Sport Witness

Dejan Kulusevski has arguably been Tottenham Hotspur’s best player this season.

The Sweden international has ten goals and just as many assists in all competitions, having contributed to goals consistently before he fell to an injury some weeks ago.

With Tottenham clearly struggling to make it to European football owing to their poor league position, there is now a possibility of them losing Kulusevski in the summer.

Calciomercato have reported today that AC Milan and other Premier League clubs came forward for Kulusevski in January, but Spurs rejected any approaches for their key player. They want to build around the 24-year-old and see him as arguably their most important player.

It’s believed things could change if Tottenham do not make it to Europe.

Fabio Paratici, who is likely to become Milan’s next sporting director, could look to reunite with him at the Rossoneri.

Napoli sporting director Giovanni Manna knows Kulusevski from his time at Juventus and he still holds the Swede in high regard.

The indication is that the Lilywhites would not even open negotiations ‘for less than €50m’ and only a big offer will make them consider a sale.

Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are interested in signing Bayer Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah in the summer window.

That’s according to Monday’s edition of Mundo Deportivo, and they mention Liverpool and Tottenham when covering the latest on Barcelona.

The centre-back is set to leave Xabi Alonso’s side when his contract with them expires in June.

Bayer Leverkusen have made several attempts to renew his contract, but Tah has refused, in order to join Barcelona.

Hansi Flick previously managed the Germany international for the national team and is in favour of his arrival at the Camp Nou. The 29-year-old has given his word to the Catalan club.

Despite this, Mundo state Barcelona have to manage their finances and make room in the centre-back position before signing Tah.

The defender is willing to wait for the Spanish giants, but his contract situation has seen him attract interest from elsewhere. The newspaper states he continues to receive offers and Premier League clubs have set their sights on him.

This is when Liverpool and Tottenham are mentioned as they are the latest clubs to show interest in Tah.

The report doesn’t specify or suggest whether Liverpool or Tottenham have made offers to him. Either way, the Premier League duo have to convince Tah to pick them over the La Liga club, if they wish to secure his services.

Djurgårdens IF Fotboll sporting director Bosse Andersson claims Barcelona were clearly unhappy over missing out on Lucas Bergvall to Tottenham Hotspur.

The Swedish club’s official was recently a guest on Carina Bergfelt’s talk show, where he discussed the 19-year-old, and Aftonbladet have relayed his comments.

In February 2024, Tottenham reached an agreement with Djurgårdens IF Fotboll for the midfielder to arrive at the north London club last summer.

Bergvall’s development at the Swedish club had caught the attention of several clubs and Spurs and Barcelona were battling for him in the end.

The 19-year-old had travelled to Spain to visit Barcelona’s facilities, and the La Liga side were quite confident of securing his services. That didn’t happen in the end and Spurs were successful in overcoming tough competition.

According to Andersson, the Catalan club weren’t expecting the Sweden international to snub them for Ange Postecoglou’s side.

“Lucas Bergvall is an interesting footballer and has always been talented,” he said.

“We had the privilege of discussing with perhaps one of Europe’s biggest football clubs, Barcelona, who were interested.

“I think Barcelona were quite surprised, because you don’t just go to Barcelona to watch, go there and eat tapas and see if it’s nice. I think they were extremely disappointed that he went to Tottenham.”

The youngster has been a regular for the Premier League club this season, playing 1,875 minutes from 38 matches. His former club’s director is of the belief Bergvall made the right choice by picking Tottenham over Barcelona.

“But the choice itself has proven to be absolutely right, he has come to Tottenham and has become an established Premier League player,” Andersson explained.

Hajduk Split’s Luka Vušković turned 18 years of age last month, and he will arrive at Tottenham Hotspur in the summer window.

In September 2023, Tottenham secured an agreement with Hajduk Split for the defender to move to the north London when he turns 18-years-old.

The Croatian club sent the incoming Spurs player on loan to KVC Westerlo in July 2024, after a temporary spell at Radomiak Radom.

Friday’s edition of Večernji list BiH covers the centre-back in a report that focuses on the upcoming young talents in Croatia. Their senior team currently have seven players who are of 30 years and above.

The newspaper has identified young Croatian talents below the age of 21, with a valuation of €1m or above on Transfermarkt.

