Sport Witness

Yago de Santiago ‘could not have landed on a better footing’ at Elche after moving from Tottenham this summer.

That’s according to Galicia Press, who cover the player today and how he has quickly become ‘one of the great sensations’ for the Spanish club.

The youngster left Tottenham’s U21 set up this summer in search of first-team football elsewhere, after five years in Spurs’ youth system following a move from Celta Vigo in 2019.

He never made a first team appearance for Tottenham but was a star in their U21 side, managed 18 goals and 12 assists in 80 games in total as well as four goals and five assists in 33 games for the U18s.

That lack of first-team opportunity led him back to Spain with Elche in search of regular minutes and development, albeit in the second tier of Spanish football.

It seems that’s working out so far, with Galicia Press reporting that he is one of the ‘great sensations’ in the current squad despite a slow start to the season for the team.

He’s already scored his first goal for his new club in the 3-1 win over Cordoba, his side’s first of the season, and appears to be winning over fans quickly with his performances.

His quick rise has been slightly halted by an untimely injury ‘just when he was beginning to take off’ but the hope is that he’ll be missing for weeks and nothing more.

Any absence is already being seen as a major disappointing, though, further highlighting how he’s quickly establishing himself as a key player and perhaps justifying his exit from Tottenham.

Giovani Lo Celso left Tottenham Hotspur to join Real Betis on deadline day of the last transfer window.

The Argentina international spent five years at Tottenham before returning to the La Liga side on a permanent transfer.

Last week, journalist Alonso Rivero said Tottenham have received €5m plus bonuses from Lo Celso’s exit.

Tuesday’s ABC Sevilla provides an insight into efforts put in by the player to leave Spurs for the Spanish club. They planned this operation a month before deadline day but only took firm steps after Nabil Fekir’s sale to Al-Jazira became firm.

Lo Celso has signed a four-year deal with Manuel Pellegrini’s side. The report claims the contract includes a high release clause over €60m, but less than €100m. This has been done to fend off any potential approaches from Saudi Arabia or other Middle East countries in the near future.

Real Betis lost Ayoze Pérez and Germán Pezzella for cheap in the last window and want to avoid repeating it with Lo Celso in the future. Therefore, they have included a high buyout clause, after buying him for a low price from Tottenham.

ABC Sevilla point out Lo Celso was keen on returning to Real Betis and this is shown by his willingness to accept a high termination clause.

Bryan Gil has had a disappointing at Tottenham Hotspur so far and perhaps, his best has come in his loan stints away from the North London giants.

He was loaned out to Girona in the summer window and has already scored for the Spanish side, showing signs of his abilities.

Despite that, it seems likely that the winger will return to Tottenham at the end of the season.

Sport in Spain state that while Gil has come up with good creation statistics and is winning the trust of Girona boss Michel, he will go back to Spurs next summer ‘unless something extraordinary happens’. The report praises the 23-year-old’s 1v1 ability and how he is impressing the manager, under who he looks likely to get more game time if what has happened already is anything to judge on.

However, the Catalan newspaper believes he’ll be sent back to Tottenham at the end of his loan regardless, which is perhaps a reflection on the potential transfer fee and wage costs.

Tottenham Hotspur attacker Dejan Kulusevski has spoken to the Swedish media about how players react to managerial choices, and he brought up his own situation.

Expressen have reported on comments made by Kulusevski in the mixed zone after his country’s 3-0 victory over Estonia last night. The Swedish stand-in captain was asked about the situation with Hugo Larsson following speculation the Frankfurt youngster walked on the squad after being left out of the starting eleven.

The 24-year-old compared the situation to his when Ange Postecoglou left him out of the starting eleven when they travelled to Leicester City. Kulusevski said it hurt not being selected for that game but he believes it’s something you need to expect in football and deal with.

“It happens to all of us. I was benched the first game in the Premier League with Tottenham, and it burns, but as I said, try to be as good as possible so you are never on the bench. But those are my thoughts, maybe they are not someone else’s thoughts” said the Tottenham star.

With Victor Lindelöf not in the squad for this international break the Tottenham player was made captain by Jon Dahl Tomasson, helping his country to Nation League victories over Azerbaijan and Estonia.

His situation has also improved since the Leicester City game, starting the last two Premier League games against Everton and Newcastle United.

It’s surely unlikely Kulusevski will have to worry about being benched too much this season.

According to a claim in the Turkish media, Galatasaray are showing interest in Tottenham Hotspur defender Ben Davies.

With just five days left of the Super Lig transfer window, the Turkish champions are still looking to add to their squad and the Tottenham veteran has emerged as a target.

Takvim today report Galatasaray are looking to switch to a back five after the arrival of Victor Osimhen from Napoli, and the Wales international is seen as an ideal candidate to play in this system.

Originally arriving as a left back from Swansea City in 2014, Davies has been used at times as part of a back five.

With his lack of games so far this season, Takvim say Galatasaray are looking to take advantage of the situation of the player’s situation with the Premier League side. With Davidson Sanchez also at the club it’s hoped Davies can link up with him again.

Last season the 31-year-old made 19 appearances for Tottenham but has yet to feature in this campaign. He’s contracted to the English club until June 2025.

Two months ago, we covered claims from Italy that Tottenham Hotspur made contacts for US Lecce’s Patrick Dorgu. The Premier League side didn’t make take further steps to sign the left-back in the summer window.

Spurs continue to have the 19-year-old on their radar if the latest reports from Italy are to be believed.

