The Athletic

It was the news that everyone in the orbit of Tottenham Hotspur had been hanging on all season.

There was never any question of whether or not Spurs would exercise their option to extend Son Heung-min’s contract into next season. The club had always been very clear about their intention to do so. The only unknown was when Spurs would take that step, usually delivered in the form of an official letter. And confirmation finally came at 10am on Tuesday.

While other clubs have always been interested in signing Son, he has effectively never been in the last year of his deal as Spurs decided long ago to take the option, meaning he was never going to be available on free transfer in 2025.

The idea of letting him walk away now never made sense. Had Tottenham not taken the option, then Son could have left as a free agent at the end of this season, ending his 10-year association with the club. Spurs would have then had to spend the summer struggling to replace him, not just for his goals, his leadership, his experience but also his global stardom and recognition. At least now that difficult moment has been pushed further into the future.

GO DEEPER

Tottenham trigger Son contract extension

For many of Son’s biggest fans at home in Korea, there is relief that his immediate future has now been clarified, with maybe a tinge of frustration that it has taken so long.

“After going back and forth, a one-year extension is finally reached,” was the headline of a story in the Seoul daily paper The JoongAng. “Finally, Tottenham announces a one-year option contract for Son Heung-min,” the headline of a story in Sports Chosun. While many of Son’s biggest fans in Korea wanted this situation resolved sooner, the reality is that the ball was always in Spurs’ court, and there was never any pressure to do anything until now.

But all of this just feels like the precursor to a bigger series of questions. Will next season be Son’s last at Spurs? Will there be another contract beyond this one? And how will Tottenham eventually manage the departure of one of their most important players of the modern era?

This is because it is an unavoidable fact that this has not been a classic season for Son on the pitch. He has been consistent in his availability for Spurs: only five players have played more league minutes than the captain, all of them much younger than Son. But in terms of output, he has not been at his best. More than halfway through the campaign, Son has five Premier League goals and six assists. Not disastrous numbers, but not good by his standards either.

Last season felt like a real return to form from Son after a poor 2022-23. The end of Antonio Conte’s tenure was not a happy time for Son, as he tried to play through a painful hernia problem that eventually required surgery after that season was over. The arrival of Ange Postecoglou seemed to revitalise Son and last season he looked better again. Even though he had to play most of that season up front, rather than on the left, because of the lack of alternative No 9s in the Spurs squad.

This season Son’s league output has slightly dropped. On key goalscoring metrics — xG per 90, non-penalty xG per 90, goals per 90 — this season has been closer to 2022-23 for Son than to last season, although he has done better in terms of assists. He has gone from consistently overperforming his xG to finishing at about par. There have been times this season when Son has started to look his age, and you remember that as a 32-year-old who has been so reliant on his supreme athleticism, he will not always be able to summon that explosiveness at will.

It also feels that Son — like a few other Spurs forwards — has had to play more football than would be ideal because of the lack of rotation options. Spurs have lost almost their entire backup front line to injury recently. Wilson Odobert started two league games but was struck down by hamstring injuries and has not played since. Richarlison has not even started in the league yet. Mikey Moore drifted into contention but then suffered an unfortunate illness. Timo Werner has not contributed reliably. And so Son, Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski have lined up in attack in almost every game when fit.

Maybe next season, when Spurs have a stronger and deeper squad again, the physical demands on Son will be less. And perhaps if he played less he would be able to deliver more. Tottenham should not be quite as reliant on Son as they have been this season.

Remember too that next season will also be overshadowed by the 2026 World Cup. South Korea are in a very strong position to qualify and can get close to that goal with two more good results in March. Next year’s tournament would be Son’s fourth with South Korea, and probably his last.

But over the course of next season Spurs and Son will have to think about what comes after the World Cup. Spurs will want to explore the possibility of Son signing a new long-term deal, into the 2026-27 season or possibly beyond that. Given how important Son is to the whole football club, it feels unlikely that there will ever be a time at which Tottenham do not want Son to be in the building.

GO DEEPER

Son Heung-min and Tottenham's popularity in South Korea won't decline anytime soon

Son will turn 34 during that World Cup and it remains to be seen what he will want to do in the final phase of his career. It is almost impossible to see him playing for a rival club in England, or maybe even in Europe, but given his unique fame and appeal, he would have offers from every league in the world if he were to be a free agent 18 months from now.

So perhaps this is the start of the final phase of Son, the last season and a half when he will certainly be tied to Spurs. When he does eventually leave, he will do so as one of Tottenham’s most significant and most loved players of this or any era. But he deserves for that to be acknowledged while he is still at the club.

(Top photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)

There could be fireworks when Tottenham and Liverpool meet in a Carabao Cup semi-final.

Spurs are going through an abysmal run of form and an almighty injury crisis that leaves some supporters calling for the head of manager Ange Postecoglou. On the weekend, they took an early lead against Newcastle before succumbing to an almost inevitable 2-1 defeat. They have won just two of their last 11 games in all competitions, including a bizarre 4-3 victory over Manchester United in the Carabao Cup quarter-final that was memorable for the sheer number of goalkeeping errors at both ends. The Tottenham manager is bullish about his side’s chances of winning a trophy this season, and this competition undoubtedly represents the best chance of that dream becoming a reality.

