18, then spent the season on loan with German side Hamburg.

The centre-back’s £46million transfer to Brighton & Hove Albion in July feels bittersweet, as he never made an official first-team appearance for Spurs, but that money represents a significant profit on the £12m they paid for him. The 19-year-old has no Premier League experience, and would have been stuck behind new signing Jan Paul van Hecke and Kevin Danso for playing time in the right-sided centre-back spot.

Vuskovic is this summer’s headline sale, and the third biggest in the club’s history behind Gareth Bale and Harry Kane, but Tottenham have extracted value from other players on the fringes of their first team.

Will Lankshear joined Middlesbrough of the Championship last month in a deal worth £10million, with another £10m to possibly follow in add-ons. Ashley Phillips, who has spent the past two seasons on loan to Stoke City in that same division, is following Lankshear to the Riverside Stadium for an initial £7m, which could rise to £20m.

Alejo Veliz and Alfie Devine have moved permanently to Brazilian side Bahia and the Championship’s Preston North End respectively, while 18-year-old winger Tynan Thompson joined Manchester United for up to £8m.

Spurs have inserted sell-on clauses into most of these deals, and have matching rights for Vuskovic, Lankshear and Thompson.

Those six players had a combined total of less than 20 senior appearances for Tottenham, but if you add all of their fees together, they cover a significant chunk of the club-record £100million they are paying Newcastle United for Tonali.

In an ideal world, these players would become first-team stars at Tottenham, but it is not always possible. Sometimes, letting young talent leave is right for all parties.

Spurs have not always sold well when it comes to academy players who don’t become senior squad regulars.

Over the past five years, their best deals of that kind were Cameron Carter-Vickers’ move to Scottish giants Celtic and Troy Parrott’s €8million (£6.9m/$9.2m at the current rates) sale to AZ of the Netherlands. Last summer, the only significant departure was Josh Keeley’s £1m switch to Luton Town of third-tier League One.

It is no coincidence that they have raised a lot of money offloading youngsters this summer. Considered and sometimes bold decisions have been made about their development by head of loans and pathways Andy Scoulding and academy director Simon Davies, which have finally come to fruition.

Vuskovic spent time on loan with Polish side Radomiak Radom and Westerlo of Belgium as well as Hamburg. Westerlo were viewed as a good opportunity because they play top-flight football but do not attract a lot of attention. Vuskovic could make mistakes and grow without intense pressure. There was a huge emotional draw for Vuskovic to join Hamburg — his older brother Mario is contracted to them but is serving a doping ban until this November — and it was seen as a natural next step in a more competitive environment.

Mikey Moore initially struggled after joining Rangers in Scotland’s Premiership last summer. In September, the winger was substituted at half-time twice in less than two weeks during home defeats to Hearts and Belgium’s Genk. The now 18-year-old did not score his first goal for Rangers until November and then missed the next four games with a muscle injury.

“I wanted to go somewhere there was a lot riding on it every week,” Moore told The Athletic in April. “I didn’t want to go somewhere we were mid-table and you’re not bothered if you lose. If you lose at Rangers, it’s a disaster.”

Moore is one of the most highly-rated players to emerge from Tottenham’s academy in the past decade and needs to be prepared for intense scrutiny. Scoulding, who previously worked for Rangers as their chief scout, helped to facilitate his loan move to Glasgow.

Having impressed for Spurs on this summer’s pre-season tour to Australia and New Zealand, Moore is close to joining Koln of the Bundesliga on loan.

There is a track record of young English players, including Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho, flourishing in Germany’s top flight. The transitional and chaotic nature of Bundesliga football allows forwards to thrive in open spaces and its 18 clubs gave the second-most minutes to under-21 players across the top five European leagues last season.

Learning a new culture and language will present Moore with a different challenge but he should earn enough playing time to thrive in Cologne, especially as he would be linking up with fellow England youth internationals Reigan Heskey, 18-year-old son of ex-Liverpool and Wigan Athletic forward Emile, and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, 20, who both joined Koln permanently from Manchester City earlier this summer.

