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Tottenham Hotspur winger Manor Solomon is to undergo a medical today (Saturday) ahead of a loan move to Championship side Leeds United.

The deal will not include an option to buy, with Solomon remaining under contract with Tottenham until June 2028.

Solomon joined Spurs on a free transfer from Shakhtar Donetsk last summer but made only six appearances before sustaining what turned out to be a season-ending knee injury in October. Tottenham confirmed in March that Solomon had undergone minor surgery on the meniscus in his right knee, with the 25-year-old calling the “most difficult and frustrating” period of his career.

Solomon featured for Spurs during pre-season but was not in their matchday squad for Monday’s season opener at Leicester City. Spurs have moved to bring in winger Wilson Odobert from Burnley in a deal worth up to £30million ($39.6m).

Solomon previously spent the 2022-23 season on loan at Fulham from Shakhtar. The Israel international scored five times in 24 appearances for the west London side.

Leeds, meanwhile, have seen several key players depart after failing to win promotion back joining Brighton & Hove Albion, Crysencio Summerville moving to West Ham United, Glen Kamara leaving for Rennes and Archie Gray departing for Tottenham.

Daniel Farke’s side have signed winger Largie Ramazani from Almeria, Joe Rodon from Spurs, right-bac Jayden Bogle from Sheffield United, goalkeeper Alex Cairns from Salford City and midfielder Joe Rothwell from Bournemouth.

Leeds beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 at Hillsborough on Friday night to secure their first win of the season, following two draws in the Championship and a defeat in the Carabao Cup. They are return to action next Saturday with a home match against Hull City.

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(Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Welcome to Row Z, a new weekly column on The Athletic.

We can probably all agree that football takes itself very seriously, right? Well, here at Row Z, we plan to shine a light on the bonkers side of the game. From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every Friday we’ll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the game we all love…

Talking of absurd, greedy, contradictory, preposterous oddities, where else can Row Z start but with Chelsea Football Club?

It’s been quite the week for the Blues, who ditched a homegrown hero (that’s Conor Gallagher), signed a former failed loanee (Joao Felix), ostracised last season’s third-top scorer (Raheem Sterling) and have hundreds of millions of pounds worth of signings (Kepa Arrizabalaga, Romelu Lukaku, Ben Chilwell etc) training away from the first team.

“It’s not a mess like it looks from the outside,” head coach Enzo Maresca said with a straight face as work began on installing a third dressing room to house all their players (probably).

You can put together a pretty decent XI from Chelsea’s ‘bomb squad’ of frozen-out players.

It’s an attacking line-up, sure, but would they have more goals in them than the side Chelsea put out against Manchester City at the weekend? Tough call.

“They can even have a 20-year contract,” Maresca added of his outcasts. “It’s not my point. I don’t care.”

He may not care, but Row Z certainly does. The above unwanted 11 players, who seem either destined to depart or are at the very least not welcome, cost Chelsea a combined £336million ($440m) to purchase. Together, they have 38 years left on their Stamford Bridge contracts.

Chelsea are your rambunctious mate at a stag/hen do (or a bachelor/bachelorette party if you like) who just won’t stop buying shots for the ‘banter’. They’re out until 6am, back on the sauce at 9am and no one wants to see them ever again after the weekend is over. Incessant overkill. Make it stop.

You’ve got to admire Chelsea’s social media chutzpah amid the madness.

“Home again,” they tweeted when announcing the return of Joao Felix, who scored four goals in 20 appearances in his underwhelming 2023 loan and was deemed not good enough by Mauricio Pochettino.

They were at it again when posting an emotional, heartstring-tugging video of Gallagher’s 18-year Chelsea career from boy to senior captain.

“You will forever be a blue,” Chelsea captioned at the end of the video, forgetting to add “until we make you train away from the first team and force you out the club to meet profitability and sustainability regulations.”

All the funny stuff meant that Maresca’s decision to make Enzo Fernandez captain for the City game was largely glossed over.

The French Football Federation said in July it would file a complaint after Fernandez posted a video on Instagram that showed him and his Argentina team-mates singing offensive chants about French players of African descent after their Copa America victory.

His Chelsea team-mate Wesley Fofana called it “uninhibited racism” on X, albeit he has since accepted an apology from Fernandez.

Maresca said the racism matter was “finished” and that Fernandez had recognised his “mistake”.

A discrimination and abuse mission statement on the club’s website reads: “Chelsea takes all forms of discriminatory behaviour very seriously and believes all forms of discriminatory chanting, including antisemitism, homophobic, biphobic and transphobic chanting to be abhorrent behaviour that has no place in football.”