Vušković has a valuation of €10m and is second in the list behind Dinamo Zagreb’s Petar Sučić [€12m].

Vecernji highlights the defender is enjoying an impressive season in Belgium. They state that for his age, he has ‘shown incredible high level of defensive play’ at Westerlo.

Vušković also has ‘insane’ stats for a defender, managing seven goals and two assists from 28 matches for the Belgian club.

There’s excitement in the Croatian press with Vušković’s development and he could take further steps once he arrives at Tottenham.

Mathys Tel arrived at Tottenham Hotspur on a loan deal in the winter market and has so far played 487 minutes from seven games for the Premier League club.

The striker has scored only one goal for Tottenham, and that came in their 2-1 FA Cup defeat to Aston Villa last month.

Tel struggled for regular minutes at Bayern Munich and that led to him joining Tottenham on deadline day of the winter market.

His situation at Bayern didn’t stop him from receiving call ups from France U21 manager Gérald Baticle for the past three international breaks. Baticle also included the 19-year-old in the squad for the two friendlies this month.

The national team coach has talked about some of his players, including the Spurs youngster, at a press conference this week and Thursday’s edition of Ouest-France relays his comments.

Baticle claims the youngster has the “mentality and appetite of a real goalscorer.” At the same time, he has asked Tel to improve certain aspects in order to take his game to the next level.

“He’s a player with great potential, who needs to develop his professionalism to establish himself. He must show that he’s efficient and effective to reach even higher levels. There’s still work to be done, but the foundation is very interesting,” he said.

It’s that time again, an international break during which fans and managers keep their fingers crossed and hope players come through training and matches in one piece.

For Tottenham and their manager Ange Postecoglou the situation is even more worrisome than usual, with Spurs the subject of many injury issues this season and obviously not wanting to add to those problems they’ve been facing.

Lucas Bergvall has been expected to have a big international break for Sweden, with national team manager Jon Dahl Tomasson already making it clear he’d start the next game against Luxembourg.

However, he’s out of training today.

Perhaps thankfully for Tottenham, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet report it’s an illness issue and not an injury.

According to the report, Bergvall is ill and has had to stay behind at the squad hotel whilst all the other players have travelled to training today.

The Tottenham youngster is the only one missing.

Aftonbladet quote the Sweden manager as saying: “We are one player short today, we will see how he feels tomorrow.

“He has a cold and is not in top form. Now he had to stay in bed, so we will see how he feels during the day. We will have to wait and see how the match goes on Saturday, we cannot decide that now. He could have maybe been a little bit involved today, but there is no reason to take any risks.”

On Friday, Girona confirmed Bryan Gil, who is on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, suffered a knee injury that forced him to miss the weekend clash against Valencia.

The league match ended in a 1-1 draw and after the tie, Girona manager Míchel stated the winger could miss rest of the season. Sport relay his comments and provide more on his injury.

“We’ll see if surgery is necessary or not. If he has to have surgery, he could miss the entire season. It doesn’t look good, although I think tests are still needed,” he said.

There’s serious concern at the La Liga side over the Tottenham man’s injury situation. The report states there’s a ‘high probability’ of him missing the rest of this season.

Sport state Gil has had further tests and Dr Ramon Cugat will decide whether he has to undergo surgery.

Monday’s edition of AS has a report on the Spain international and in their title, they say he may not play again this season.

The Tottenham owned player is waiting for the final update from Cugat to understand the extent of the damage on his right knee. The report states ‘everything indicates that it’ll be impossible to avoid surgery’.

If Gil were to go under the knife, he wouldn’t be able to feature for Girona this season. AS state Tottenham are monitoring the situation closely as the player’s contract at Spurs is until 2026.

The attacker managed four goals and three assists from 32 games this season. He’s been a key player under Míchel and his absence will be a blow for the manager and Girona.

Earlier claims have stated Girona have plans to buy Gil after this season. It remains to be seen whether they will change their plans after his latest setback.

AZ Alkmaar’s Mayckel Lahdo is set to be absent ‘for weeks’ after an unfortunate challenge from Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Bergvall.

That’s according to Voetbal Nieuws, who cover the player today as he’s set to be on the sidelines for a while.

