The New York Times

When Daniel Levy became Tottenham Hotspur chairman in February 2001, he would attend Premier League meetings and find himself surrounded by men almost twice his age. Peter Hill-Wood from Arsenal, Doug Ellis from Aston Villa, Martin Edwards from Manchester United, David Moores from Liverpool, Freddy Shepherd from Newcastle United, and Rupert Lowe from Southampton; this was the old guard of English football at the turn of the last century.

We are now in a very different era. Premier League meetings are made up of executives from all over the globe — not least from the U.S. and the Gulf — and yet Levy stands alone as the link between the old world and the new. He has been chairing Tottenham Hotspur for over 23 years now. More than Edwards did at Manchester United, nearly as much as Moores did at Liverpool. (To match Hill-Wood’s remarkable 41 years at Arsenal, he would have to stay on until 2042, when he will be 80.)

But as Levy prepares for his 24th full season at the helm of Tottenham, fans will naturally start to wonder where this season will take them. Will the positive mood of last season hold? Will there finally be a trophy to vindicate the steady building of the whole Levy era? Off the pitch, will the club receive some much-needed external investment? Ultimately, will this be the year that anything changes, or will Spurs fans be having the same conversations again in the summer of 2025?

In many ways, this has been a routine summer at Tottenham. None of the clean-slate thrills of last summer, when Spurs brought in a radical new manager, drawing a line under four years of negative football, and then promptly signed four first-team players to make it work. Instead, this has been a summer in which Levy, Ange Postecoglou and Johan Lange, the technical director, have tried to continue the progress of the past two windows, strengthening the squad so that it can compete on more fronts.

So far — and there are still three weeks left until the window closes — it has looked like many other Tottenham summer windows in recent memory. A strong start, with Archie Gray signed from Leeds United amid fierce competition, and Timo Werner taken on loan from RB Leipzig for another season. Then a period that has required fans to be patient, as Spurs have steadily moved on their fringe players, with no other big targets coming in yet.

All window, Tottenham have wanted a central midfielder and a top centre-forward, and only when it shuts will we know whether they have been successful. Levy may well be accused of not backing his managers but it should not be forgotten how much Spurs did last summer, buying half of a new first team as well as turning the Pedro Porro and Dejan Kulusevski loans permanent — a spend that is not easy to replicate summer after summer.

Postecoglou was very clear at the end of last season how much change he wanted in the squad. He has publicly called for patience, not saying anything to increase the pressure that already exists on his employer. The contrast with Antonio Conte, who became a different person in public whenever there was a transfer window on the horizon, is there for all to see.

It will be clear soon enough whether Spurs have the players they need for this season. On September 26, their eight-game Europa League group-stage campaign will begin. From that point on, the Spurs squad will be stretched further than they were in last year’s 41-game season. Postecoglou explained in Korea the importance of adding extra depth this season: “My thinking is we’ve got to go beyond just building a team, we’ve got to build a squad to compete.”

Postecoglou does have a new generation of exciting young players to use this season— not just Gray but 18-year-old midfielder Lucas Bergvall, winger Mikey Moore, who turns 17 on Sunday, and others from the academy — and the mood this season will depend in part whether his new-look squad is up to competing on multiple fronts.

Because last season — at least until the very end — was a strikingly positive one at Spurs. If 2022-23 was marked by fans’ anger at Levy as the season unravelled, then 2023-24 was all about collective enthusiasm for the Postecoglou era and his style of play. A lot of the public anger about the direction of the club was neutralised by the appointment of a manager who was in tune with the club’s traditions and the expectations of the fans.

If ‘Levy Out’ had always been a fringe concern, the toxic end of the Conte era saw more fans questioning the decisions that had taken Spurs to that point. It took the arrival of Postecoglou to bring unity back to Tottenham and to reset the mood. By pivoting away from the big-name ‘win-now’ managers and drawing a line under the previous four years, it could yet be one of the most far-sighted appointments of the Levy era.

The question for this season is whether that new optimistic balance can hold. As ever, it will be determined by what happens on the pitch. If Spurs start well and build on their progress from last year, there is no reason that Tottenham Hotspur Stadium should not be a happy place again. If they can stick with last season’s entertaining style of play but sustain it over a whole season — like in Mauricio Pochettino’s second season in 2015-16 — then it could be the best whole season the stadium has ever seen. And if it ends at Wembley or in Bilbao in nine months with a trophy — Spurs’ first in 17 years — then it will feel as if all the hard work has finally paid off. It would be the moment that makes the entire journey worthwhile.

Of course, there is always another possibility and what we do not know is how this season will play out if Spurs struggle. If results are bad then the unity of last year may start to fray. And if the constituent elements of the club — players, manager, board and fans — start to come apart, it will be a question of who stays loyal to whom. No one knows whether the discord of 2021 or 2023 will return. As ever, one week before the start of a season, there is a vast delta between success and failure.