But if you’re a good midfielder, it doesn’t matter as much.

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Tottenham Hotspur are officially the best-run club in English men’s football. Hooray!

That’s according to Fair Game, an organisation that campaigns for an end to financial inequality in the sport, wants football to be governed with transparency and fairness and aims to put clubs at the heart of their communities. Noble cause — might take a while.

Anyway, in a press release penned by a Mr D Levy (this is not true), Fair Game’s annual index measuring financial sustainability, governance, equality and fan engagement has Spurs top of the pile.

Best club in England for financial sustainability, governance, equality and fan engagement, you’ll never sing that.

Just to really hammer home that the award has nothing to do with coherent transfer plans or roofs that don’t have holes in, second on the list were Manchester United.

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Talking of ending financial inequality and bringing clubs closer to their communities, Manchester City unveiled their new dairy partner this week.

Yili Group, apparently Asia’s largest producer of dairy, are, as City posted on their website, the club’s Official Dairy Partner, with capital letters to make you shudder.

Clearly having learned nothing from Hellmann’s mayonnaise mistake, Yili has already emblazoned Jack Grealish all over its website.

It says it will “uphold the spiritual core of passion and love” as part of its new partnership.

It’s literally a yoghurt, calm down.

There was just 22 days between Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran performing an Irons-shaped cross on social media to indicate he wanted to move to West Ham United, and then scoring the winning goal for Villa against the Hammers last weekend.

Duran, who had publicly welcomed the West Ham rumours, celebrated the winning goal in front of Villa’s fans by pointing at himself and then to the ground, indicating he was staying.

Given he was at the London Stadium, someone should probably ask which club he meant.

To the Championship now, and Watford are already onto their third manager of the season.

Nope, sorry, force of habit, Preston North End are already onto their third manager of the season.

After six weeks of pre-season training, three new signings and a friendly victory over Fiorentina at Deepdale, Ryan Lowe left following the opening-day defeat to Sheffield United, one of the favourites to win the league. Timing is everything.

“If we can get off to a good start I’ll be pleased,” Lowe had said before the game. “It’s a course of 46.”

Sadly for Lowe, it was a course of one, with director Peter Ridsdale (no comment) deciding that, after almost three years and exactly 125 matches in charge, the first game of the new campaign was the first final straw.

Mike Marsh was appointed as caretaker but, after a 3-0 defeat at Swansea City, he decided he didn’t fancy it either, so after five days in charge he left. Ridsdale said Marsh didn’t want to apply for the job “or take the club forward”.

“We identified that we wanted Paul to be the man to take us forward,” Ridsdale, clearly a man looking forward, told the club’s website after appointing Paul Heckingbottom three days later.

Preston host Luton Town on Saturday when they will, according to Opta, become the first club since 1975 to have three different managers for their first three league games of the season (also Preston, with Bobby Charlton, Nobby Stiles and Harry Catterick).

Rumours that Heckingbottom hasn’t yet cancelled his September holiday to Tenerife are unconfirmed.

“All Preston North End fans can be really excited about the season ahead,” Ridsdale added.

Maybe make that the game ahead.

(Top photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

When Tottenham Hotspur were wobbling on Monday night at Leicester City and Rodrigo Bentancur was receiving treatment for a head injury, Ange Postecoglou made a bold move: a quadruple substitution.

Bentancur and the two players who had started the match in midfield alongside him, James Maddison and Pape Matar Sarr, were replaced. On came Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall — two 18-year-olds making their Premier League debuts — and Dejan Kulusevski, not out wide but as a No 10, and Timo Werner replaced Brennan Johnson on the right wing instead.

It was a move that showcased Spurs’ depth in the middle of the pitch, especially as Yves Bissouma was not considered for this game after his laughing gas misdemeanour.

The substitutions worked fairly well. Spurs re-established their foothold in the game, which had been completely lost as they panicked after Jamie Vardy’s equaliser. Bergvall showed what most had only seen in YouTube compilations — namely, the technical ability to play in small spaces — and linked well with Kulusevski. They created a few openings, although not enough for Spurs to find a winner.

Watching this alternative Spurs made you think: do Tottenham actually still need another midfielder?

Tottenham have been looking for a new midfielder — not necessarily a holding midfielder, which is what many fans wanted, but someone to provide more forward-thinking energy and experience.

That is why Spurs worked hard in June to try to sign Jacob Ramsey at Aston Villa. This was when Villa still had to sell players to satisfy the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), but they sold Omari Kellyman to Chelsea for £19million ($25m) and Douglas Luiz to Juventus for £42m. Ramsey would have cost Spurs £50m and while they tried to throw in Giovani Lo Celso, no deal was done. For the second window in a row, Spurs had to park their interest in Ramsey.

