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Tottenham transfers news: Spurs edging close to signing Marcos Senesi and hopeful of move for Andy Robertson

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Tottenham transfers news: Spurs edging close to signing Marcos Senesi and hopeful of move for Andy Robertson - Sky Sports
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Marcos Senesi is edging closer to a move to Tottenham after positive talks this week.

The 29-year-old is available on a free transfer after a four-season stay at Bournemouth and has been reviewing multiple offers since the season ended.

Sky Sports News understands the prospect of staying in the Premier League and a move to London is something he has long been keen on.

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LaLiga and Serie A sides have tabled offers but Spurs look to have won the race for the Argentina International.

Senesi played 128 times for Bournemouth in all competitions, scoring six goals and providing 10 assists.

Could Robertson follow?

Latest from Sky Sports News' Michael Bridge:

Spurs are also hopeful Andy Robertson will finalise a move after leaving Liverpool.

Spurs tried to sign the left-back during the January transfer window but he ultimately stayed at Anfield.

However, Robertson will depart Liverpool on a free transfer this summer and Spurs are again pursuing his signing.

Despite late interest from Juventus, there is optimism a deal will be completed before Robertson captains Scotland at the World Cup.

And will Tel stay?

Latest from Sky Sports News' Zinny Boswell:

Mathys Tel would ideally like to stay at Tottenham, Sky Sports News understands, after overcoming a difficult season to play a decisive role under Roberto De Zerbi in helping secure their Premier League survival.

The 21-year-old's priority is to be in a stable environment moving forwards where he feels the trust and confidence of the club.

In 18 months at Spurs, Tel has worked under four different head coaches while the club have suffered consecutive 17th-place finishes.

Tel has faced unique challenges at Spurs this season. He was overlooked for the initial Champions League squad by Thomas Frank, then brought back in December to replace Dominic Solanke, only to be removed again in January when the striker was fit.

The uncertainty around his place in the team created significant speculation about his future and an intense winter for Tel amid strong interest from clubs in Europe.

Tel has played his best football at Spurs under De Zerbi. He earned the Italian's trust with his performance off the bench at Wolves in late April.

He won the corner at Molineux which led to Joao Palhinha's goal and Spurs' first league win of 2026, chasing down what had appeared to be a lost cause with time running out.

It proved a turning point for both club and player. The Frenchman started the remaining four games on the left, contributing a goal and an assist that proved crucial in Spurs avoiding relegation.

Tel's goal in the 1-1 draw with Leeds was overshadowed at the time because he gave away the penalty for the equaliser. However, De Zerbi supported Tel after his error and continued to select him for the most important games of the season.

It has been a long season for Tel, which began with him being subjected to racial abuse on social media after missing a penalty in Spurs' Super Cup final shoot-out defeat to PSG - an incident understood to have deeply affected him emotionally.

The 21-year-old has been through a lot this season and feels he is approaching a crucial stage in his career where he needs the right conditions to progress. He hopes that will be at Spurs under De Zerbi.

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Spurs conduct major review into injury crisis with stadium's retractable pitch one area investigated

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Spurs conduct major review into injury crisis with stadium's retractable pitch one area investigated - Sky Sports
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Spurs have carried out a major review of their performance and medical departments, which included an investigation into whether the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium's retractable pitch is contributing to the club's ongoing injury crisis.

Tottenham lost the most days to injury of any Premier League side this season, while Spurs players missed a combined 370 games across all competitions due to injury this campaign - the most of any top-flight side.

The club's failure to keep players fit nearly led to their relegation as Roberto De Zerbi's side dramatically needed a final-day home win over Everton to secure their Premier League safety.

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It is a second consecutive injury-hit season for Spurs, who have lost the most days and games to injury of any Premier League side since the start of the 2024/25 campaign.

A crippling injury list has played its part in back-to-back 17th-placed finishes for the world's ninth-richest football club.

It is understood the club's new performance director, Dan Lewindon, has completed a thorough review of the injury issue after three months in the job, and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium retractable pitch is an area of concern.

The serious knee injuries to Dejan Kulusevski and Radu Dragusin came at home last season, while James Maddison partially tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in last May's home win over Bodo/Glimt, before a full rupture three months later in pre-season in South Korea.

This season, Ben Davies broke his ankle in January's home defeat to West Ham, while Wilson Odobert ruptured his ACL in the home loss against Newcastle.

It is understood Tottenham regularly carry out external independent testing on their home surface to assess the bounce of the pitch compared to that of their training pitch, but to date the results are inconclusive.

However, further detailed testing is planned in the coming weeks to analyse whether there is a difference in their home surface compared to other Premier League pitches.

Tottenham's investigation comes with Real Madrid's new retractable pitch also in the spotlight.