Whatever the ups and downs of the football season, and all the little dramas along the way, there is another set of questions for Tottenham and Levy over the next 12 months. And that concerns the future shareholding of the club. (At present, ENIC owns 86.58 per cent of the club, and 70.12 per cent of ENIC’s share capital is owned by “a discretionary trust of which certain members of Mr (Joe) Lewis’s family are potential beneficiaries”, according to the club’s website. The rest is owned by discretionary trusts of which “Mr D Levy and certain members of his family are potential beneficiaries”.)

Speculation about a sale is nothing new. It has been there in the background almost since the moment that ENIC bought Alan Sugar’s stake in 2000. Back then, the club was valued at £80m. Now, after almost a quarter-century of Levy’s stewardship, it is valued at £4billion ($5bn), or 50 times that initial valuation. It has arguably the best training ground in the country and the best modern stadium too, one that is integral to the club’s self-sustaining business model. The news last week that Haringey Council have lifted the cap on major non-football events the stadium can hold, from 16 per year to 30, will allow them to host more concerts by the likes of Beyonce and Lady Gaga in future, making millions of pounds for the club in the process. The stadium, the London location, the international brand, and the global clout of the Premier League all make this an attractive package.

There is very little prospect of a full sale any time soon, and no real likelihood of the ENIC era coming to an end. What is on the cards, however, is the sale of a stake in the club. Tottenham have been frank about their openness to new investment. Four months ago, when the club released their accounts for the 2022-23 season, there was an accompanying statement. “To capitalise on our long-term potential, to continue to invest in the teams and undertake future capital projects, the club requires a significant increase in its equity base,” it said towards the end. “The board and its advisors, Rothschild & Co, are in discussions with prospective investors.”

Talking about this in public was a new step for Spurs. If they could sell, for example, a 10 per cent stake in the club for £400m it would be a serious equity injection for Tottenham while not necessarily disrupting the operations of the club. The question is finding the right person to take the other side of that deal.

So far this summer, there has been plenty of speculation about Amanda Staveley potentially becoming a minority partner at Tottenham after her departure from Newcastle United. She told The Athletic last month that it was time to “move on to other projects”, which could involve buying a stake in another team. Tottenham have been linked. But whether Tottenham would want such a high-profile minority partner, given how quietly and discreetly they try to run things, is another matter.

Even in the event of an investment, whatever the size, it does not feel likely that Levy’s position will change. Investors have looked at the example of Chelsea, where the new ownership paid £2.5billion to buy the club in 2022 and have since had six managers (including caretaker Bruno Saltor), managing league finishes of 12th and sixth. There is an acceptance of how hard it is to keep a Premier League club running smoothly. Tottenham’s stability is not unattractive.

Ultimately, it is hard to envisage the circumstances under which Levy will not still be in place at the end of the season, as he nears the quarter-century of his involvement with the club. But it could still be a season of change at Tottenham if a stake is sold. And with success on the pitch, it could end up as a season of vindication too.

(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

Bournemouth have agreed to sell Dominic Solanke for a club-record fee, and talks with Tottenham Hotspur are ongoing to finalise a deal for the striker.

Solanke has also agreed personal terms, with the 26-year-old desperate for a move to the north London club.

He is under contract with Bournemouth until 2029 but, as The Athletic reported in June, the striker’s contract contains a £65million ($83m) release clause that can be triggered by certain clubs.

Spurs have not signed a senior striker since Harry Kane’s departure for Bayern Munich last summer.

Ange Postecoglou is keen to acquire a No 9 that suits his style of play and Solanke’s profile fits the bill.

“What’s important is the type of striker we get,” Postecoglou said during Tottenham’s pre-season tour of Japan. “You know we play a certain way. We demand certain things from a physical perspective from the technical aspects of it that it’s going be a striker that fits that mould.

“It’s still the area of the park we’re really probably the thinnest when I talk about squad-wise at the moment, so obviously that’s a focus for us.”

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Solanke registered his best top flight return last season, scoring 19 Premier League goals to help Bournemouth secure a 12th-placed finish.

Solanke began his career at Chelsea before joining Liverpool in 2017 on a free transfer.

He made the switch to Bournemouth for an undisclosed fee in 2019. The Merseyside club hold a 20 per cent sell-on clause from the deal and could receive as much as £9m if Spurs trigger his release clause.

Spurs have made two signings so far this summer with 18-year-old midfielders Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall arriving from Leeds United and Djurgarden respectively. The north London club have also agreed a deal to sign South Korean winger Yang Min-hyuk, who will join the squad in January.

Solanke missed out on selection for England’s European Championship squad, with Brentford’s Ivan Toney and Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins selected as back-ups to Kane.

Tottenham begin the 2024-25 Premier League campaign at newly-promoted Leicester City on August 19.

(George Wood/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur forward Richarlison says he will not be leaving the club to join a Saudi Pro League club this summer.

The Athletic previously reported that the 27-year-old had attracted interest from Saudi Arabia, while Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou said last week the club are interested in signing a striker.