A successful season in Germany will either give Moore a springboard to break into Roberto De Zerbi’s squad back at Tottenham or hugely increase his value and options for the next step in his career.

While Moore was competing in the Europa League with Rangers, Lankshear suffered relegation from the Championship on loan at Oxford United. Despite the difficult circumstances, he scored 12 goals in 47 appearances and was named Oxford’s Young Player of the Year, drawing the attention of many other sides in that division.

Not every loan goes according to plan. Lankshear worked under two different head coaches in a short spell with West Bromwich Albion in the second half of the 2024-25 season. On paper, it looked like a disappointment because he failed to score or provide an assist in 11 appearances, but that experience enabled the now 21-year-old to shine when farmed out again to Oxford a few months later.

“I had a taste of the Premier League, where everything is really intense and everyone is so good,” he told The Athletic shortly before signing for Oxford. “In the Championship, there are more aerial duels, and it’s more physical. That was my biggest lesson. Being able to adapt. Learning, putting it all together, and trying to get better at everything.

“West Brom was massive for my development. Even though the goals didn’t come, I had some really good games. I learned loads: the managers, what they would like, different systems. I loved it. They treated me really well, and I enjoyed it.”

Jamie Donley was superb for Leyton Orient of League One in the 2024-25 season, including famously scoring from near the halfway line in an FA Cup tie against Manchester City, but then only played four times when he stepped up to the second-tier with Stoke for what was supposed to be a year’s loan and ended that campaign as a team-mate of Lankshear’s at Oxford.

Going further back, Parrott’s career was stalling after a series of loans across the Championship and League One. Spurs encouraged him to try something different by joining Excelsior of the Netherlands for 2023-24. Parrott finished the season with 10 goals in 25 league appearances, earning that permanent move to fellow Dutch side AZ. Barely a year after struggling for game time at Preston in England’s second tier, the Irishman was scoring for fun in the Eredivisie and Europa League.

Capping two successful seasons with AZ, Parrott helped them win the Dutch Cup in April. Tottenham will benefit from the sell-on clause they inserted into the original deal that took him to Alkmaar if he leaves this summer.

The knock-on effect of the successes of Moore, Phillips and Lankshear, who scored on his official Middlesbrough debut Friday night as they beat Wrexham 1-0 in the first round of the Carabao Cup, is that the reputation of other young players at Tottenham will improve.

There was a huge amount of interest in Mason Melia before the 18-year-old striker decided to join newly-promoted Lincoln City in the second tier on a season-long loan. Spurs’ staff believe Melia’s style of play fits with Lincoln, in and out of possession, which should help him to make a strong impression.

This all also makes life easier for head of academy recruitment Jack Chapman when he pitches a move to Tottenham to potential new signings, as he can detail a proven development pathway. It should help with contract renewals, too.

Luca Williams-Barnett and Jun’ai Byfield both made their Spurs first-team debuts last season and turn 18 later this year. When they do, De Zerbi, sporting director Johan Lange, Scoulding and Davies need to decide if it is better for them to remain with the senior squad or gain experience by going out on their first loans.

Tottenham do need to ensure a genuine pathway into their first team exists and that academy players do not just become assets who get developed elsewhere and sold long-term.

If selling young talent has been easy for Spurs this summer, then they have a challenge over the remainder of the window with more senior players.

There is a strong chance that current captain Cristian Romero will leave. The Argentina international centre-back is attracting interest from Atletico Madrid, Inter and, surprisingly, north London rivals Arsenal. Inter have verbally agreed in principle a fee of around €40million for the 28-year-old, but personal terms are yet to be nailed down.

Guglielmo Vicario could depart after being replaced as first-choice goalkeeper by Antonin Kinsky, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest have seen offers for midfielder Lucas Bergvall rejected and De Zerbi admitted during the pre-season tour that the club’s 2025-26 top goalscorer Richarlison “sometimes wants to leave”.

There will be some tough negotiations, but Spurs should be pleased with the sales they have already made.

Roberto De Zerbi was crucial in Jan Paul van Hecke signing for Tottenham Hotspur, describing him as his ‘son’ when Johan Lange broached the prospect of pursuing his signature earlier this year.