Since the Santiago Bernabeu's reopening, the 15-time European champions have suffered a spate of ACL injuries.

Reports in Spain claim Real are investigating their pitches at both the Bernabeu and their Valdebebas training ground.

While the Bernabeu has only been fully reopened for three years, Spurs have been playing at their £1bn state-of-the-art stadium for the past seven years, with injuries only becoming a real issue in the last two seasons.

Spurs set to introduce new system to combat injuries

Since the start of the 2024/25 campaign, Tottenham have suffered 123 injuries - only north London rivals Arsenal (146) have suffered more in the Premier League in that period.

Multiple Spurs players have also had injury setbacks in the past two seasons, including Mohammed Kudus this campaign.

Spurs' non-executive chairman Peter Charrington promised there would be a "significant focus on raising standards across medical and performance" in an open letter to fans on Monday.

Lewindon's review is understood to have uncovered structural issues within the performance set-up of the club.

There is a belief that there is a lack of integration, communication and shared decision-making, which has led to injuries and injury reoccurrences.

A higher level of support for players individually is wanted by Tottenham head coach De Zerbi.

This has prompted Lewindon to build a small-team approach whereby up to six players are assigned a physio, which allows higher-quality programming and better decisions made around a player's training design and physical preparation.

Tottenham are also looking to appoint a psychologist for the men's team, with the idea that this can improve communication.

Another factor in Spurs' injury crisis has been the number of managerial changes at the club.

Spurs have had four different head coaches in the space of a year - Ange Postecoglou, Thomas Frank, Igor Tudor and De Zerbi - which has led to changing demands on the players.

It is believed these differing training methods and tactics have created an increased risk of injury to the Spurs players.

Spurs reject criticism over handling of Simons' injury

Spurs boss De Zerbi lost a player to injury in each of his first three games, with Cristian Romero suffering a season-ending injury in the loss at Sunderland, Destiny Udogie picking up a muscular issue in the draw against Brighton, and Xavi Simons suffering an ACL injury in the win at Wolves.

But the handling of Simons' injury drew criticism from some Spurs supporters after the attacking midfielder was given ice spray and sent back on the pitch before eventually being stretchered off with the season-ending injury.

It is understood Lewindon was very satisfied with the medical team's handling of the situation.

Simons wanted to continue at Molineux, and with an ACL test hard to perform at pitchside, the decision to allow him the opportunity to return to the game was deemed correct by the club.

It is understood no additional damage was done to Simons, who is set to return next season when Spurs will be hoping their injury crisis has been resolved.

Maddison calls for inquest into Spurs' injury problems

Maddison has called on Spurs to investigate the "astronomical" injury problems that have plagued the squad this season.

The playmaker, restricted to three appearances off the bench at the end of the campaign, is one of six Spurs players to have had a serious knee injury since January 2025.

Speaking after Sunday's final-day win over Everton, Maddison said: "Our situation with the injuries has been worse than any other club.

"People try and say, 'Oh, but we've got this and that'. But ours is astronomical, and we need to look at why that is.

"Sometimes it can just be unlucky, sometimes it can be a coincidence, like me doing my ACL or [Dejan] Kulusevski getting a horrendous knock off [Marc] Guehi.

"That's not the medical team, that's not the pitch or all the theories that you see, sometimes that's rubbish."

Maddison believes Spurs, who only confirmed their Premier League safety on the final day, would never have been in that position if they had their key players fit.

"We've been a bit unlucky," Maddison added. "But like I said, the big names that we've missed, it does affect you and you can't just deny that.

"Myself, Kulusevski and [Mohammed] Kudus, and [Rodrigo] Bentancur missed three months and whatnot. If you had had them for the whole season, we wouldn't have been in this situation, I strongly believe.

"That's just not me being naive, that's just a fact. But it is the situation we find ourselves in, and I am just proud of the lads to dig deep today."

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Roberto De Zerbi saves Tottenham: How head coach revitalised Spurs to secure Premier League survival

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There was meant to be no way back for Tottenham. A failed manager, a failed replacement, no wins in almost half a season and only two at home all year. But Roberto De Zerbi has saved Spurs, by the finest of margins.

There were question marks whether the fiery Italian's unorthodox, even eccentric methods would transfer across to his new players with only seven games to keep them afloat.

His former captain, Brighton skipper Lewis Dunk, once recalled a "carnage fortnight" when he took over at the Amex in 2022, as he struggled to get his ideas across and the Seagulls' form fell off a cliff in the opening weeks of his tenure.

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Any repeat in north London and it would be curtains in a race for survival against a resurgent West Ham side under Nuno Espirito Santo. But Tottenham's longest unbeaten run of the season - admittedly, a low bar - and 11 points from seven games later, has been enough to secure their Premier League status with a 2-0 win over Everton on the final day.