There was plenty of other business for Spurs to do — they brought in Gray before moving on to a centre-forward (Dominic Solanke) and then a winger (Wilson Odobert) — but through it all, fans have wondered whether Tottenham would go back in for another midfielder.

Postecoglou has been a big admirer of Conor Gallagher for a long time and Spurs had enquired in previous windows about signing him from Chelsea, but there was no formal approach this summer. It would have been difficult for Chelsea and Gallagher for him to go to a London rival and this week, he moved to Atletico Madrid.

Meanwhile, Tottenham continued to move on players — including in midfield. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg played 184 times for Spurs over four years at the club but it was clear last season that he did not fit with Postecoglou’s style. He was a good substitute for managing the game but in his rare starts, he never looked fully comfortable with what Postecoglou expects from a holding midfielder. He left to join Marseille.

Similarly, Oliver Skipp, who struggled for opportunities last season, joined Leicester City.

Postecoglou said at the end of last season that first-team players would have to go this summer to create space for new young players in tune with his style of play.

“I’ve got to change this squad,” he said. “I’ve got to build a squad I think can play our football. For that to happen, there have to be exits. Sometimes, you let people go who you think: ‘He’s a good player’. But how am I going to change if I don’t do that?”

And with the departures of Skipp and Hojbjerg, and arrivals of Gray and Bergvall, that is seemingly what has happened. This is a younger squad now, with more technical ability, more ready to learn the Postecoglou way. Spurs learned 10 years ago that if you have a new manager with fresh ideas about attacking football it is easier for him to teach younger players rather than old ones already set in their ways.

The question is whether the current set of midfielders is enough. After the departures of Skipp and Hojbjerg, it would be tempting to think that what Spurs need is a bit of physicality, someone to put their foot in when needed. Even Spurs’ experienced options at No 6, Bentancur and Bissouma, are better at moving the ball forward rather than winning it back.

Yet the view at Tottenham is that Gray and Bergvall have impressed so much — in training and pre-season friendlies — that adding an all-action scurrier next week is no longer a priority. Bergvall and Gray are very young but come to Tottenham with experience of senior football. They can make a positive impact now.

While Bergvall looks set to be Maddison’s understudy as the creative central midfielder, Gray might offer Spurs something different. He played as a centre-back in pre-season and on Monday night, he took Bentancur’s place at the base of midfield. Gray may look like a choirboy but you do not win Championship Young Player of the Year without learning how to handle yourself.

So if Maddison and Sarr are the first-choice central midfielders, with Bentancur and Bissouma alternating as holding midfielders, then maybe Gray, Bergvall and Kulusevski as the alternatives will be enough.

Maybe driving through the middle of the pitch is the best role for Kulusevski as Johnson looks to nail down the right-wing role, especially with Odobert at the club.

The two new teenagers will get minutes, especially with a long European campaign to add to their Premier League commitments. Spurs will have to hope that Bergvall and Gray are ready to fulfil that trust.

(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur had 60 touches in Leicester City’s box during their 1-1 draw on Monday evening — more than any other team managed on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season. They had 15 shots in total and seven were on target.

Ange Postecoglou’s side dominated for nearly an hour at the King Power Stadium until Jamie Vardy sneaked in unmarked at the back post to cancel out Pedro Porro’s header. Instead of starting his second season in charge of Spurs with a win, Postecoglou will be trying to understand how they lost control so quickly at the first sign of resistance from their opponents.

This was the opportunity for club-record signing Dominic Solanke to hit the ground running. The 26-year-old striker joined Tottenham this month and only trained with his new team-mates a few times but he was entrusted to start up front, with Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson out wide. Spurs paid Bournemouth up to £65million ($84m) for Solanke in the hope he would solve their issues upfront — Son (17) and Richarlison (11) were the only players to reach double figures in goals last season.

Richarlison’s inconsistency and struggles with injury scuppered his claim to the title of Harry Kane’s long-term successor while Son is more suited to a role on the left wing. There were more than enough signs against Leicester to suggest that Solanke will be a success but it is frustrating he missed a couple of good chances and failed to help his team win.

In the seventh minute, Solanke ghosted past James Justin to reach Son’s cross. All he had to do was divert the ball with his head either side of Mads Hermansen but it went straight into the goalkeeper’s arms. The linesman’s flag went up for offside but TV replays suggested he was on. Tottenham were oozing confidence so it did not feel like a significant moment and the theory was he would be presented with more chances.