League-leaders Liverpool are having their first minor wobble of the campaign, with Trent Alexander-Arnold seemingly angling for a move to Real Madrid and drawing at home to struggling Manchester United on the weekend in a game most felt Arne Slot’s team would win comfortably. In truth, United looked more likely to take all three points.

Arsenal failed to capitalise on the Liverpool draw, so the league title still looks like Liverpool’s to lose but Slot will want a reaction from his players against a struggling Spurs team. Given how they’ve dominated all competitions since his arrival in the summer, Liverpool will surely believe they can win more than one trophy this season.

The Spurs injury crisis worsened with illness spreading through the camp recently and thus the hosts are likely to be without (deep breath) Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Ben Davies, Wilson Odobert, Micky van de Ven, Mikey Moore, Guglielmo Vicario and Richarlison. They have, however, brought in Antonin Kinsky and he is likely to start between the sticks.

Slot will need to decide if he wants to continue to field Alexander-Arnold while Joe Gomez is ruled out. Dominik Szoboszlai missed the United game as a result of illness but could well return for this semi-final first leg.

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Tottenham vs Liverpool odds

Odds from BetFair updated as of 9 p.m. GMT Tuesday.

Tottenham win: 16/5 (+320)

Draw: 17/5 (+340)

Liverpool win: 4/6 (-150)

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium — London

Time: 8 p.m. GMT (3 p.m. ET), Wednesday

Form guide (all competitions)

Tottenham: L-D-L-L-W

Liverpool: D-W-W-W-W

Match prediction

Spurs 1-3 Liverpool

It’s hard to envision the Spurs next win. A trophy triumph for the first time since 2008 would almost certainly be enough to keep the manager in a job but it would require his team to beat the domestic and European league-leaders over two legs before a final against the winner of Arsenal versus Newcastle. Liverpool should have too much across 180 minutes for a side low on confidence and, more crucially, fit players.

More Premier League coverage

Tottenham trigger Son Heung-min contract extension

Explained: How in-stadium VAR announcements will work in Carabao Cup semi-finals

Arne Slot ‘very happy’ with Liverpool squad, team in ‘good place’ in January window

(Photo of Ange Postecoglou: Adrian Dennis / AFP via Getty Images)

Football can be a cruel game. Just ask Randal Kolo Muani, who may forever be remembered as the man who missed.

It has been more than two years since that World Cup-winning chance dropped into his path, the France forward thumping the ball into the outstretched leg of Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez with barely 20 seconds of the final left to play and the score level at 3-3. Since then, things have promised to flicker but have ultimately fizzled, with that agonising moment in Qatar — along with the huge €95million (£78,8m, $98m) fee Paris Saint-Germain paid for his services later that year — weighing heavy.

Despite a difficult period, having started just twice for the reigning French champions in Ligue 1 this season, the 26-year-old’s reputation as a talented, multi-faceted forward holds. His lack of opportunities at PSG says more about the extreme competition for places than it does the player’s ability, while his six goals for France in 2024 — among them in the European Championship semi-final against Spain — show that plenty still appreciate his line-leading speed.

He has fallen out of favour with PSG manager Luis Enrique, and the striker’s stock has plummeted. But that only opens up a market opportunity for any sides willing to look past two of the longest years of Kolo Muani’s dramatic career. Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus are all interested and a loan month this month is possible.

That Kolo Muani found himself with that infamous World Cup final chance in the first place, so soon after his breakthrough in domestic football, is a minor footballing miracle in itself.

It was only the Covid-19 outbreak that brought his loan spell in the French third tier with Boulogne to an end, returning to Nantes — the side who bought him to their youth academy aged 16 — with fire in his eyes.

“He was a different player” recalled journalist Thibault Dumas when he spoke to The Athletic in 2022. “He still had that calmness in front of goal but was much more hard-working and alert on the pitch.”

First-team opportunities duly arrived, and although the goals didn’t instantly flow in the empty stadiums of the post-pandemic league campaign, Kolo Muani quickly showed the danger he can bring on the break. Despite standing at 6ft 1in (1.87m), he is quick enough to play across the front line, and caught the eye on the flanks throughout his youth career due to his blend of trickery, pace, and a rangy running style that made him difficult to shrug off the ball.

His first goal was a tap-in against Brest, but his ability to shift the ball onto either foot and shoot became more evident as his confidence grew. Five months later in an away game at PSG, he lurched onto his right and smashed an equaliser high into the net, before racing in behind to square for Moses Simon to complete the turnaround; Nantes’ first win in the capital for over 23 years.

Nantes narrowly avoided relegation thanks to a late-season flourish from Kolo Muani, who by this point had already caught the eye of Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany.

While he continued to rack up the goals the following season in Ligue 1, scoring 12 in his first uninterrupted campaign, Oliver Glasner’s side were scouting the striker extensively, carrying out character assessments and laying out a development plan in meetings with Kolo Muani in the months leading up to his contract expiration. There were failed attempts to sign him in January 2021, but the player kept his word and joined the Bundesliga side for free in the summer. The move ignited his career.

Kolo Muani thrived in the end-to-end games for which the Bundesliga has become known, enjoying his freedom at the top of an expansive Frankfurt team. As we can see from his touch map below, the French striker was happy to drop deep to collect the ball from his midfielders, looking to link with his No 10s — usually Mario Gotze and Daichi Kamada — to move the team upfield.