De Zerbi has chosen pragmatism over ideology, at least by his usual standards. No goalkeepers baiting opposition or a league-topping number line-up changes. Hallmarks of his style still underpin his version of Spurs, but simplicity has been the key both in his methods and his selections, with the results speaking for themselves.

How has the 46-year-old got it done?

High-pressing, efficient running

The signs of De Zerbi's high-pressing game quickly became increasingly evident across his opening games to the point where inside five games he already enjoyed the best record of any single manager across the division of winning the ball back in the final third this season - an average of 5.1 times per game since his arrival.

That comes with a small sample size but large enough to compare impressively with his predecessors, with those numbers rising 40 per cent on the rest of the season in the final seven games of the campaign.

Spurs are pressing better by being smarter. Their running numbers have dropped across the board - they are running slightly less but sprints have dropped by almost 10 per cent compared to before De Zerbi's arrival, despite their possession stats barely increasing. Not pressing for pressing's sake.

That better organised, front-foot approach is having a different effect than you might expect. Yes, Spurs are winning the ball back closer to the opposition goal but only Xavi Simons' fine strike against Brighton directly owes anything to it. Spurs are barely creating more xG, striking at goal more or even getting shots away quicker than before De Zerbi arrived.

Instead, keeping opposition pressure away from Spurs' own goal is making a significant difference. They have given up less than a goal's worth of xG on average, 0.79xG per game under De Zerbi - a figure almost 50 per cent down from before his arrival when they were shipping 1.51xG every match.

Going by those numbers, Spurs' average goal difference per game has risen from a concerning -0.49xG per match into positive numbers for the first time since their draw with Brighton all the way back in September.

A reinvigorated, industrious midfield

It's worth remembering that not everything was immediately plain sailing for De Zerbi.

The comparison between Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka's numbers alone against Spurs' midfield three in a 1-0 defeat at the Stadium of Light in his first game made for humiliating reading.

In that game, De Zerbi picked the young duo of Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall alongside Conor Gallagher and was badly burned.

"Are two young kids, learning their trade, going to get you out of a relegation battle?" asked Sky Sports' Jamie Carragher after that game.

"The balance in midfield at Spurs is not right. To be fair, the manager's only been there a week or two," added Roy Keane.

De Zerbi prefers players who can play but he did not make the same mistake again, and put his ideals on hold for more industrious options.

Gallagher was partnered by Rodrigo Bentancur in midfield for each of Spurs' subsequent three games, while Joao Palhinha joined them in the win at Aston Villa last month. That was the first time the trio had played together all season, but they have gone on to start each of Spurs' final four games.

Why? What the trio may lack in flair, they make up for in legs and energy. At Villa Park, they outperformed the home trio of Ross Barkley, Lamare Bogarde and Youri Tielemans despite playing 19 minutes fewer.

They set the tone with a display of tackling, duels and ball-winning superior to their Villa counterparts and dominated the middle of the park.

A lack of midfield balance which has dogged Spurs all season finally had a solution. De Zerbi decided to settle on a system best-suited to winning the midfield battle.

It has not been without its problems, like the toothless display at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, but it has done enough without the ball to help keep Tottenham in the league.

But there was a nice reward for the manager in that final-day win over Everton, with Palhinha scoring the decisive goal in north London.

The De Zerbi factor

Numbers can only tell you so much about De Zerbi's impact. Renowned for his man management and big personality, he wasted no time in building his players up when he first walked through the door.

Reassuring them that he would be at the club next season regardless of relegation, true or not, laid down a long overdue base of continuity. He has demanded positivity and belief, but he has provided it too.

"I try to find the best solution to reach every player," he said before his first win over Wolves. "Sometimes that is analysis videos but sometimes what they have done in their career for other clubs.

"With [Randal) Kolo Muani, if I play with Kolo Muani as right winger it's because he has played in that position. If you go to YouTube, and you go to Kolo Muani (at) Eintracht Frankfurt, you can see he played very well in that position and he scored a lot of goals in that position."

De Zerbi's plan is one Spurs players can buy into. It is working and it is effective. But they, like Marseille and Brighton before them, are buying into the man too. "I see football in a completely different way, I picture it in a different way," Dunk said only months after working with him.

Conor Gallagher finally looks like the player who became Chelsea captain. No surprise when De Zerbi claimed his side were "playing with 12 men" owing to the performance of the goalscoring 26-year-old at Villa on Sunday.

"Every player in the squad has taken to him, everyone trusts him, he makes you feel good, confident, he's bringing the best out of players and it's only the start," Gallagher told TNT Sports after Sunday's win.

"Hopefully we can keep learning from him and build a great team."

A great team can wait for the moment. For now, survival was the only requirement. And with a first home win since December 6 to seal their Premier League spot on the final day, it has been achieved. Just.

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