Maddison, on his first return to Leicester after he left them in June 2023 to join Spurs, looked back to his best in the opening 45 minutes after a difficult end to last season. He fired a raking pass without looking straight into the path of Son, kept twisting and turning away from Leicester’s defenders, set up Porro’s headed goal with an excellent delivery and, crucially, always looked to play the ball into Solanke’s feet. Maddison had to adapt his game to suit whether Son, Richarlison or Dejan Kulusevski were playing up front during the 2023-24 campaign. Playing week in and week out with Solanke should bring out the best in both of them.

A prime example of their growing connection came in the 63rd minute when Solanke received the ball in the centre circle and powerfully drove into Leicester’s box. He found Maddison in space on the edge of the penalty area but the midfielder was dispossessed after a poor first touch. On another occasion, Maddison fired the ball into Solanke around the six-yard box. He effortlessly rolled his marker but fell over under pressure before he could shoot. With a few more training sessions and games under his belt, you would expect Solanke to anticipate his team-mate’s intentions more accurately. Solanke’s desire to work hard out of possession was also impressive.

Solanke will be irritated that he wasted another good chance to score only a couple of minutes before Vardy’s equaliser. It was an encouraging sequence of play as Maddison popped the ball off to Pape Matar Sarr, who flicked it around Wout Faes for Solanke. But his right-footed shot was straight at Hermansen. He demonstrated great movement to drop off Faes and receive possession ahead of Jannik Vestergaard.

Solanke spent time with Chelsea and Liverpool earlier in his career but joined Bournemouth aged 21 and there was less expectation on his shoulders. It might take time to adjust to Postecoglou’s unique tactical demands and the pressure of being Tottenham’s No 9 before we see him scoring freely. He did not score in his first season at Bournemouth, despite playing 10 games after joining in January 2019.

Solanke was not the only guilty party on Monday night. Rodrigo Bentancur, who is “conscious and communicating” after suffering a head injury in a collision with Abdul Fatawu, should have scored. Richarlison’s header in the last minute of stoppage time prompted Postecoglou to place his hands on his knees in exasperation.

At the last three clubs where he has stayed for more than a year, Postecoglou has won the title in his second season. There tends to be a dramatic improvement in goals scored, possession, passing sequences and pressing intensity. All of that was on show — apart from the first and most important category. Postecoglou said Tottenham were “really wasteful” and that they “lost composure” after Leicester scored.

“Solanke was good,” Postecoglou said. “He worked hard for the team, he had a couple of chances he will be disappointed he didn’t do better with. The overall performance from everyone was OK but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t turn that performance into outcomes. We had some similar issues last year and we need to improve.

It is important to remember that, according to figures from FBref, Tottenham’s average squad age of 25.2 was the fourth youngest (weighted by minutes played) in the division last season. The departure of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (29) and the signings of Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall (both 18) and Wilson Odobert (19) mean that figure could decrease.

They are learning on the job but this was an underwhelming start and they cannot wait too long for Solanke to settle.

(Top photo: Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images)

This was a deeply frustrating opening night for Tottenham Hotspur.

Ange Postecoglou’s side were utterly dominant against Leicester City, winning 1-0 thanks to Pedro Porro’s goal and looking set for a comfortable night. But they lost their grip after half-time, were pegged back by Jamie Vardy and ultimately had to settle for a point.

So what happened? We analyse the major talking points.

What happened to Spurs after half-time?

The most frustrating thing for Spurs taking one point from this game is how utterly dominant they were right up until Vardy’s equaliser.

Tottenham were all over Leicester from the start, instantly imposing themselves on the game, creating so many chances from set pieces and open play. They controlled the first half and then had an excellent spell after the re-start.

When Vardy scored, Rodrigo Bentancur had just missed another excellent chance to make it 2-0. Of course, it is better to create chances than not, but in a game in which Spurs had 13 corners, fans will ask questions about the ruthlessness of a team that did so much of the hard work but still only came away with one point.

There were some promising moves from Spurs’ attacking set pieces but the second goal never came. And by the end, they were hanging on to a draw. Given that they could have been 5-0 up when Vardy scored, it will not feel like a point gained.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

How worrying was Bentancur’s injury?

Spurs were searching for the winner when James Maddison whipped an outswinging corner into the box and Bentancur clashed heads with Abdul Fatawu.

The midfielder immediately dropped to the floor and his team-mates signalled for the medics to come onto the pitch. It was a concerning incident and no replays were shown on the TV monitors inside the stadium. Maddison looked concerned while Fatawu seemed distressed over his role in the incident.

Paramedics rushed onto the pitch too and a few players stood over watching what was happening. Members of Tottenham’s medical staff kept running from the bench and back to relay what was happening to the coaching staff.