He was also prepared to drift wide, where aggressive overlapping runs from the wing-backs would often take players away and create space for him to drive forward, while the penalty area was a lucrative zone for crosses, as Frankfurt delivered the fifth-most in the division that season.

In more transitional games, Kolo Muani would lurk on the shoulder of the centre-backs, always looking to spring forward and curve his runs in behind the defensive line.

Here against Union Berlin, for example, as the opposition commit men forward in the press, Kolo Muani is able to reach a long ball down the channel. He gets to the ball and slows down his defender before racing past him around the outside.

In frame three, we can see him squaring up to a second defender, Diogo Leite, selling him a dummy to cut inside before jinking towards the byline, where he manages to pull the ball back for Gotze to score.

That combination of forward momentum and decision-making at speed made Kolo Muani difficult to stop in his only full Bundesliga season, scoring 15 and assisting 14 throughout a varied, high-energy striking season.

His goal against Bayern Munich was another that showed him at his destructive best on the counter, again picking up the ball in the wide-right channel, before finding the forward run of Kamada up ahead.

Kolo Muani then powers forward, sprinting across his team-mate and over to the other side of the pitch, where he eventually receives the pass, chops onto his left and fires under Manuel Neuer into the far corner — his two-footedness again causing havoc for defenders who do not know which way to show him.

Kolo Muani is not all about running into open space, however, and his catalogue of goals from that season in Frankfurt show encouraging variety; a towering header late in the season at home to Freiburg, a quick touch and snapshot away to Borussia Monchengladbach and a cheeky step-over and finish at Mainz.

His shot map shows that range of finishes across the width of the box, able to both rise high for headers, but also sort out his feet and get good contact on crosses and cutbacks on either side.

Along with his final season at Nantes, Kolo Muani outperformed his expected goals (xG) for just the second time in his career. It’s no coincidence that those were the only campaigns in which the striker had a consistent run of minutes to build up his scoring rhythm.

Game time has been stop-start since, having played almost as many minutes for France this season (425) as he has for PSG across all competitions (465). Reports soon emerged that Kolo Muani was not the profile that manager Luis Enrique was looking for at the top of his team, much more effective in behind than he is playing a supporting striker’s role in a possession-heavy side. When the play is slowed down, and defences are more structured ahead of him, lapses in concentration can come to the fore.

His form has peaked and troughed through limited opportunities at PSG, promising winger Bradley Barcola arriving to take his limelight. Even after the departure of Kylian Mbappe, Marco Asensio has been preferred in the ‘false nine’ role, while the likes of Goncalo Ramos, Ousmane Dembele and Lee Kang-in are often preferred. Kolo Muani’s two goals this season have both come in stoppage time, adding the gloss to victories that he largely watched from the bench.

Confidence is understandably low, but there is potential for the team that can provide Kolo Muani a new home. As the Premier League becomes ever more transitional, the Frenchman is a forgotten forward more than capable of taking advantage.

(Top photo: Aurelien Meunier – PSG/PSG via Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United are actively exploring a January deal to sign Randal Kolo Muani on loan from Paris Saint-Germain.

The Premier League clubs — alongside Serie A counterparts Juventus — have expressed an interest in recruiting the 26-year-old forward.

As things stand they are emerging as the leading contenders for one of most high-profile players likely to move during the winter transfer window.

PSG and Kolo Muani’s representatives have been made aware of the admiration, with the France international regarded by his suitors among the best versatile attackers currently on the market.

He joined the Ligue 1 champions from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer of 2023 for €90million but game time has been limited and, given he is under contract until 2028, it should benefit all parties for the forward to be playing regularly.

Kolo Muani moved to PSG after scoring 23 goals in 46 appearances during his debut season in Germany.

However, his first season at the Parc des Princes produced just six Ligue 1 goals in 26 outings. Kolo Muani has featured 14 times in all competitions for the club this season, providing two goals and an assist.

The striker joined Frankfurt on a free transfer from Nantes in 2022 following the expiration of his contract, having scored 23 times in 87 appearances for the Ligue 1 side.

Kolo Muani has been capped 27 times by France at senior international level, scoring eight goals, and was part of Didier Deschamps’ squad at the 2022 World Cup and 2024 European Championship.

GO DEEPER

Why do Tottenham want him?

Analysis from Jack Pitt-Brooke

It has been clear all season that Tottenham are lacking up front. Dominic Solanke has hit the ground running since his arrival from Bournemouth, and Brennan Johnson has improved on last season’s output.

But with Son Heung-min and Timo Werner having difficult seasons, and with Richarlison and Wilson Odobert out injured, Spurs have been short of options in the front line.

The same players have had to play game after game, with diminishing returns. Which is why it would be so attractive to have a new player come in with the experience of Kolo Muani, who can play across the front line, score goals and help the team.

He could offer some of what Richarlison offers, but perhaps with more reliability.

What about Manchester United?

Analysis from Laurie Whitwell

Manchester United looked hard at Kolo Muani when surveying the market for a striker in Erik ten Hag’s second summer. Ultimately they went for Rasmus Hojlund due to age, profile and price, with Ten Hag casting influence, but Kolo Muani made the final two.