But before Van Hecke was considered part of the Italian’s family, he was something of a problem student.

“At the beginning, (we argued) because he had such a way of playing, and I needed to get used to it,” Van Hecke says, reflecting on their time spent together at Brighton & Hove Albion between 2022 and 2024. “Sometimes you’re getting out of playing, and then sometimes you’re arguing over some things.”

Van Hecke spent the 2021-22 season on loan at Blackburn Rovers, where he earned their player of the year award and was considered one of the best defenders in the Championship. He might have expected to be competing for a starting spot immediately at Brighton the following term, De Zerbi’s first in charge after replacing Graham Potter in the September, but as he mentions, it took a while for the newcomer to trust him.

After an uncomfortable teething period, Van Hecke broke into the team in the latter part of that season, earning his first league start in a 2-2 draw with Leicester City in the January after impressing in a 5-1 away win against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup earlier that month. He remained a bit-part player as Brighton marched to a club-record sixth-placed finish and Europa League qualification, but established himself in the 2023-24 campaign.

Having started out at each other’s throats, Van Hecke was one of De Zerbi’s favourites in his second season.

He described the Dutchman as a “great player”, who had made an “incredible” and “surprise” development into a key starter, and one of the Premier League’s brightest centre-back prospects.

While De Zerbi was, and is often, keen to credit his rapid progress to the player, Van Hecke laid the plaudits at his coach’s door. When De Zerbi left Brighton in the summer of 2024, he wrote on Instagram, “Gaffer, thank you very much! You changed my life! I’m really thankful for what you did for me. I’m really upset you are leaving.”

Having “changed (his) life”, to quote Van Hecke, it’s no wonder Tottenham stole a march on London rivals Chelsea to secure his signature this summer — demonstrating the sheer pulling power of their magnetic coach.

“But I think that’s a nice thing in football,” Van Hecke continues. “In the end, the manager wants the best, and the player wants the best, and then you push each other to the next level.

“We still speak about it sometimes now. He’s joking about it, like, ‘Do you remember our first few months?’ And then you see what happens.”

While De Zerbi may have added the final flourish, this was a deal Tottenham had been working on long before his appointment in late March. Van Hecke was identified as a priority target for this window last summer, with Spurs alert to an attractive market opportunity as his contract entered its final 12 months.

Sporting director Lange went to Amsterdam in March, between the 5-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League and the 1-1 draw against Liverpool a few days later, to progress discussions with his agent.

Much of the potential transfer hinged on whether Spurs stayed in the Premier League, which they eventually confirmed with a 1-0 win over Everton on the campaign’s final day.

But before they did, Van Hecke was at the heart of the action as Tottenham drew 2-2 with Brighton in the second of De Zerbi’s seven games in charge. It was his error in possession that led to countryman Xavi Simons putting Spurs ahead in the second half, but he made up for his mistake in the dying minutes of stoppage time, assisting for Georginio Rutter to equalise and drain the life out of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium crowd.

Van Hecke describes the events leading up to his signing as a “funny story” that they can “have a laugh about”.

In an interview with a group of reporters, including The Athletic, De Zerbi said the defender was the second person, after his daughter, that he texted in his office after that Everton match, telling him, “now you have to come to me, yes or yes, you have no choice!”

De Zerbi is also adamant that Tottenham’s work in the current window is only about “60 per cent” done, with a focus on adding one or two high-profile attacking signings. Being one of several major additions this summer was another thing that attracted Van Hecke to the project in north London, with midfielders Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes following him through the door for combined fees of up to £185million.

“That’s what the club said to me,” he says. “You’re one of them, and of course it’s also nice that you’re the first one, or one of the first ones. And they say there will be more signings, more good players, then you see other players coming as well. So that’s a really good thing.

“(Fernandes and Tonali) are top-quality players, Premier League-proven players, talented players. And on top of that, we already have some good players, a lot of good players here. I think that could be a real combination.”