“The money is big but my dream is bigger,” Richarlison, who has three years remaining on his Spurs contract, told ESPN. “An offer has arrived, but my dream of playing for the Brazilian national team and the Premier League is louder. It’s decided.”

Richarlison joined Tottenham from Everton in the summer of 2022 but has failed to establish himself as a reliable goalscorer in north London. He has scored 15 goals and provided eight assists in 66 games for the north London club. Last season, the Brazilian scored 12 goals in 31 appearances for Spurs amid several injury issues.

Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke is a transfer target, but the view from Spurs is that a move for Solanke would not necessarily be dependent on Richarlison leaving.

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“I think for us what’s more important is the type of striker we get,” Postecoglou said previously. “You know we play a certain way. We demand certain things from a physical perspective from the technical aspects of it that it’s going be a striker that fits that mould.

“It’s still the area of the park we’re really probably the thinnest when I talk about squad-wise at the moment, so obviously that’s a focus for us.”

Richarlison, meanwhile, opened up in March about his depression following the 2022 World Cup. He said that he told his father he wanted to “give up” after struggling to motivate himself to leave his room and attend training sessions, with the World Cup exit feeling “worse than losing a family member”. He added he has since attended therapy sessions, which he believes helped “save my life”.

Tottenham begin their Premier League season against newly-promoted Leicester City on August 19.

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(Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur have secured the future of highly-rated winger Mikey Moore.

Moore, 16, has agreed his first professional contract at Spurs, which will be finalised this Sunday when he turns 17, with an announcement to follow.

Tottenham have offered Moore a bigger salary than they ever have done before for a player turning 17, a recognition of Moore’s talent and performances and the interest in him.

Moore has agreed a three-year deal, the longest allowed by FIFA regulations for players under the age of 18.

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Moore first broke into the Spurs first team at the end of last season, making two late substitute appearances in Premier League games, becoming Spurs’ youngest player to make a Premier League appearance when they faced Manchester City on 14 May.

Since then he has been a key part of Ange Postecoglou’s team in pre-season, scoring against Hearts, Vissel Kobe and a Japanese youth international side.

“Mikey has been fantastic since we brought him in,” Postecoglou said after the Vissel Kobe game. “He’s earned his spot on the roster at the moment, he did at the end of last year. He got a run with the first team because we could see in training that he was handling himself really well and that’s followed through into pre-season training.

“All we can do is keep allowing him to develop. We have to remember that last year he had some injuries and he is only 16, but yeah, super exciting.”

Moore has also shone for England Under-17s this summer during their European Championship campaign in Greece, scoring four goals before England were knocked out by eventual winners Italy on penalties in the quarter-final.

(Photo: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur have been granted permission to hold up to 30 non-football events at their stadium per calendar year.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium had previously been restricted to 16 such events each year but the cap was lifted to 30 following a meeting of Haringey Council’s planning committee on Thursday evening.

In recent years Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has hosted music concerts, NFL, boxing and rugby, establishing the stadium as one of London’s most popular event destinations.

Under the new rules, subject to a S106 agreement, Tottenham can almost double the number of these events, while the restriction on the number of concerts has also been lifted. But there will be a cap on the number of boxing events per year (two), the number of consecutive events in a row (four) and the number of events in any week (five). There can only be two weeks every year when there are either four consecutive events or five events in any week.

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There will also be a ‘review mechanism’ in place, whereby a review will take place at the end of October 2025. This will allow local residents and businesses to feed back to the council their experiences of the increased number of non-football events in 2025, on topics including anti-social behaviour and noise impacts. In theory the number of non-football events could be revised down, but never below a minimum of 20.

Tottenham will also continue their community ticket scheme, with a minimum of 100 free tickets for each event, and a 24-hour ticket priority window for local residents (defined as those living in the London postcodes N15, N17 and N18).

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was given official status at the home of last season as the ‘Home of the NFL in the UK’, and the high-profile NFL games, generally taking place during the international breaks of the football season, have been the highest profile non-football events held at the new stadium.

Last summer the stadium hosted five nights of Beyonce’s ‘Renaissance’ world tour, across which almost 240,000 fans came to watch. Industry estimates on how much Tottenham made from the concerts are as high as £15m ($19m) but the club say the final figure after costs was £5m ($6m).

Tottenham opened their new stadium in April 2019 and work on the site is not yet finished. In March plans for a new 30-storey hotel next to the stadium were approved by the Greater London Authority. The project, which was approved by Haringey Council in December 2023, is scheduled to be ready in time for the European Championship in 2028, when the stadium will host games.

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(Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)

All summer Tottenham Hotspur have wanted to sign a midfielder ready to slot straight into their first XI.

The idea was to recruit an energetic new No 8, someone to play alongside James Maddison in the middle of the pitch. Pape Matar Sarr enjoyed a hugely impressive breakthrough season last year but he is still only 21 years old and slightly faded towards the end of 2023-24. With Spurs facing a Europa League campaign this year on top of their domestic commitments — they will play a minimum of eight games, starting in September — Sarr will need some experienced support.