Hojlund arrived for £72m, with Muani going to PSG for a shade more, but United scouts have kept tabs on him.

The issues around Marcus Rashford mean his return is shrouded in uncertainty, with Ruben Amorim wanting more firepower in any case. United have scored 23 goals in 20 Premier League games, off the back of hitting 57, 58, and 57 goals in the past three full seasons.

Kolo Muani’s tactical flexibility — playing up top or on the wings — makes him an appealing addition in Amorim’s system.

And Juventus?

Analysis from James Horncastle

Juventus’ attack ranks sixth in Serie A at the moment. Dusan Vlahovic has only scored twice in the league since the beginning of November. Treacle-ish chance creation is a factor as a freshly-assembled team process a philosophy overhaul under new coach Thiago Motta.

But Vlahovic is carrying the goalscoring burden alone. Juventus sold Moise Kean to Fiorentina in the summer under the misguided impression that the injury prone Arkadiusz Milik would be back to serve as cover for the Serb. Milik, however, can’t even be considered a ghost. There have been no sightings, no fleeting apparitions.

Kolo Muani could take the load off Vlahovic and Motta’s past with PSG, where he retains good favour with Nasser Al Khelaifi, could put Juventus at an advantage in negotiations. The priority, though, at least according to head of football operations Cristiano Giuntoli, is to bolster a defence depleted by ACL tears to Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal.

(Top photo: Franco Arland/Getty Images)

“Tonda, thank you. You leave like a king!”

“You’re a great goalkeeper, kid!”

Tottenham Hotspur will hope so. They completed a €16million (£13.3m; $16.5m) deal for Kinsky on Sunday morning, signing competition for Guglielmo Vicario and one of the most highly-rated young goalkeepers in world football.

“He reminds me of Manuel Neuer,” a scout for a Bundesliga team — who, like all sources in this article, have been granted anonymity to protect relationships — tells The Athletic. “His style has some differences, but he seems bigger than he really is. He has presence and gives off a sense of not being afraid.”

Kinsky’s most tangible quality is his two-footed distribution and his ease on the ball is another tempting Neuer parallel. But he has an accomplished all-round game and is equipped with excellent reflexes, strong reach and the kind of thick-bodied, 6ft 3in (190.5cm) frame so coveted in the modern position. Goalkeeping is in his blood, too.

Michael Pastva is the editor-in-chief of Ruik.cz, a sports website in the Czech Republic.

“Antonin comes from a goalkeeping family,” he says. “His father — also called Antonin — was a national team goalkeeper, so he had a great future.”

His father remains a big influence. He was coached by him at his first club, Tempo Prague, and then later during his time in the Czech Republic Under-19 side. Tonda, as Antonin junior is known, moved to Dukla Prague in 2018, made his professional debut in 2020, and then joined Slavia Prague in 2021.

But, Pastva says, that proved to be an interesting fork in the road. Having spent two consecutive seasons on loan, at Czech second-tier side Vyskov and top-tier Pardubice, Kinsky had grown used to playing and with his contract due to expire in the summer of 2025, was reluctant to spend time on Slavia Prague’s substitutes’ bench.

“The most interesting thing is that he might not have played for Slavia at all,” Pastva says.

“In the summer of 2024, he made it clear in the media that he wanted to leave at the end of his loan in Pardubice in order to play regularly. However, the club’s No 1, Jindrich Stanek, was then injured at the European Championship and Slavia agreed with Kinsky to extend his contract.

“If that hadn’t happened, he probably would have gone to Slovan Liberec, where he wouldn’t have been as visible.”

It was a sliding doors moment. Kinsky became Slavia’s first-choice goalkeeper and then set a new club record by keeping 12 clean sheets in 19 games. He and Slavia conceded just seven goals across those 19 matches and at the time of his transfer, they were seven points clear at the top of the Czech First League.

“During that six months,” Pastva says, “he grew into one of the best Czech goalkeepers. He is currently backing up Matej Kovar from Leverkusen (for the national team), but if he plays regularly at Tottenham, he can be expected to become a No 1.”

Karel Tvaroh is a former professional player turned broadcaster for Canal+. In the Czech Republic, there is “massive hope” for Kinsky, he tells The Athletic.

“It’s partly because of his character. In a way, he doesn’t seem to be a Czech person,” Tvaroh says. “He has huge confidence, but not arrogance. That’s not something we usually have in ourselves and that helps him to stand out a lot.

“I’ve talked about him with a lot of ex-goalkeepers and they expect him to be a real challenger for Vicario. He doesn’t seem to have a particular weakness.”

In the short term, with Vicario still recovering from surgery, Kinsky might well find himself instantly installed as first choice. It will be a big challenge. Moving from Czech football to the Premier League will be taxing in its own way. Kinsky is equipped for that, Tvaroh says.

“He’s a bit like Petr Cech in that he’s very goal-orientated. He really has a good filter, which helps in this world of social media. It allows him not to listen to that noise and just to focus on his craft.

“But I think his biggest strength is how he can influence the team. That might be quite abstract, but I believe goalkeeping can have an aura. Kinsky’s saves calm his team-mates down because at times it seems like there’s no way he can concede.”

Tottenham’s interest has been quite long-term. They had scouts at Deutsche Bank Park when Slavia played against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League in November. They would have seen an excellent performance from Kinsky, too.