No doubt one of the players whom he is excited to play alongside is Micky van de Ven, one of his closest friends in football. Ten months separate the centre-back duo, who often played together in the Netherlands’ age-group sides, with a ready-made bond fostered during the recent World Cup and on regular coffee outings in Sydney during pre-season. And while Van de Ven has typically been a left-back under Ronald Koeman at international level, they should have no issues getting up to speed as a central partnership in the Premier League.

“I’m really good friends with Micky,” he says. “Even before the transfer was made, we always spoke about football and the club. He already told me that it’s an amazing club. When I came here, I could see straight away from the first day that this is a really big club, and I can’t wait to start in the Premier League.

“(Playing as a centre-back pair) is what we did in the under-21s. So that’s already years ago, we played together as a couple. Now I hope to play as many games with him, and hopefully it can be a really good partnership.”

They were accompanied on a trip to Sydney’s Bondi Beach by James Maddison, a leader in the group at Tottenham who unites the natural (first language, age, positional) sects of the dressing room. Characters such as Maddison make it easier, as does Van de Ven, who has assumed a larger leadership role in the past 12 months, and Van Hecke has had no problems fitting in with the wider group so far.

“(They’re) really good guys,” he says. “Really open and tried to help me straight away from the first minute. I felt, straight away, welcome. Of course I’m a bit used to the English culture, and I know how it works. I know the Premier League. It’s not totally new, but of course a new club, new faces, new players, new staff. Everyone has been great so far, and I just can’t wait to now get started.”

And if De Zerbi can deliver on the training pitch, it won’t just be new faces at Tottenham in the coming months, but an entirely new way of playing.

When he arrived late last season, the 47-year-old focused on shifting the club’s mindset from the top down, telling staff members he would immediately send them home if they were negative. This summer, it’s all about implementing De Zerbi-ball.

There were flashes in the 2-1 pre-season win against Chelsea in Sydney on Saturday of the possession-heavy style with the ball and an aggressive approach without it, and Van Hecke, who knows it from Brighton, suggests Spurs fans can look forward to excitement and domination.

“It’s attacking-style football,” he says. “Try to dominate teams, play out from the back, and score a lot of goals. I think you saw in his former teams that they scored a lot of goals. I think it’s exciting to watch. Of course, there’s a lot of work to do, because to play that kind of football you need a lot of work on the training pitch. That’s what we’re doing now. I think: so far, so good.

“Obviously we’ve improved, but we have a really strong team and really good managers. I think that could be a really good combination this season.”

Atletico Madrid have renewed their interest in Tottenham Hotspur’s Cristian Romero, who is also attracting interest from Arsenal.

Spurs are unaware of Arsenal’s interest and would be unwilling to consider selling their captain to their north London rivals, leaving Atleti and Inter Milan as likelier candidates for Romero’s signature this summer.

Inter have already verbally agreed in principle a fee with Spurs for the Argentina international of around €40million (£34.2million) but are yet to agree personal terms with the player.

Atleti, who are coached by Romero’s compatriot Diego Simeone, held a firm interest in Romero last summer, and have now made the 28-year-old an active target again.

Arsenal also admire Romero but the chances of a contentious move across north London appear slim, with Spurs considering any deal with their fierce rivals to be a non-starter.

Sol Campbell, also the Spurs captain, joined Arsenal on a free transfer in summer 2001 after running down his Tottenham contract in a hugely controversial transfer, which still stirs emotions at both ends of the Seven Sisters Road.

William Gallas is the most recent player to move directly between the clubs, joining Spurs as a free agent in 2010 after his contract with Arsenal expired.

Romero is likely to leave Tottenham this summer after four years at the club.

Following Atleti’s initial interest, Spurs announced the centre-half had signed a new contract to 2029 in August last year, days after he was officially named club captain following the departure of Son Heung-min.

However, he attracted criticism during a dismal season in which Spurs only avoided Premier League relegation on the final day, not least for two red cards on the pitch and another pointed swipe at the club’s board in January.

Spurs have already signed two central defenders this summer, recruiting Marco Senesi on a free transfer after his Bournemouth contract expired and signing Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton & Hove Albion in a £52m deal.