At the end of last season, it felt to many as if what Spurs actually needed was a new No 6, someone to anchor the midfield, defend against the counter-attack, and provide the stability without the ball that Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur cannot. What Tottenham needed, the argument went, was a Rodri. (Such an easy thing to say, but a harder one to deliver in reality. Players like Rodri do not exactly grow on trees.)

So Spurs have been looking for some more dynamism and legs in midfield, someone to help them to press effectively and to get into the opposition box and score goals. It makes sense: one of the issues in the second half of last season was that Spurs’ energy in midfield seemed to decline. They became too easy to play against. They became vulnerable on defensive transitions, too easily caught out after losing the ball high up the pitch. (How else to explain the fact that Spurs conceded 61 Premier League goals, as many as Fulham, more than Crystal Palace or Manchester United, when their goalkeeper and back four all enjoyed excellent seasons as individuals?). This was again evident early in the second half of Wednesday’s friendly win over Team K League, when in the space of a few minutes Spurs twice conceded a goal having lost the ball high up the pitch.

But with less than three weeks until Spurs start their season at Leicester City, there is still no sign of the experienced energetic midfielder that Tottenham were looking for. They have loaned Timo Werner again to continue deputising for Son Heung-min on the left wing, and signed three exceptionally gifted 18-year-olds: Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and Yang Min-hyuk. But perhaps not precisely the profile of midfielder to come straight into the team.

The two biggest names that have been linked with Spurs this summer will be familiar to anyone who followed previous Tottenham transfer windows. Both of them English, both young but with a good few seasons of Premier League experience behind them, and, crucially, both of them at clubs who have been under pressure to sell players to comply with Premier League PSR rules: Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey and Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher.

Spurs had a serious think about making a move for Ramsey during the January window, well aware of the fact that Aston Villa would need to sell players during the 2023-24 season to comply with PSR. If Tottenham had offered £50m in January, that might well have been enough but no deal was ever reached. Newcastle made an offer, which was rejected. At the end of the window, Emery said that Ramsey was a “very important player” who he wanted to keep at Villa Park.

Ramsey had a difficult season at Villa, managing only eight Premier League starts as he struggled with recurring metatarsal injuries as well as a hamstring problem in the second half of the season. It meant that he had to watch from the sidelines as Villa secured a fourth-place finish and Champions League football, as well as a run to the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League.

But Ramsey is still a special talent, a player whose game is all about bursting forward with the ball and clever interplay in the final third. The below graphic, of Ramsey’s forward carries of more than 20 yards over the 2022-23 season, illustrates that. (That season, 12.5 per cent of his carries were progressive, well above the average of 4.7 per cent for midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues.) Ramsey played on or from the left for Aston Villa, and would have to adjust to a slightly different role at Tottenham. But that energy would be invaluable for a team that faded over the second half of last season.

When this summer’s window opened, Tottenham were keen to revive a move for Ramsey. It was clear at the start of the summer that Aston Villa would need to sell players before the June 30 deadline if they were to bring their losses within the PSR limits. Again, if Spurs had offered £50m then it would have been very difficult for Villa to say no.

Spurs also had Giovani Lo Celso, a player Villa manager Unai Emery adores. Lo Celso played for Emery at Paris Saint Germain for two seasons (2016-17 and 2017-18) and then again on loan at Villarreal for most of 2022. Throwing Lo Celso into the deal, in theory, could give Villa a player Emery wants, get the Argentina international off Spurs’ books for the last year of his contract, and reduce the fee Tottenham would have to pay for Ramsey.

There was a period in late June when the move was on the cards. But at the very end of that month, Villa sold Omari Kellyman to Chelsea for £19m and Douglas Luiz to Juventus for £42m. Suddenly Villa had breathing space and the dynamic had changed. The fact that Villa sold Moussa Diaby to Al Ittihad for £50m last week further reduces the pressure. Ramsey is currently focusing on preparing for next season with Villa.

The other relevant target is Conor Gallagher. Like Ramsey, he is English and is proven in the league, with two loan seasons and two at Chelsea under his belt. Like Ramsey, Gallagher’s career has been in limbo for the last year or so because of PSR. Chelsea have spent huge amounts of money on players under their new ownership group and academy graduates like Gallagher represent ‘pure profit’ on the accounts. (In recent years Chelsea have sold Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ethan Ampadu, Lewis Hall, Ian Maatsen, and so on.)

Chelsea have been minded to sell Gallagher for some time, especially with his contract due to expire in the summer of 2025. Spurs are well aware of this and Postecoglou has always been especially keen on bringing Gallagher’s energy to White Hart Lane. Tottenham asked after Gallagher last summer but did not make a formal offer.