It was a lengthy delay and Bentancur was eventually taken off on a stretcher and replaced by Archie Gray. The entire stadium applauded as the Uruguay international was taken off, with Sky Sports later reporting that the player was up and talking in the dressing room but still being assessed.

Jay Harris

Will Solanke be frustrated?

It was the moment Dominic Solanke would have been dreaming about ever since he completed his £65million ($84m) move from Bournemouth to Spurs a couple of weeks ago.

James Maddison whipped the ball into the box and Solanke ghosted past his marker. All he had to do was nudge the ball on either side of Mads Hermansen to get off to the perfect start. However, the 26-year-old’s effort fell straight into Hermansen’s hands and, although the linesman’s flag went up for offside, replays suggested it would have counted with a VAR review.

Spurs were so dominant in the first half that Solanke’s miss did not feel like a significant moment at the time. They had 22 touches in Leicester’s box and five shots on target.

Even when Solanke had a right-footed shot saved by Hermansen in the second half, there seemed no reason for Spurs to panic. But then Vardy equalised and suddenly everything changed, and Solanke’s misses looked costly.

The forward was signed to be clinical in these moments and it will be a huge source of frustration for himself and his manager that he could not be decisive.

Solanke impressed in the other elements of his game though. He did not have a lot of touches but was constantly breaking into the box and looking to attack the ball. He dropped deep a couple of times to link up play and won the ball back, too.

In the second half, he went on an excellent run after picking up the ball in the centre circle and pulled it back to Maddison on the edge of the box. The midfielder just needed to shift it into space and shoot but his first touch let him down.

There were more than enough signs to suggest he will be a huge success for Spurs but it was not the start he would have hoped for.

Jay Harris

Did Maddison step up at his old club?

This was always going to be a big game for James Maddison: back at Leicester City for the first time since he left to join Tottenham last summer, and playing his first competitive game since the heartbreak of getting cut from the England squad for last summer’s Euros.

But then this is a huge season for Maddison, as he hopes to get back to the levels he showed in the first section of last term.

But the good news for Spurs fans is that this looked like the same Maddison that they saw in those thrilling first few months of the 2023-24 campaign. He ran the game for Tottenham, particularly in the first half — always available, showing for the ball, finding space in that left pocket, and creating chances from set pieces and open play.

Maddison created Spurs’ opener, with a perfect whipped cross from deep, finding Pedro Porro’s brave run into the box. With better finishing from his team-mates, he would have ended with more than one assist. And he never looked remotely troubled by the booing he got from some sections of the home crowd, although he got a great reception when taken off in the second half.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

What did Postecoglou say?

The Tottenham manager could not his irritation at seeing his side losing two points.

“It was a disappointing outcome for us,” he told the BBC. “I thought we were excellent first half and controlled the game but just wasteful in front of goal and the same in the second half.

“We created chances and weren’t ruthless enough at other times. It’s stuff we need to fix. When you are so dominant you need to make sure it is reflected by the scoreline.”

What next for Tottenham?

Saturday, August 24: Everton (H), Premier League, 3pm BST, 10am ET

Recommended reading

Wilson Odobert: What Tottenham can expect from their latest signing

Welcome to the biggest season of James Maddison’s career

Are Spurs sending the wrong message by banning Bissouma but not Bentancur?

Postecoglou’s second seasons – what history and the data say we can expect

(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images))

Leicester City have confirmed the arrival of midfielder Oliver Skipp from Tottenham Hotspur.

The Athletic reported on Sunday that Leicester had agreed a deal worth in excess of £20million for Skipp, with the Englishman to undergo a medical that day.

Skipp has signed a five-year deal at Leicester and will be in attendance on Monday night when they face Spurs in the final game of the opening round of Premier League fixtures. His Spurs contract previously had three years left to run.

“I’m really excited to sign for Leicester,” Skipp said. “It’s a club with big history, having won the Premier League and FA Cup in recent times. You just have to look at the facilities here as well; it’s all got the set-up of a big club.

“I’m really excited to meet the players, meet the staff and I’m sure we’ll have a good relationship, and one that we can continue throughout the years to come.”

GO DEEPER

The rise of Oliver Skipp: Studious, powerful and a dab hand with a dart in his hand

Skipp made 24 appearances in all competitions for Spurs last season but was predominantly used as a substitute by Ange Postecoglou.

The 23-year-old broke into the first team in 2018 and made 106 appearances for the club. He spent the 2020-21 season on loan at Norwich City and played 47 times for the Championship side.

Spurs have strengthened in midfield this summer with the signing of Archie Gray from Leeds, while Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg has departed for Marseille.