Micky van de Ven is close to agreeing a new long-term contract with Tottenham Hotspur.

While nothing is yet signed, the 25-year-old is on the verge of joining teammates Pedro Porro and Antonin Kinsky in committing his future to the north London club this summer.

The Athletic reported in December that Tottenham wanted to tie the centre-back to a new and improved long-term deal, which at the time was seen to be more important than any new transfer if completed. His existing contract is set to expire in 2029.

The Netherlands international joined Tottenham from Wolfsburg in a deal worth £43million (€50m) including add-ons in August 2023.

Van de Ven has made 96 appearances in all competitions for Spurs, scoring 10 times, despite hamstring issues disrupting his 2024-25 campaign.

He featured 45 times in all competitions last season as Spurs avoided relegation, with their bid to survive the drop going down to the final day of the campaign.

Tottenham have brought in two new additions at centre-back this summer, with Marco Senesi joining on a free transfer following the conclusion of his Bournemouth contract and Jan Paul van Hecke arriving from Brighton & Hove Albion in a £52m move. Defender Luka Vuskovic, meanwhile, departed to Brighton for £46m and the future of captain Cristian Romero is uncertain.

Ven de Ven has also made 24 senior international appearances and was part of the Netherlands squad at this summer’s World Cup. He played three times as Ronald Koeman’s side were eliminated in the last-32 by Morocco.

The De Zerbi factor pays off

Analysis by Tottenham correspondent Jay Harris

Roberto De Zerbi’s charm offensive has paid off. From the moment he took over as Spurs’ head coach in March, the Italian spoke glowingly in public about Micky van de Ven and described the Netherlands international as the best left-sided centre-back in the Premier League, despite his struggles last season.

Kind words help but Van de Ven must have seen enough evidence in the last couple of months to suggest Spurs have truly started a new era under De Zerbi. During their pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand, the defender spoke about how Spurs’ style of play will be different next season.

“It’s going to be more with the ball, I think, more about playing football,” Van de Ven said in quotes carried by the BBC. “I think it’s also going to be more enjoyable for people to watch because we’ll be playing offensive football.

“You can see he (De Zerbi) has brought a lot of passion into our group, a lot in terms of mentality and passion on the pitch.”

De Zerbi has clearly convinced Van de Ven he can fulfill his potential at Spurs and restore them to the top half of the division. The 25-year-old is not the only key player to agree to a new contract. Pedro Porro signed a new long-term deal in June despite interest from Real Madrid.

Spurs have grabbed a lot of attention for breaking their transfer record twice to sign Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali from West Ham United and Newcastle United respectively, but it is arguably equally impressive to tie down two of their best players after a season where they came narrowly close to being relegated.

Van de Ven will face extra competition next season from Marcos Senesi, who arrived from Bournemouth on a free transfer earlier this summer, but can look forward to playing alongside his international team-mate Jan Paul van Hecke following his move from Brighton & Hove Albion. With Cristian Romero expected to leave before the window closes, Van de Ven could be a candidate for the captaincy.

When Van de Ven is happy and fully fit, he is a nightmare for opposition strikers to deal with. This new deal reflects his status as one of the cornerstones of De Zerbi’s exciting Spurs side.

Negotiations between West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur over Manor Solomon are currently off for financial reasons.

West Ham, relegated to the Championship on the final day of last season, are looking to pay in the region of £5million ($6.7m) for the winger but are not ready to agree to the bonuses Spurs would want should the east London club secure a return to the Premier League.

⁠Fiorentina are still in negotiations to sign the 27-year-old and pushing but as things stand are not at the right numbers for Tottenham.

Solomon joined Spurs in 2023 on a free transfer, having previous been on loan with Fulham from Shakhtar Donetsk. He made five Premier League appearances under then-head coach Ange Postecoglou before suffering a season-ending knee injury.

He spent the 2024-25 season on loan at Leeds United, with whom he won promotion from the Championship, adding 10 goals and 13 assists in 39 league appearances for Daniel Farke’s side.