While the expectation was that Chelsea would be forced to sell Gallagher last season, the reality was that he out-shone his expensive team-mates Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, becoming one of the most important and consistent players in Mauricio Pochettino’s team. Pochettino repeatedly insisted that Gallagher was “priceless” and so he stayed throughout the season. Gallagher eventually earned a place in the England team at Euro 2024, starting their third group game against Slovenia.

Gallagher is a different profile from Ramsey, a more conventional central midfielder rather than someone who carries the ball forward from wider positions.

What stands out most is his ability to win the ball back high up the pitch. This was why he was so important to Pochettino’s high-pressing style, and why Gareth Southgate repeatedly turned to him during the Euros. We can see from the below graphic that Gallagher makes his defensive actions all over the pitch, a testament to his high-energy style.

The stylistic fit with ‘Angeball’ is obvious, especially for a team that lost some of its intensity without the ball last season. The only player who made more tackles and interceptions in the final third than Gallagher did last season was another Spurs player: Dejan Kulusevski.

With Pochettino now gone at Chelsea, and no new contract for Gallagher, the logic of the situation still suggests he will be sold this summer. The situation felt set up for Tottenham to take advantage, but this week Atletico Madrid have made a move to sign Gallagher. If Spurs want to bring him to N17, they might have to move fast.

When Postecoglou was asked about signings at a press conference on tour last week, he called for patience.

“We’re working hard to bring players in, and it’s a process that you sometimes have to be patient with,” he said. “But in terms of what we set out to do, that’s still the plan and you have to stay disciplined with that. Sometimes the timings don’t work out and it doesn’t happen as quickly as you want and you don’t get the [players] in at the right time. But I think it’s really important you stay disciplined and not run off and chase other things. What we started with at the start of summer are still there.”

Tottenham still have almost all of August left to sign another midfielder. The door is not closed yet on either Gallagher or Ramsey. There will be other names under internal consideration too. But the closer they get to Leicester on 19 August, the more fans will wonder if Tottenham will be reinforcing their midfield after all.

(Top photos: Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur won their fourth straight pre-season match, but their victory over Team K League — the select XI of South Korea’s top division — was not without a few shaky moments.

The Premier League side stormed into a 3-0 lead before half-time thanks to goals from Dejan Kulusevski — starting the game as the central forward — and two from South Korea captain Son Heung-min.

The second half was less of a breeze for Spurs, who looked alarmingly vulnerable to counter-attacks after the break, twice being caught out within 10 minutes of the restart in scenes reminiscent of the second half of last season.

Will Lankshear continued his impressive pre-season with a composed finish, as Spurs eventually ran out 4-3 winners.

The Athletic’s Seb Stafford-Bloor analyses the key talking points…

Have Spurs found the midfield of the future?

Maybe. This was a first start in the same midfield for Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall and it was a fun tease for what may lie ahead. In the first half, Bergvall was more advanced, Gray was much deeper, and Pape Matar Sarr sat between them.

There were positional kinks and that was to be expected given their lack of familiarity. Still, there were signs of natural chemistry. Let’s not overdo it — this was pre-season and we are talking fleeting moments — but the one- and two-touch football and the ease with which the three interchanged made the midfield encouragingly fluid.

Sarr is not quite fit and it has not been his tour. Bergvall’s technique and size are old news; we covered both during the Vissel Kobe game. Perhaps the takeaway from this evening was the range of positions he occupied. There are no heat maps yet to make that point — Opta are still on the beach — but Bergvall’s touches came across the pitch, making him the grease in Tottenham’s gears. It is all about the little things he does.

Gray? He has such poise. Perhaps the most desirable quality in an orchestrator is the ability to disguise the direction of even simple passes. He has it — the little feints that open up space and the darting eyes that keep opponents off balance. He has those traits and used them.

To make the point differently: when the midfield was reconfigured after half-time, Spurs looked terrifyingly porous.

Some of the old issues remain

The mood of the tour has been extremely positive. The new signings have adapted well, in the footballing and social sense, and there is much to be encouraged by.

The second half in Seoul squeezed the brakes on that — it was a reminder that, even against a team who had never played together, Spurs can still be easy to pass through. Team K League attacked the spaces behind their full-backs and created chances. There are some asterisks — the heat, the players in unfamiliar roles, internationals still to return — but it was hard to avoid the conclusion that there are still significant flaws in this squad. Postecoglou is using players and combinations that, ideally, he would not have to depend on, even in the early rounds of domestic cup competitions.

It is a process but it has some way to go.

A first look at Yang Min-hyuk

Consider the pressure on Yang — playing against his new team, in his country’s national stadium, with Son, a national hero, on the pitch. That is a tough task, given that this would have been many Tottenham fans’ first viewing, eager to understand the fuss.

It is important to be measured. Yang had two good moments in his 45 minutes, both of which saw him break into space. The second chance, ending with a fierce drive over Tottenham’s crossbar, came after he blurred his feet and drove hard into the box. He was a nuisance, showing that he could beat defenders off either foot, in both directions.