Leicester, meanwhile, lost midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Chelsea this summer ahead of their return to the Premier League.

The Leicester move sees Skipp join up with fellow Spurs academy graduate Harry Winks in Steve Cooper’s midfield.

Tottenham and Leicester meet on Monday in their opening game of the 2024-25 Premier League season.

(Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)

While a couple of players will be visiting King Power Stadium for the first time this evening, there is one player who will be very familiar with his surroundings.

James Maddison will arrive at the home of his former club — with whom he won the FA Cup in 2021 — for the first time since he left a year ago.

And there is another reunion on the cards today, as Tottenham academy graduate Harry Winks will renew acquaintances with the team he left last summer.

You can expect a reverse version of the photo above!

The transfer window is still open and these two clubs have been active throughout.

There will be plenty of Premier League debuts on offer for Leicester players after their promotion last season, but there could be competitive club debuts for new signings Bobby De Cordova-Reid and loanee Facundo Buonanotte.

In the other dressing room, there could be debuts given to midfielders Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall, as well as £65m striker Dominic Solanke.

There are no such injury problems in the Tottenham squad, but they will definitely be without one player today.

Midfielder Yves Bissouma has been suspended by the club for this game after footage emerged of him appearing to inhale nitrous oxide.

Elsewhere, forward Richarlison is a doubt due to a calf injury, as is back-up goalkeeper Fraser Forster with a minor foot injury.

There are problems in attack for Steve Cooper and Leicester.

Patson Daka has been ruled out for a few months having had ankle surgery, while there are major doubts over Jamie Vardy's fitness.

That could force wideman Stephy Mavididi into the number nine role, a position he played in a couple of times during pre season.

The only other absentee for the hosts is centre-back Conor Coady, who will be out for a few weeks after suffering a hamstring injury.

Leicester City have confirmed the arrival of midfielder Oliver Skipp from Tottenham Hotspur. The Athletic reported on Sunday that Leicester had agreed a deal worth in excess of £20million for Skipp, with the Englishman to undergo a medical that day.

Skipp has signed a five-year deal at Leicester and will be in attendance tonight when they face Spurs in the final game of the opening round of Premier League fixtures. His Spurs contract previously had three years left to run.

“I’m really excited to sign for Leicester,” Skipp said. “It’s a club with big history, having won the Premier League and FA Cup in recent times. You just have to look at the facilities here as well; it’s all got the set-up of a big club.

“I’m really excited to meet the players, meet the staff and I’m sure we’ll have a good relationship, and one that we can continue throughout the years to come.”

There was some pretty significant transfer news yesterday that, conveniently, involves both of these clubs.

The Athletic's David Ornstein revealed that Leicester have agreed a deal with Tottenham for 23-year-old midfielder Oliver Skipp. He underwent a medical yesterday ahead of the proposed move for a fee in excess of £20million.

Skipp has struggled to nail down a place as a regular starter for Tottenham, but has made over 100 appearances since breaking into the first team back in 2018.

As new signings had to be registered by midday on Friday to be available for this weekend's matches, he will not be available for Leicester in today's match.

Read more below.

As Burnley’s 2023-24 season drew to a close, The Athletic asked manager Vincent Kompany about Wilson Odobert. The 19-year-old had been a key factor in an upturn in form that had given the club at least a fighting chance of an improbable escape from relegation back to the Championship.

Kompany’s answer was not exactly riddled with superlatives, but didn’t mask his admiration for the youngster Tottenham Hotspur signed on Friday for an initial £25million ($32.3m).

“I will almost refrain from what I really think about him, because at this moment in time I don’t think people realise how good he is,” the then Burnley boss said.

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“He’s playing in a team that is playing for survival, but the things he’s able to do — whether it’s defending or whether it’s attacking… like I said, I will refrain from what I really think because I don’t want to jinx it; I don’t want to create a situation where the expectations become too big for him too soon.”

‘Tell me you think a player has huge potential without actually saying that’, right?

At the beginning of that season, Kompany had suggested at least one member of his squad — a group largely made up of young players who’d been bought on the basis of their potential — would one day be worth £100million. By the end of it in May, it was Odobert who had done the most to enhance his reputation. Although that kind of fee is still a long way off, if his rate of development continues, maybe one day he will be talked about in that nine-figure bracket.

Tottenham are paying £25million for his signature, with potentially around £5m more to follow in add-ons. It is a deal that suits all parties. Burnley are set to triple their money on a player signed 12 months ago, Odobert makes a swift return to the Premier League and Spurs have added a young, exciting talent with plenty of first-team experience under his belt already.