Solomon was loaned to Villarreal and then Fiorentina in 2025-26, where he made 30 appearances in all competitions, providing three goals and six assists. Fiorentina declined an option in that loan deal that would have made the move permanent.

Solomon represents Israel at international level and has made 49 senior appearances for the national side.

West Ham will play in the second tier for the first time in 14 years during the upcoming campaign.

Roberto De Zerbi’s reputation precedes him.

On one hand, he is recognised as one of the most brilliant minds in coaching. Pep Guardiola, who is arguably the best coach the Premier League has ever seen, hailed the Italian as “one of the most influential managers of the last 20 years”. Chelsea’s new head coach, Xabi Alonso, has said De Zerbi’s teams are among those he enjoys watching most, and Jurgen Klopp praised his work at Brighton and Hove Albion as “incredible”.

For the 47-year-old, who started in Serie D — the fourth tier of Italian football — with Darfo Boario after a relatively unremarkable playing career, listening to such strong praise from some of the game’s most celebrated figures is “embarrassing”.

“It is one of the few things I feel a bit embarrassed about,” De Zerbi tells a group of reporters, including The Athletic, during Tottenham’s pre-season tour. “I am sure about myself, always fully charged. But when I started to be a coach, I couldn’t imagine ever coaching in the Premier League, a coach in the Premier League with Tottenham, or a coach in the Premier League with Tottenham and the biggest coaches in the world speaking well about me. Or that some coaches said that I am a reference for them.

“I become shy. I am not used to that, and I don’t think I will ever get used to it. Last season, when I went into the big stadium, I spoke with my assistant and said we are not used to working in this kind of stadium with this atmosphere. We are lucky because we started from the sh*t of football.”

On his way from ‘the sh*t’ to one of the biggest clubs in England, De Zerbi built up another side to his reputation. At Brighton and Hove Albion and Marseille, his last two jobs before Spurs, De Zerbi left under a cloud after public disagreements with players and staff. For all his undisputed brilliance as a coach, there is an outside perception that you’re never far away from a crisis with the Italian.

However, he has a different view.

“Yesterday evening I spoke with the CEO of Juventus (Giovanni Carnevali),” he says. “(He was) my former CEO at Sassuolo, my friend. I have a great relationship with (Brighton CEO) Paul Barber.

“With Benevento, my first experience in Serie A, with the owner I stay like this, ” he adds, crossing his fingers.

“But if the owner doesn’t respect me, it doesn’t matter if you’re an owner or not. In my life, I always thought like this. Sometimes I have had bad ends of relationships, but with 80-90 per cent we have a great relationship. Sometimes it can happen that there are two different ambitions: the owner wants one thing, and I push to go for more or higher. But the owner is the owner, and I have to respect the owner, for sure, also the owner has to respect me. Owner, director or the board.”

After a dramatic seven-game spell to close last season, in which Tottenham came closer to relegation to the Championship than at any time in their Premier League history, De Zerbi kept the north London club in the top flight with a 1-0 win over Everton on the final day. Over that time, English fans saw a different side to the Italian: one that sacrificed free-flowing football for a more pragmatic style than he is accustomed to coaching.

It was an emotionally charged spell, in which De Zerbi recognised the need to flip the club’s mental state, from the performance staff to the players. While he put on a brave face around Hotspur Way and during press conferences, the changing-room atmosphere in the 1-0 defeat to Sunderland in his first game drove home the desperate nature of their situation.

“I don’t feel last season was my achievement — it was the players,” he says. “Because when I came, I saw the players after Sunderland in the dressing room. I didn’t tell you in the press conference, but it was like this: everyone crying, lying down on the floor in the dressing room. I said, ‘(Have) we passed away?’ and I tried to transfer positivity and to observe the situation from another perspective.”

He set about entirely changing the mood and spirit in the camp. He told staff at the club’s training ground, who were “sad and negative” after the defeat at the Stadium of Light, that he would send them home if he heard them say anything negative. He arranged a dinner at the Bacchanalia restaurant in the affluent Mayfair area of central London and allowed his players to drink alcohol, because “alcohol is a good medicine”. In building a bond and brotherhood among his players — as evidenced on the final day of the season, when the team celebrated together on the pitch — De Zerbi tapped into an aspect of successful team building that he believes is crucial to success.