Remind you of anybody? Just kidding, but there were enough reasons to look forward to January 2025. The K League side were not particularly balanced in the first half and Yang had few supporting team dynamics around him. Given that context, he was not bad at all.

More on Tottenham’s ambitious young signings

Lucas Bergvall’s road to north London: ‘My gut feeling was always Spurs’

Inside Archie Gray’s move and a manic 48 hours

The transfer plan is clear — they are focused on the future

What did Ange Postecoglou say?

On his starting midfield trio: “Yeah, I thought it worked ok. Obviously they are three very young players in that midfield set up and as you said, the first time they had played together.

“But for the most part I thought they handled it pretty well. I think Lucas found it tough physically. It’s a very demanding role in there and it’s gonna take us a while to get him up to speed from a physical perspective, but you can see the quality he has when he’s on the ball.And Archie, he’s what he’s shown the whole time. He’s been very composed, he seems to understand the game really well and, and, you know, for the most part, I thought he was taking up the right positions.

“But again, physically I think we’re gonna have to build him up. And I thought Pape’s running is just unbelievable. He’s a benchmark for us in that midfield area. So, yeah, I think the three of them — considering they’re so young and that’s the exciting bit — if we keep pushing them and improving them, they’re going to be very good footballers for us.”

What next for Spurs?

Saturday, August 10: Bayern Munich, 5.30pm BST (12.30pm ET)

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(Top photo: Han Myung-Gu/Getty Images)

Time has not told on Ben Davies.

When he meets The Athletic in an air-conditioned room away from the scorching heat of the Japanese leg of Tottenham Hotspur’s Asian tour, he looks like the same 21-year-old who arrived from Swansea in 2014.

The hair is the same. His gentle south Welsh lilt has survived a decade in England. Around him, however, everything about Tottenham has changed — most obviously, the manager (four times, not including caretakers) and the stadium.

Davies has been a steady beat, but the 31-year-old has not simply survived at Spurs. He has quietly and continuously reinvented himself, becoming whatever each coach needed him to be.

An orthodox full-back under Mauricio Pochettino. A third centre-back for Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and, often, Wales. Last season, his first under Ange Postecoglou, he did a bit of everything, becoming an ‘inverted’ full-back along the way.

Is Davies underrated? Yes, but partly because he undersells himself.

“I’ve never been the most physical player in the world,” he says. “I’m not the best athlete, but I’ve had to adapt to different managers, different roles. When I have guidance — when a coach gives instructions — I’m good at understanding why a coach would have that thought process.”

If Tottenham are grateful for Davies’ versatility on the pitch, they also surely appreciate who he has become away from it. He has helped set the squad’s culture, especially as they integrate 18-year-old signings Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall and, from January, Yang-min Hyuk.

“Young players will look up to you as an older player in the dressing room,” Davies adds. “One thing I’ve always tried to do in my career is behave well and do the right things. Don’t be late — I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been late to a lunch or meeting the whole time I’ve been here. These are the little details: the standards in training, the gym, the everyday things that have probably helped me stay at this level for so long.

“Hopefully, it rubs off on these young guys. I hope the new guys see me as someone they can ask advice from if they ever need anything. It can be quite daunting, coming to a big club like Spurs, so having someone to lean on can only help.”

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Davies knows how valuable that can be.

In 2014, he joined a club that was rebuilding under Pochettino after a season of turmoil when Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood were sacked.

For a player with only two seasons of first-team football to his name at Swansea City, the transfer was a blur and the transition that followed was jolting.

“I was in Chicago with Swans and then Spurs were in Seattle and I flew cross-country, got checked into a hotel on my own and then met everybody at breakfast the next morning. It was quite a whirlwind for a 21-year-old to walk into that dressing room with really senior players.

“When I got on the training pitch I realised this was a step up. Everything: the scrutiny, the intensity, the fanbase. We were in Seattle first, then went to Toronto and all the fans were at the hotel. You’re like, ‘Right, this is different’.”

The conversation turns to the influences upon his career, the players who had a profound impact on him whose effect he wants to replicate. He talks about senior players at Swansea, such as Ashley Williams and Leon Britton, together with Garry Monk, who went on to manage the club.

“I’ll always remember Garry saying, ‘Don’t let anybody criticise you for being busy. You do your career for you. They’ll be the ones who get left behind’,” Davies says. “He was right. When I got to Spurs there were some talented players who probably didn’t take much care of themselves and had gone the other way. It was a bit of a wake-up call.

“But then you see someone like Michael Dawson, who was club captain at the time and was just a brilliant guy. He genuinely cared for and looked after people. He didn’t play long under Mauricio Pochettino, but you could feel his impact around the place.”

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Talking to Davies brings back so many Tottenham memories. When he talks about the Pochettino years and the rise to the Champions League final, his eyes dance with the memory of how powerful and destructive those teams could be, particularly during the final season at White Hart Lane.

“It was just fun, we were all young guys and grew together for a couple of years. We were going on the pitch knowing we were going to win.”