In the first half, he made a terrific save from a thumping Omar Marmoush drive from distance. In the second, as the screenshot below shows, he denied Hugo Ekitike with an excellent one-on-one stop, with an upright technique typical of his style.

Negotiations for Kinsky began just after Christmas Day and the signing has been driven by Johan Lange, Tottenham’s technical director. Chairman Daniel Levy was involved in the final stages of the talks. With Fraser Forster out of contract in the summer, the club had always intended to sign a new goalkeeper, but the injury to Vicario in November accelerated their plans. In a data-led process, Kinsky became their primary target.

It is easy to see why. According to data provided by Opta, since July 2023 — when Kinsky made his first appearance in the Czech First League (for Pardubice) — he has made the most catches of any goalkeeper (48) and chosen to punch just nine times. In addition, he has the joint-best save rate of any goalkeeper to make more than five appearances (80.3 per cent) and has the second-best passing accuracy (73.4 per cent) of any goalkeeper to play 10 games or more. Of those passes, 50 per cent have been played long.

Filip Novak is a football data analyst. While Kinsky’s positioning and distribution naturally elicit attention, there are further layers that suggest he should suit Tottenham well.

“Stylistically, he plays high up the pitch and is heavily involved in his team’s build-up and frequently comes for crosses,” Novak says. “His average position of touches in the Czech top tier is the furthest up the pitch this season. Given Tottenham’s high line requires a goalkeeper who can function in that capacity, he’ll be effective. But it is his shot-stopping that truly stands out.”

“In each of his last three seasons, he has been ranked in the 96th+ percentile among the league’s goalkeepers in the post-shot xG-based model (expected goals) evaluating shots both from inside and outside the box. Even for the world’s best players, it is very unusual to post such dominant performances for three consecutive seasons.

“It’s even more remarkable when you consider that he was 21 or younger during these seasons and it’s quite common for young players to be inconsistent. That was not the case for him.”

Even at this early stage of his career, Kinsky has experience playing for teams at different ends of the table, under contrasting circumstances.

“Defensively, Slavia is the most dominant team in the Czech league. Imagine Arsenal-level dominance in terms of expected goals conceded, which means they allow very few dangerous chances. But if they do concede a dangerous attempt, Kinsky is a goalkeeper who makes saves to keep that momentum going. At Tottenham, it will be a different situation for him. Given the range of current injuries to their defensive players, he will face many shots from central areas.

“But that’s nothing new for him, either. Pardubice, where he played the season before his time at Slavia, narrowly escaped relegation that year and he faced the second-highest volume of shots there in the division. In the second tier with Vyskov — that was his first season in senior football as a regular starter — they conceded only 20 non-penalty goals from over 29 post-shot xG.

“Throughout his senior career, he has consistently posted highly above-average results in the claims proficiency metric. In the current season, he’s ranked the best in the Czech league, successfully catching roughly three out of four crosses. That’s useful because of how difficult Tottenham have found it to defend set pieces.”

Set pieces would be an area of focus for any goalkeeper moving to England for the first time. That is especially true for one joining Tottenham, whose struggles with corners have been so pronounced.

Kinsky will bring a different approach. His positioning tends to be aggressive at set pieces. As the images below from a Europa League game against Ajax show, his starting position tends to be closer to the edge of his six-yard box than his goal line. When the corner is taken, he then makes a judgement on whether to come further out or to otherwise retreat to his line and react to whatever happens next.

A review of the corners Slavia Prague have conceded this season shows they rarely employ men on the posts, nor do opponents often try to restrict Kinsky’s movement by surrounding him with attacking players. That, of course, was a common situation faced by Vicario before his injury.

Interestingly, when that does happen to Kinsky, Slavia have proven adept at responding smartly. The images below show a game against Dukla Prague in October. Initially, Dukla try to crowd Kinsky. In response, a pair of defenders pin the two attackers, forcefully moving them out of the way to create freedom and room for a much easier catch.

It’s reasonable to expect some adaptions to English football. There are significant differences between the types of set pieces Tottenham typically face and those Kinsky has seen as a Slavia player, but his aggression and tendency to catch should suit him well.

As should the environment.

From inside Slavia Prague, many accounts of Kinsky convey the traits of a typical early, high achiever — a player who will do more than he needs to before and after training and who wants to be challenged hard by his coaches in sessions.

Sources The Athletic spoke to at the club describe his openness to cognitive training, too, and more innovative ways of developing core goalkeeping skills, such as awareness and reaction speed. It is the portrait, really, of a player in a hurry. Kinsky knows his own mind and wants to be the best goalkeeper he can be — and be so as quickly as possible.

Tottenham will need him to be ready almost immediately.

Ange Postecoglou is on the brink of a milestone.

Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United was his 58th Premier League game in charge of Tottenham Hotspur. That brings him level with Jose Mourinho as Spurs’ longest-serving manager of the post-Mauricio Pochettino era.

Spurs’ 2-2 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers here last week was Postecoglou’s 57th league game, the one that pulled him ahead of Antonio Conte, who was in charge for only 56 — and for several of those, Conte was at home in Italy recovering from illness, so the true number is lower.