“If you have respect, it is normal,” says De Zerbi. “If you have respect and value a person, it’s much better. If you have respect, value, and love — friendship, care — I think you become top, top, top.

“Respect is normal. ‘Coach, good morning, hello’, you have respect. If I believe in you, it’s much better. If I love you, between the players, between the coach, you become unbelievable.”

The special bond he creates with players is already paying dividends. Pedro Porro became a World Cup winner with Spain over the summer, but before he did, he signed a new long-term contract to remain at Tottenham, despite interest from some of the world’s biggest clubs. Micky van de Ven described the football under De Zerbi as “really enjoyable”, putting the club in a better position to negotiate a new contract for the Netherlands international, whose current deal expires in 2029.

He also set up the crucial meeting to secure the record-breaking £100million signing of Sandro Tonali in Brescia, the town where De Zerbi was born and where Tonali was raised as a footballer, and played an essential part in winning the race to sign Jan Paul van Hecke, whom he had at Brighton. While transfer business is often seen as a laborious part of the job for many coaches, De Zerbi revels in using his charm and charisma to connect with players and get deals over the line.

“If the coach calls the player, you can build a special connection at the beginning because the player knows you are the key for this transfer, and maybe this player feels (they) have to give you back something more than if Johan Lange calls,” he says. “You can create the special connection. With Mateus Fernandes, I spoke with his parents, with mum, with the father.

“With JP (Van Hecke), after the Everton game, I sent the message ‘F*ck off, you wanted to push down Tottenham for Brighton when you made the assist to Georginio Rutter, now you have to come to me, yes or yes, you have no choice!’ After the game, in my office at Tottenham Stadium, I sent a message to my daughter, and then JP.”

None of this would be possible without the investment from the Lewis family, and the positive working relationship with club chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Lange, which he describes as “the best of his career”. De Zerbi has said he expects two or three more signings before the end of the window, but after undergoing a “university” education from Brighton owner and chairman Tony Bloom in the economics of the transfer window, he understands the value of selling players, too.

One of the players to depart north London this summer was Luka Vuskovic, who went the other way to Van Hecke, joining Brighton for a club-record initial fee of £46million. The 19-year-old is considered among Europe’s most exciting centre-back prospects, but he is yet to make a Premier League appearance after several loans in Belgium and Germany. If Spurs are to stay within the Premier League’s squad cost ratio (SCR) boundaries while remaining ambitious in the market, De Zerbi believes the club should not be afraid to sell — as long as it is done as a team.

“For Vuskovic it was together. (After) Vuskovic’s (transfer request), we spoke with Vinai and Johan together, because I consider Tottenham’s money as my money. It’s like the owner is my father; you don’t want to ask your father to spend money or to lose money.

“I think the top clubs are not worried about selling players. Not even Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich: when they have to sell, they have to sell. Right price, you don’t have to be shy. But when you have to spend money, you have to do that. Strong, fast, quick, the right player, the right investment.”

And, while those clubs are at the top and have been consistently for decades, De Zerbi conceded Spurs are at the start of their journey to get back there. Tottenham finished 17th in the Premier League in successive seasons, an embarrassment for a club of their stature. To reach a point where the club is consistently challenging for trophies again, De Zerbi is unafraid to pressure the board for investment, as he believes the club deserves it and so does he, having accepted the proposal to join in a relegation scrap.

“I like to think I deserve to stay here and deserve to want the top players, because now Tottenham deserves to build up a top team,” he says. “Because the words… they are not clear, but the facts are clear on the table (bangs on table). Now we have to bring in top players to become competitive; I don’t know if to win, but for sure to be better than the last two seasons’ results in the Premier League.

“I consider the trophy the end of the journey. I can’t manage the end of the journey; I can manage the journey from the beginning until the end. And now is not the moment to think of the trophy. The trophy arrives if you, in this journey, have worked well, have been your best version, and the players have been able to play in the best way they can.”