But Davies is not nostalgic. His versatility means he should have years left as a player, but he has already been planning for what happens next. In 2021, he earned a business and economics degree from the Open University. There was no specific goal in mind, he just wanted it “in his back pocket” and began studying for his coaching badges towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. He received his UEFA A Licence this year.

He found himself on Zoom calls with former Premier League players including Yohan Cabaye, Yaya Toure and Gael Clichy, who were studying at the same time. In the years after, with the help of Simon Davies, Tottenham’s former head of academy, he worked with the club’s under-16s and under-18s in the afternoons and evenings at Hotspur Way.

He talks of how important it is to keep young players engaged and how the novelty of being a Premier League player quickly wears off if sessions are not designed well enough.

Davies does not exist purely within the football bubble, but he is enthused by what he has seen from Spurs in Asia — we are talking before Saturday’s 3-2 win over Vitesse Kobe — and at the prospects for the coming season. Last season had its moments, but it was a year of adaption under Postecoglou. During the Japan leg of the tour, players spoke of a growing understanding of Postecoglou’s methods and instinct for how he wants them to play.

“The feel of the players and the external feeling around the club has got a lot better,” Davies says. “You can feel it when we get good results playing exciting football. There’s just been a weight lifted off of us.”

That positivity drew Gray and Bergvall, the two big summer additions, to the club. For Davies — and this might be an insight into the kind of coach he becomes — the communication from Postecoglou and his staff has played a big part.

“He has a real effect on the team in the meeting room when he lays out his ideas very clearly and sets his standards. There’s no hiding if it’s on the videotape. There’s no harsh judgement or deep criticism, it’s just made very clear what he expects.

“It’s a more corrective style. If you make your mistakes trying to do the right things, that’s completely fine because there’s an acceptance that — just like in real life — mistakes happen. He’s more about how you react to them.”

Son Heung-min is part of that change in mood, too.

Son has become an icon within the sport and one of Tottenham’s modern emblems. But, as with Postecoglou’s personality and coaching style, his egoless captaincy — of a team that is now extremely young — feels like the right chord played at the right moment.

Like Davies, Son will soon celebrate his 10th anniversary at the club and while they outwardly make for an odd couple — the global icon from Seoul and the boy from Neath — they are extremely close. Son is godfather to Davies’ infant son, Ralph.

Son has described Davies as “a family member, someone I can really trust. If I’m struggling, if I need some advice, I’ll always ask Ben”.

Davies’ smile broadens when he talks about Son and, from his description, it’s easy to understand why he entrusted him with such a significant role in his son’s life.

“His public persona is the nicest guy in the world and that’s who he is. He has got a proper heart of gold and he’s really, really down to earth. I know he’s this global superstar who everyone loves, but he’s also the guy that when we’re in the dressing room, we give him stick and treat him like a normal guy. He’s probably got a harder life than most of us given all the stuff he can’t do because of who he is.”

The dimensions of Son’s celebrity in his home country are difficult to appreciate until witnessed first-hand. Davies has, so he can describe how it is difficult for Son to make dinner plans in Korea “in case people accost him”.

“That must be so tough,” he adds. “We probably can’t even relate to how challenging it is, but when he comes to spend time with my family and when we force him to put a cap on and come out with us, his life can sometimes be pretty normal.”

Recently, to celebrate a decade at the club, Tottenham asked players past and present to give their one-word associations with Davies. To a man, they described his dedication to his career, his professionalism and the example he continues to set.

That feels unjust in a way — such praise arguably disregards the quality of Davies’ passing, the sturdy, snappy tackling Spurs have been able to call upon since 2014 and how, for 10 years, Davies has subtly changed the way he plays to maximise his value to the team.

Ask Davies about his best moments at Tottenham and he will not talk about himself. He has played in the Champions League, at the World Cup and spent a decade at the highest point of a ruthless sport — but when he talks of what he remembers, the stories are about the teams he was part of, not what he did within them, and what still might be achieved.

“We’re building towards something special and the fans have been understanding,” he says. “There were times last year when it wasn’t what we wanted. We had a couple of tough results, but they stuck with us and can see that things are growing. Hopefully, we can do something special together.”

‘We’ rather than ‘I’, as always.

(Top photo: Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur have agreed a deal that will see South Korean winger Yang Min-hyuk join in January.

The 18-year-old will remain at K League club Gangwon FC until 2025 before officially joining up with his new team-mates in the Premier League.

Yang has agreed a deal that will run until 2030. The move is still subject to a work permit and international clearance.

He joins fellow 18-year-olds Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall in signing for the club this summer.

Yang became the youngest K League scorer in 11 years when he netted his first goal for Gangwon in March, and he has gone on to score seven more goals and add four assists in 25 matches.

He has represented his country at Under-16 and Under-17 levels and played in both the FIFA Under-17 World Cup and AFC Under-17 Asia Cup.

Ange Postecoglou’s side, who are currently on tour in South Korea, begin their Premier League campaign at newly-promoted Leicester City on August 19.