If Postecoglou makes it to the Emirates Stadium next Wednesday, that will be game number 59. He will be at the head of this pack, with 2021’s Nuno Espirito Santo (10) far behind him. Two figures from the pre-Pochettino past, Andre Villas-Boas (54) and Tim Sherwood (22), are also already in Postecoglou’s rear-view mirror.

You would be brave to bet on Postecoglou emulating Pochettino’s total of 202 Premier League games, but he is moving in that direction, one game at a time.

Yet it was another difficult day out on Saturday for Spurs. Postecoglou’s 58th league game was his 22nd defeat and 10th this season. This run will leave many fans wondering what exactly Tottenham have to show for their patience over the last season and a half.

Clearly, the league form has been worse under Postecoglou than it was under Mourinho or Conte. This is not a difficult case to prosecute: Mourinho’s Spurs took 95 points from his 58 games (1.64 points per game) and Conte’s Spurs took 105 points from 56 at 1.875 points per game. That last rate is normally enough for a top-four season. Postecoglou’s Spurs, in contrast, have 90 from 58, down at 1.55 per game. If you want to argue that the Postecoglou era is going nowhere, the evidence is right there for you.

Of course, if you think about this for more than a few seconds, you can find any number of reasons why Postecoglou has underperformed his predecessor’s results. Mourinho and Conte took over ready-made teams full of established senior players. Postecoglou has had to clear out the last remnants of that team and build a new one from scratch. Mourinho and Conte had peak Son Heung-min and Harry Kane up front every week. Postecoglou had to sell Kane and has had to eke the most from a declining Son.

Mourinho and Conte were brought in to deliver short-term results, no matter what the football looked like. The sum total of all this was one League Cup final reached by Mourinho and one fourth-place finish achieved by Conte.

Postecoglou came in to revamp the style of play, teaching a new approach more in tune with the traditions of the club. And that combination of the demanding style, the packed calendar and the thin squad has been a disaster for Spurs. Key players, the ones needed to make the football work, have missed long spells with muscle injuries.

GO DEEPER

'On a fair and even playing ground, Tottenham win that game' - analysing Postecoglou's post-match complaints

Throw in some extra bad luck, too — such as Guglielmo Vicario breaking his ankle and missing three months or a virus ripping through Spurs this week — and you get to situations like that on Saturday.

Tottenham came into this game without their first- and second-choice goalkeepers, first-choice centre-back pairing, first-choice left-back, and second-choice left-back (who can also cover at centre-back). Spurs played the second half with Brandon Austin in goal, Djed Spence at centre-back and Sergio Reguilon at left-back. If someone had told you a few weeks ago that you would be watching that trio, you would have thought this was an unusually timed money-spinning friendly.

Given all those mountains of mitigation, there was plenty to admire about this Spurs performance. They all worked hard. They had to ride their luck at times and there were moments at the end of the first half when Newcastle got good shots away with every attack. But Spurs dominated the second half and, with a bit of composure in the final third, they would have rescued a result. Frankly, this game went far better than you might have expected given it was already 2-1 at the break.

And so Tottenham stay in this strange limbo period they have been in for months. The league results are certainly bad: since they won 4-0 at Manchester City, they have won one in eight and that was at Southampton. But judgement on Postecoglou is still suspended.

There are good reasons for this. The availability crises Spurs have faced this season have made it hard to put out competitive teams. The fact the league season is a disaster does not mean the whole season is written off. Spurs have a Carabao Cup semi-final first leg this Wednesday. Win that and no one will care how far off the pace they are in the league. They are still in the Europa League, too, in a competitive position. There is plenty more to play for this season.

To sack Postecoglou now would still feel like ignoring the reality of the circumstances that he faced or the challenge of trying to play his football with so few available players. To sack him now, 58 games in, would risk Tottenham looking to the world like Eighteen Months FC, without the stomach or the patience to build anything or to navigate a few months of choppy waters.

You can just look at Newcastle United, who had their own injury crisis last season, shorn of the players they needed to cope with competing on multiple fronts. It led to a miserable run from December to March; 14 points from 14 games, the same core players run into the ground. Only at the end of the season when players came back did Newcastle look themselves again.

One year on they have a good chance of getting back into the Champions League.

Following that trajectory is the most optimistic anyone could be about Tottenham right now. A lot will have to go right for them to get there. Spurs proceed steadily through limbo for now, but there will have to be accountability in the end.

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Ange Postecoglou cut a frustrated figure throughout Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-1 home defeat against Newcastle United on Saturday. He seemed infuriated by some of the refereeing decisions and snapped in a fiery five-minute press conference afterwards.

“I’m just really, really angry — the angriest I think I have ever been in my career that (the players) were denied the right rewards for a fantastic performance,” he said.

It was out of character for Postecoglou, who can be irritable after a loss but rarely raises his voice. The Athletic breaks down his post-match comments and analyses what upset him.

The Newcastle equaliser and “fair and even playing ground”

The press conference started with a fairly routine question about whether Postecoglou felt proud of his team’s performance despite the result. The 59-year-old was so eager to provide an answer he almost interrupted the reporter asking it.

Sometimes when Tottenham lose, Postecoglou can be difficult to hear because he speaks so quietly, but he was animated yesterday when asked to give his opinion on Newcastle’s first goal.