The France youth international arrived in England from Ligue 1 side Troyes this week last August and was viewed as a developmental project. Then 18, his talent was obvious but Kompany was keen to protect the youngster and ease him into Burnley’s first team.

After following the plan in the season’s early weeks — including the opening goal in the 4-1 defeat against Chelsea in October that was his first Premier League start — an injury to Luca Koleosho in December forced Kompany’s hand. Odobert grasped his opportunity and retained his place in the starting line-up for the final six months of the campaign.

Odobert’s stand-out attribute is his positivity when he receives the ball: per Opta, 36.2 per cent of his carries were considered progressive last season, the highest proportion for any player in the division, underlining how important an outlet he was for Burnley. He is technically gifted, can skip away from defenders with ease and attempts a lot of take-ons relative to how often he runs with the ball.

As we can see from the graphic below, his instinct is to be very positive and face up to his man whenever he has possession.

The average distance of his carries is also very high — 7.9 metres, the fourth highest in the Premier League last year. We can see from his forward carries map that he’s effective at driving into the opposition box.

One example of that was against Liverpool in late December, when he left Trent Alexander-Arnold for dead, skipping past him and delivering a dangerous cross for Johann Berg Gudmundsson, but the Iceland international headed the chance over.

His four goals and two assists in 33 appearances across all competitions for Burnley last season did not paint the full picture of Odobert’s influence and creativity. He created the most chances from open play (31), the most big chances (7) and had the most touches in the opposition box (104) of anyone in Burnley’s squad last season.

Against Brighton & Hove Albion in April, for example, he should have picked up two assists following two fabulous deliveries, but first Jacob Bruun Larsen…

… and then David Datro Fofana…

… passed up glorious chances from his excellent crosses. The second was a perfect example of Odobert taking on his man, earning a yard and whipping a ball across the face of goal.

While he predominantly operated on the left flank for Burnley, Odobert demonstrated his versatility by also playing on the opposite wing and as a No 10 in the closing months of the season. These switches by Kompany furthered his tactical development and understanding of how to position himself in each role. Displacing Son Heung-min from the left-winger role at Tottenham will be very tough, but the teenager’s versatility means he can earn minutes in other roles too.

Stepping up to a top-six side should also help him. Last season, there were days when Odobert would become an anonymous, isolated figure on Burnley’s left side. He was, of course, playing for a relegation-bound team who struggled for control and possession and left their attacking players feeding off scraps, winning only five of their 38 league matches.

During those games, he would frequently come alive for 10-minute spells, carrying Burnley’s creative threat, but he was unable to sustain that over a full match often enough. Kompany’s late-season decision to move him into central areas increased his involvement.

Not all of Odobert’s best work happens when the ball is glued to his feet — it comes before it, as he stretches the pitch vertically.

In the opening game of Burnley’s Championship campaign against Luton Town last week, he showed his speed and movement to latch on to a long pass from Connor Roberts and score Burnley’s second goal in a 4-1 away win.

It became a more prominent aspect of his game during the course of last season.

This late assist against Fulham in February is another example. Odobert is played in by Gudmundsson, drives into the box and finds Fofana, who scores the equaliser as Burnley snatch a draw.

He also has an eye for the spectacular — two of his three Premier League goals were scored from outside the area.

Odobert is far from the finished product, but his talent is obvious.

This is a signing in line with Tottenham’s strategy of signing young players with high ceilings, and while his impact may not be felt immediately, he is a player who has the potential to become a regular in Ange Postecoglou’s starting XI.

Additional reporting: Thom Harris

(Top photo: Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)

Leicester City have agreed a deal to sign Oliver Skipp from Tottenham Hotspur on a permanent transfer.

The 23-year-old midfielder is set to undergo a medical today (Sunday) ahead of the proposed transfer.

Skipp made 24 appearances in all competitions for Spurs last season but was predominantly used as a substitute by Ange Postecoglou.

The Tottenham academy graduate’s contract at Spurs runs until 2027.

He broke into the first team in 2018 and has made 106 appearances for the club.

Skipp spent the 2020-21 season on loan at Norwich City and played 47 times for the Championship side.

Spurs have strengthened in midfield this summer with the signing of Archie Gray from Leeds, while Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg has departed for Marseille.

Leicester, meanwhile, lost midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Chelsea this summer ahead of their return to the Premier League.

A move to Leicester would see Skipp join up with fellow Spurs academy graduate Harry Winks in Steve Cooper’s midfield.

Tottenham and Leicester meet on Monday in the pair’s opening game of the Premier League season.

(Masashi Hara/Getty Images)

On the opening weekend of a new season, everyone starts again from scratch. Every player has a blank sheet of paper in front of them and the autonomy to write whatever they want on it. In nine months, they could be looking back on the best work of their career.