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(Amphol Thongmueangluang/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Tottenham’s pre-season preparations are quietly ratcheting up on their Asian tour.

A 3-2 victory over Japanese side Vissel Kobe in Tokyo made it three wins out of three for Ange Postecoglou’s squad after previous outings against Hearts and Queens Park Rangers.

But what did we learn from today’s game? We analyse the major talking points.

Match-winner Moore dazzles again

Mikey Moore, the 16-year-old winger, scored Tottenham’s winner in the Tokyo National Stadium, tapping in from close range after a low cross from Jamie Donley.

It was a fitting reward for a fine second-half performance as a substitute, playing with an exuberance that excited the crowd and showed again what a substantial talent he is.

Afterwards, Postecoglou praised Moore’s performance, saying he continues to enjoy first-team opportunities on merit since first joining the senior squad at the end of last season.

“Mikey has been fantastic since we brought him in,” he said. “He’s earned his spot on the roster at the moment — he did at the end of last year. He got a run with the first team because we could see in training that he was handling himself really well and that’s followed through into pre-season training.

“He probably should have had three tonight, to be fair, but he did take his goal well by being in the right areas. All we can do is keep allowing him to develop. We have to remember that last year he had some injuries and he is only 16, but — yeah — super exciting.”

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Can Bergvall handle himself in the Premier League?

Old news first: Lucas Bergvall looks as advertised — a highly gifted technical player who glides with the ball and changes speed and direction with real grace. He came on as a second-half substitute in Tokyo and the crowd was quickly cooing its appreciation.

But he is physical, too. Both in the sense of his stature and his mentality. Sometimes, young players of his profile are quite meek — apologetic for their ability, even. He is not one of them and he thundered into a few tackles after coming on, skittling a few opponents in the process.

When his move to Spurs was announced, it triggered a response among players he faced in domestic Swedish football, who dialled up the rough treatment in matches. By his own telling — and based on how he carried himself here — that might have been a good thing as it forced him to toughen up, preparing him well for the attritional nature of the Premier League in the months before he arrived.

Yes, it’s his skill that will make him popular and, most likely, turn him into one of those Spurs players who draws people to White Hart Lane during the opening nights of the Europa League. But he will not be bullied. He now seems as likely to leave an imprint on his opponents as they are on him.

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Where is Gray’s best position?

Archie Gray has made quite an impression in pre-season since his move from Leeds. Asked about playing centre-back in the two games before this evening, he did what humble young players do and cheerfully said he would gladly play anywhere for his new team.

So far, so smart — and it’s not an act because Gray really is a delight in person.

Currently, he believes midfield to be his best position and this was his first chance to play that role. After another half spent in central defence, he briefly moved to the base of Spurs’ midfield after the break (before being substituted).

It was not really the game in which to evaluate his full range of abilities — his one-on-one defending, for instance, or positioning — but it is Gray’s ease on the ball and faith in his first touch that currently makes him so compelling.

In defence, that showed in the way he moved possession forward. In midfield, it was how he received the ball with his back to goal and under pressure, playing with the kind of one-touch confidence that makes it easy to imagine him becoming a real asset within a team that relies on the quality of its ball movement.

There will doubtless be a hurry to know where his future lies and that is understandable given how much Tottenham have spent to sign him, but for now, it’s just fun to gaze upon his talent.

How does Kulusevski fit into the front line?

What Tottenham’s forward line looks like at the beginning of the season will depend on the business they can do between now and the end of the transfer window.

Dejan Kulusevski played a withdrawn No 9 role in Tokyo, as he occasionally did towards the end of last season, and that was a prompt to consider his role in the future.

Kulusevski prefers the middle of the pitch and relishes the involvement that comes with it. The signature moment of his performance this evening was the languid backheel that played Pedro Porro in for the equaliser. He has had a few similarly decadent, but effective, touches this pre-season and his ability to read and react to that sort of run — vertical, penetrative — is a known strength within his game.

Kulusevski enjoys pre-season. He admits to enjoying the heat (temperatures were still nudging 30C despite the evening kick-off in Tokyo) and the physical challenge of preparing in this kind of climate. No wonder, then, that he was a menace on the counter-attack — even against opponents who are midway through their domestic season.

But there was subtlety and instinct to his work. Kulusevski is not a natural forward and that showed occasionally here in the looseness of some of his back-to-goal play, but he does move across defenders smartly in the penalty box and that suits Spurs’ cutback-heavy style of attacking.

Tottenham probably need to invest in that area, but with James Maddison available again and Kulusevski sometimes marginalised by playing wide, this was a reminder of some of the utility — and range — he’s able to bring when there are gaps to fill in attack.

What next for Tottenham?

Wednesday, July 31: K-League XI (Seoul, South Korea), noon BST, 7am ET

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Ange Postecoglou: ‘My work is not done’ at Tottenham amid England job links

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(Top photo: AP Photo/Hiro Komae via Getty Images)