They explain that AZ will have to do without Lahdo for the coming weeks after the winger sustained an injury following a tackle from Tottenham’s Bergvall in last week’s 1-0 win in the Europa League.

He was in the starting line up for that game but had to leave the pitch early following a challenge from the Tottenham youngster.

The belief is that he will now be out for 5-6 weeks and that means he will miss the upcoming cup final against Go Ahead Eagles. That’s scheduled for April 21st but likely to come too early for the 22-year-old in his recovery.

He will also miss this week’s second leg clash against Tottenham, joining a growing list of absentees for the Dutch side as they look to secure progression after beating Ange Postecoglou’s side last week.

They have had a ‘stroke of luck’ with the return of Mexx Meerdink but there’s been no such luck for Lahdo after Bergvall’s challenge.

Antoine Semenyo has impressed for AFC Bournemouth this season and it has seen him get linked to Tottenham Hotspur and other clubs.

The forward joined Bournemouth from Bristol City in January 2023 and managed 18 goals and seven assists of which nine goals and five assists are from this season.

Recent claims in the UK stated that Tottenham plan to make a €40m bid for the Ghana international in the summer window.

Africa Foot had a chat with 25-year-old’s compatriot, Matthew Amoah, who has urged the Bournemouth player to not join Spurs.

Amoah represented Vitesse Arnhem, Borussia Dortmund, NAC Breda and others during his playing career. He’s of the belief the north London club are currently a step below the Cherries sporting wise.

Bournemouth have 44 points from 28 games and are ninth in the table, five points behind fourth placed Chelsea. Tottenham, on the other hand, are in 13th spot, 10 points behind Andoni Iraola’s side.

According to Amoah, it doesn’t make sense for Semenyo to leave Bournemouth for Spurs in the next window.

“With all due respect to Tottenham, if this is the only offer that comes to Semenyo this summer, then he should stay at Bournemouth,” he said.

“Bournemouth are currently a better team on the pitch than Tottenham and seem more stable with a very good coach in Andoni Iraola. So, joining a club that is far behind would be a demotion that makes no footballing sense.

“He’s doing his job very well at a club that also appreciates his work and efforts, with fans singing his name day in and day out. Unless a much bigger club comes along, he should stay at Vitality.”

“Also, the €40m that is being talked about is below his value in the current market, given his contract, age and ability.”

Bournemouth have secured Semenyo’s long-term future last summer by extending his contract until 2029.

Djurgårdens IF Fotboll are expecting to receive ‘more money’ from selling Lucas Bergvall to Tottenham Hotspur.

That’s according to Djurgårdens CEO Henrik Berggren, and he revealed this during a chat with Fotbollskanalen.

In February 2024, the Swedish club agreed a deal with Tottenham for the 19-year-old to arrive at the club last summer.

The midfielder has played 35 games in all competitions this season and injuries to other players has seen him enjoy regular minutes in recent months.

Djurgårdens released their finances for 2024, and the report states they made SEK 139m [€12.7m] from player sales after deducting agent fees and payment to former clubs.

The majority of them were from Bergvall, Samuel Dahl and Jacob Widell Zetterström’s sales to Tottenham, AS Roma and Derby County respectively. These operations have pleased the CEO.

“It’s clear that these are good numbers, but that is what happens when you sell many players and especially some very expensive ones,” he said.

According to Fotbollskanalen, the Swedish club will receive SEK 111.5m [€10.5m] in the future from past transfers.

“That’s money that we will receive both this year and next year,” Berggren explained.

When asked if it’s mostly from the Sweden international’s sale to Tottenham, he said: “It’s for Bergvall, Dahl and Widell Zetterström. But it’s clear that the sale of Lucas stands out.”

The report states Djurgårdens are expecting ‘more money’ from Spurs because of the previous agreement about bonuses. The 2024 annual report shows they haven’t received any bonuses so far.

“There are no bonuses at all, no. There are only fixed amounts in the claims. So, there are more bonuses that can fall out [in Djurgårdens favour] in the future as well,” the CEO added.

Expressen earlier explained Djurgårdens are entitled to receive SEK 100m [€9.1m] in bonuses from Bergvall’s sale.