Quotidiano di Puglia, a newspaper local to Lecce, points out Tottenham looked at him in the last window.

The fullback scored on his debut for Denmark in their 2-0 win over Switzerland in the UEFA Nations League last week.

When discussing interested parties, Ange Postecoglou’s side are mentioned. It’s claimed they are ‘ready to launch an attack’ to secure his services.

The report indicates it may be ‘too late’ if Tottenham or any other interested club to wait until the end of this season. Therefore, these clubs ‘will act right now’ to start negotiations with Lecce for the Dane.

Quotidiano di Puglia states Lecce technical director Pantaleo Corvino will need at least €30m for Dorgu.

Granit Xhaka and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg are no strangers to having midfield battles, with the pair locking horns multiple times whilst at Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

Xhaka left Arsenal just over a year ago and has since enjoyed great success with Bayer Leverkusen, picking up trophies in his first season with the club. Hojbjerg departed Tottenham this summer, heading for what he hopes is more prominence at Marseille and a fight for titles.

There was an opportunity for old Arsenal-Tottenham rivalries to get another airing as Denmark played Switzerland on Thursday evening.

The two midfielders were big features in the game, with Xhaka getting sent off for a second yellow card after 87 minutes, and Hojbjerg then scoring Denmark’s second, to make the game safe, in injury time.

Xhaka was furious after the match. It was an altercation with Hojbjerg which saw him sent off, and then he had to see his rival score.

Quoted by Swiss website 4-4-2 after his side’s 2-0 defeat, Xhaka accused the Danes as showing no respect during the game: “In football, the word respect is very important. But what the Danes showed today has nothing to do with respect. We behaved in an exemplary manner in the first half. When a Danish player was on the ground, we kicked the ball out. In the second half, the Danish players see that Breel Embolo is on the ground. But they don’t play the ball out and we concede the 0:1. The rest is history.”

Xhaka was shown a yellow card for his protests after Denmark captain Hojbjerg didn’t tell his team to kick the ball out of play, and a few minutes later he was cautioned again after a late challenge on midfielder.

You can take the boy out of the North London Derby, but you can’t take the North London Derby out of the boy.

It’s become the general tradition that when a footballer joins a new club, is promoted to the first team, or makes their first squad appearance for the national side, that they’re often expected to put on a show.

Now just on the pitch, but off it too. Singing initiations have increasingly become the norm, and the poor player involved has to stand on a table and belt out a song whilst all his new teammates usually laugh at him.

It was no different for Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Bergvall. Having agreed a deal to join Spurs earlier, the Sweden international arrived this summer and was presented his turn with the stage.

Unfortunately for the Tottenham youngster, it didn’t go well at all.

Speaking to Aftonbladet, the 18-year-old said: “I sang Abbas’s “Dancing Queen”. It was really, really bad. I was booed afterwards.”

Now he knows it’s going to have to happen with Sweden as well, being a new boy for the national team. He’s plainly not looking forward to it, but at least he’ll have Dejan Kulusevski there to look after him.

Tottenham’s Lucas Bergvall is quickly making a case for being one of the best youngsters in the Premier League.

He played for the club during pre-season and impressed Ange Postecoglou to the point that he’s featured in all three league games so far this season.

Bergvall has shown glimpses of his ability to move the ball forward and beat the opposition press. His reliance on those abilities recently led to an on-pitch verbal volley from Spurs teammate Guglielmo Vicario during the club’s 1-1 draw against Leicester City.

In an interview with Aftonbladet, Bergvall was asked about the incident and didn’t seem too concerned about it.

“Sometimes you do worse things, sometimes you do better things. We had 1-0 and a fairly comfortable lead. We conceded for 1-1 and that’s what happens. All is calm now. We have talked about it. Vicario said that there are hot feelings and things like that that happen.”

The youngster further said: “Everyone makes mistakes,”

Bergvall had given the ball away in a dangerous area in the build-up to a Vicario and that is why the Italian wasn’t too happy with his younger teammate.

Vicario received a little criticism after the match, with some feeling he went too far considering Lucas Bergvall is just 18-years-of-age and finding his feet at Spurs and in English football.

The youngster himself doesn’t appeared bothered by it at all, indeed he doesn’t appear to be fazed by anything.

Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United all ‘came knocking’ for RB Leipzig’s Lois Openda this summer, with a future transfer very much on the cards.

That’s according to SportBILD, who start the hype for the Belgian today after his impressive performance in the 3-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen.

The newspaper explains that Openda ‘almost singlehandedly’ took down Leverkusen with two goals in the game, which ended Leverkusen’s year-long run without a defeat in the Bundesliga.

It was a real statement of intent from Leipzig and a demonstration of Openda’s abilities, which have already been noticed in Europe.

SportBILD say he is already ‘on the wish lists’ of Europe’s richest clubs and Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United all came knocking this summer.

They were turned away by the striker as he made it clear he didn’t want to move this summer. That could change if his ‘performance curve’ continues on an upward trajectory though.

Any club that wishes to buy him will need in excess of €75m to do so as there’s no release clause in his current deal and he is therefore ‘freely negotiable’ as far as Leipzig are concerned. But the Germans would welcome a ‘mega sale’ of that nature to balance the books.

That means there’s a deal there to be done at some point and Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United have already shown an interest according to SportBILD.

That might just be a case of SportBILD throwing Premier League names into the mix to build up hype at this point, something they’re happy to do a lot of the time for their clubs, but Openda is certainly a name to keep an eye on moving forwards, particularly if he continues scoring.