“No, because I know what everyone wants me to say, but all I’ll say is that on any other day, on a fair and even playing ground, we would have won that game,” he said. “Simple as that. Don’t keep asking me about the decision. If you guys have no opinion about it, that’s fine. I know what my opinion is and, as I said, if that was a different day and it was an even and fair playing ground, we would have won that game.”

Dominic Solanke had opened the scoring for Spurs in the fourth minute but, only 140 seconds later, Anthony Gordon equalised. Lucas Bergvall lost the ball in build-up play for the hosts, but replays showed it struck Joelinton’s hand before bouncing into Bruno Guimaraes’ path. Bergvall immediately protested to referee Andy Madley, while Postecoglou was seething on the touchline.

When the goal was not overturned by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), Tottenham’s senior assistant coach Matt Wells complained to the fourth official along with Sergio Reguilon, one of their substitutes.

Analysis: According to the laws of the game, which are determined by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the officials made the correct decision.

Joelinton accidentally touches the ball with his hand while it is in a natural position. If a player scores directly with their hand or arm, or does so right after it touches either of those body parts, then it would be ruled out. In this scenario, the ball falls to Guimaraes who then passes it to Gordon. As neither of them handled the ball, the goal stood.

Postecoglou understandably felt annoyed, but Madley did not make a mistake.

After Gordon equalised, Joelinton was involved in a few other incidents that might have upset Spurs. Firstly, he crashed into Pedro Porro and went unpunished. Then he lost the ball to Dejan Kulusevski and dangled a leg that tripped Tottenham’s midfielder up as he attempted to counter. The Brazilian then caught Bergvall in the face when they were jostling for the ball from a throw-in. All of these incidents occurred in a six-minute period.

Yet Joelinton did not receive a booking until the 73rd minute, for a foul on substitute Son Heung-min.

How illness undermined Tottenham’s preparations

Postecoglou went into detail on an illness that has spread through his squad over the past week. It left Fraser Forster “bedridden”, which meant third-choice goalkeeper Brandon Austin made his first senior appearance for Spurs.

“Radu (Dragusin) and Archie (Gray) literally got off sickbeds to play today, and Radu was shattered at half-time,” Postecoglou said. “Brandon, obviously, we found out yesterday was playing. I can’t be prouder of the players, I’m just angry and disappointed it wasn’t football that denied them getting the rewards today.

“On Thursday, we literally had 11 fit players for training. But I don’t care about that. What I care about is the players put in an unbelievable performance, fantastic football, created chances, denied (Newcastle) and having to defend strongly, which we did. And it’s unfair on them, more than anything else, that they didn’t get the rewards today.”

Analysis: This helps to explain why Postecoglou was so emotional.

Tottenham are suffering from an injury crisis at the moment, with key defenders Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie unavailable, along with first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario. Porro is the only healthy member of Postecoglou’s preferred back four.

If Gray and Dragusin were doubts, it meant that at one stage Postecoglou had to consider playing without any recognised senior centre-backs. Dragusin was replaced by Reguilon at half-time, which meant full-back Djed Spence partnered Gray in central defence for the second half. It was a patchwork unit that pushed hard to keep out Newcastle, who have now won their past six games in all competitions.

If Spurs had won the match, or even drawn, it would have restored a bit of confidence ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at home against league leaders Liverpool. Instead, they have failed to win for six league games in a row on their own pitch for the first time since October 2008 and with 24 points from 20 matches are closer to the relegation zone than the top four.

Returning to a familiar theme

Postecoglou’s anger seemed to have dissipated by the time he spoke about why Son, James Maddison and Yves Bissouma were only named on the bench. However, when he was asked about Solanke’s performance in front of the new England head coach Thomas Tuchel, who was watching from the stands, he went off script and fired another shot.

“(Solanke was) brilliant, but I think the whole team was,” he said. “Considering everything we had to go through and the situation we are in right now — to put on a performance like that, I take my hat off to the players. I thought they were outstanding. I’m just really, really angry, the angriest I think I have ever been in my career that they were denied the right rewards for a fantastic performance.”

For the final question, Postecoglou was asked to clarify what had specifically upset him. He scrunched up his face and let rip.

“I know you just want me to say something, but I’m not going to,” he said. “I think it’s clear. Now, whether people agree with me or not, whether it wasn’t handball or it was accidental, I’m just not interested in any of that discussion. What I’m saying is, on any given day with a fair and even playing field and logical thought processes, we would have won that game. That’s it.

“You can make what you want of that. I don’t know what else to say about it.”

Analysis: You could argue that this was a PR masterclass from Postecoglou. He made it clear that he was angry with some of the decisions without ever mentioning the officials directly, which should mean he will avoid any disciplinary trouble. His claim that on “any given day” Spurs would have won deserves further scrutiny as they only registered an xG figure, which measures the quality of a team’s chances in a match, of 0.9 compared to Newcastle’s 2.4.

The emotions were not just restricted to Postecoglou.

When Reguilon drilled a pass across the box that his team-mates missed, he turned to the crowd and urged them to make more noise. In the 87th minute, Gray, Porro, Maddison and Bissouma all pushed Newcastle striker Alexander Isak as he walked off slowly when being substituted. When Tottenham were denied a throw-in during stoppage time, Maddison, Reguilon and Son all surrounded the referee in protest.