And no player will be more keen to start writing a new story for himself than James Maddison when Tottenham Hotspur start their season at his old club Leicester City on Monday night. Not necessarily because he is going back to the ground where he spent five seasons, but because last season for Maddison was so exciting, so promising, so frustrating and so painful, almost every possible emotion squeezed in between August and June.

Remember the Maddison of last August, September and October, back when he walked into Tottenham and immediately started playing like he had been there for years. That late summer of 2023, Maddison was special: perfect for Ange Postecoglou, perfect for Spurs. Everything went through him and he assumed the roles of creative leader, vice-captain and No 10 shirt with remarkable ease. No learning curve required. More than any other player, he encapsulated the thrill of the new era.

But the honeymoon period did not last. In November, Maddison injured his deltoid ligament and missed almost three months. It was the worst injury of his career, made all the more painful for coming in only his 12th game for his new club, when he was in the form of life. Maddison was completely crestfallen.

It was not easy for Maddison to do his rehab while watching his team-mates playing without him but he worked hard and went to Dubai for warm-weather rehabilitation with club medical staff in December. By the end of January, he was back in the team. There was still just under half of the season left to come — plenty of time for Maddison to get back to his initial form and for Spurs to finish in the Champions League spots.

What was so frustrating was that in the second half of the season, Maddison never quite got fully back to his best. There were glimpses: a clever assist for Cristian Romero in the 3-1 win over Crystal Palace in March, a run into the box to convert Pape Matar Sarr’s cross when Spurs won 4-0 at Villa Park later that month. It felt as if Maddison was back and so were Spurs, and that fourth place and Champions League qualification were well within reach. But that is not how the end of the season went.

Spurs and Maddison struggled for rhythm in the spring. Maddison was so important to Spurs that the whole team suffered when he was not at his best. After painful defeats to Newcastle United and Arsenal in April, Postecoglou made a decision that would have been inconceivable at the start of the season. He dropped Maddison for the trips to Stamford Bridge and Anfield.

Maddison came back into the team for the last three games but Spurs had already lost too much ground on Aston Villa in the race for fourth. And Maddison’s struggles would lead to him paying a painful price at the end of the season. He had finally forced his way into Gareth Southgate’s England team in 2023, having gone to the Qatar World Cup but not playing a minute after failing to shake off an injury. He was playing more, starting the Euro 2024 qualifier against Ukraine in September and the friendly against Australia in October. It felt for the first time as if Southgate could count on him. And even after his struggles, Southgate picked Maddison in his 33-man extended squad for the Euros. Maddison came off the bench for the warm-up game against Bosnia and Herzegovina at St James’ Park.

But three days later, Southgate had to cut seven from his squad to take to Germany, and Maddison did not make the plane. “Devastated doesn’t quite cut it,” Maddison wrote on social media. “My form for Spurs when coming back from injury in the second half of the season probably wasn’t at the levels I had set, which gave Gareth a decision to make.”

It was remarkable that a season that started with Maddison playing so well should end so painfully. In those first few months, he had the world at his feet, making the step up from Leicester to a ‘Big Six’ club look like child’s play.

For Maddison’s whole career, he had been spoken of as being one of the most talented English players of his generation. Ever since he was playing for Coventry City, all of the big clubs knew about him. Barcelona scouts came to watch him for Norwich City at Carrow Road. And in those first few weeks at Spurs, it felt like Maddison was fulfilling that potential and becoming the player he was always meant to be.

But after the way his season went, it feels like Maddison has to do the hard work all over again. He is still a first-choice player but there may be more competition for that left central midfield spot this season. Dejan Kulusevski is as much of a midfielder as he is a winger for Postecoglou’s Spurs now, and then there is the brilliant 18-year-old Lucas Bergvall, who has just arrived. If he shines — possibly at first in the Europa League — there will be calls for Bergvall to play more often. And then there is still the chance Spurs add another central midfielder in the last two weeks of the window, having tried to sign Jacob Ramsey in June.

But there are reasons to be optimistic, too. We know how good Maddison can be in this system, how much he wants the ball, how good he is at finding those pockets of space and playing those clever little passes of his through to Son Heung-min. The arrival of Dominic Solanke, a close friend of Maddison, will give him a new target man to work with and could lift the whole team. We know Maddison can also hurt teams from set pieces and from the edge of the box. We all saw just how good Maddison can be for Spurs, the man who makes the whole thing work. The challenge for Maddison — and Tottenham — is to turn the start of the last season into the whole of this one.

(Top photo: Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)