Tensions are clearly running high throughout squad and coaching staff alike as they try to navigate this challenging period. Spurs are wearing their emotions on their sleeves.

GO DEEPER

The Briefing: Tottenham 1 Newcastle 2 - Where were Maddison and Son? Can Isak keep scoring?

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

Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham Hotspur defender Destiny Udogie will miss six weeks with a hamstring injury, while other members of the first-team squad have been hit by an illness bug.

Udogie, 22, came off in the 50th minute of Tottenham’s 2-2 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers on December 29 and was replaced by Sergio Reguilon, who was making his first Premier League appearances of the season.

“Destiny did his hamstring and looks around the six week mark for him missing,” Postecoglou said on Friday ahead of the visit of Newcastle United in the Premier League.

“We lose Bentancur, suspended, none of the injured ones are back yet. We have had a bit of an illness bug through the squad as well so a few people have missed training but we will be all right.”

Postecoglou was non-committal when pressed on which players may miss the match due to illness before giving an update on other absentees.

Postecoglou’s side have undergone a defensive injury crisis in recent weeks with first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and central defenders Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven all injured alongside Ben Davies, who can deputise at both left-back and centre-back.

“At this stage, Richy and Mikey Moore are the next two cabs off the rank,” Postecoglou said. “Hopefully next week at some point. Ben (Davies), Micky van de Ven and (Cristian) Romero are all around the same time, the back end of January they are slated to return.”

In Udogie’s absence for the recent 3-6 Premier League home defeat to Liverpool, Djed Spence — whose preferred position is right-back — deputised at left-back, with Reguilon and Davies the other options in Postecoglou’s squad.

The defeat to Liverpool was the only match of Tottenham’s 19 league games to date in 2023-24 in which Udogie has not started.

The Athletic reported in the January Transfer DealSheet that Spurs would look to recruit this month if their injury list did not clear up.

Spurs return to action with a Premier League home match against Newcastle United on January 4 before host Liverpool in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi final four days later.

‘A huge blow’

Udogie’s latest injury is a huge blow for Postecoglou who will now have to cope without three of his first-choice back four as well as goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario for a crucial run of fixtures that includes Saturday’s clash with Newcastle United and the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie against Liverpool.

It will provide Djed Spence with another opportunity to show his quality. Spence joined Spurs from Middlesbrough in July 2022 but only made his first start for them in last month’s 5-0 victory over Southampton. The 24-year-old is comfortable playing on the left or the right and is a threat going forward — he has registered two assists in his last four appearances in all competitions.

Spence missed Tottenham’s 2-2 draw with Wolves after being sent off for two bookable offences in their 1-0 defeat to his former club Nottingham Forest on December 26. He will be available against Newcastle after serving a one-match ban.

Udogie’s absence will impact Sergio Reguilon too. Reguilon is not a part of Postecoglou’s long-term plans and has made only two substitute appearances this season. He has entered the final six months of his deal and can sign a pre-contract agreement with foreign clubs. With Udogie the latest defender to be injured though, it is probably best if Reguilon sticks around to provide cover in the next couple of months.

(Ryan Crockett/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

Thomas Tuchel is set to attend his first Premier League matches this weekend since beginning work as England manager.

The 51-year-old was appointed head coach of the England men’s national team on October 15, succeeding interim coach Lee Carsley.

The German coach began his new role on January 1, and is set to take in his first round of club fixtures starting with Tottenham Hotspur’s home match against Newcastle United on Saturday January 4.

The match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will give him the opportunity to see the likes of James Maddison, Dominic Solanke, Anthony Gordon and Lewis Hall in action.

The Football Association (FA) also confirmed some of the names that will make-up England’s new management team with Tuchel being joined by assistant coach Anthony Barry, Henrique Hilario, Nicolas Mayer, and James Melbourne.

Former Chelsea goalkeeping coach Hilario joins having worked with Tuchel during his time in the dugout at Stamford Bridge.

Mayer is a performance coach who has previously worked with Tuchel at Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, while analyst Melbourne also arrives from Chelsea after spending almost 20 years at the club.

Carsley and his supporting staff have returned to their roles with the under-21 side ahead of this summer’s Under-21 European Championship in Slovakia.

Tuchel’s first game in charge of England will be against Albania on March 21 at Wembley.

GO DEEPER

What will Thomas Tuchel do on his first day as England manager?

(FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

Tottenham failed to hold on for three points against Wolverhampton Wanderers as a late Jorgen Strand Larsen strike claimed a draw.

Set pieces were again part of the game, with a well-worked free kick from Wolves giving them the lead before Rodrigo Bentancur equalised with a header from a Pedro Porro corner. Heung-min Son then missed a penalty before Brennan Johnson scored Spurs’ second just before half-time. Wolves pushed hard towards the end and were rewarded with Strand Larsen’s strike.

As well as missing out on the three points, there will be further concern for Ange Postecoglou as left-back Destiny Udogie went off just five minutes into the second half, with Spurs’ defensive injury issues seemingly getting worse.

The result means that for the first time since 2008-09, Tottenham will finish the calendar year in the bottom half of the Premier League table.

Jay Harris breaks down the action from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

What does Bentancur bring?

This was only Bentancur’s second appearance in the Premier League after serving a seven-match ban in domestic competitions for racist comments he made about his team-mate Son Heung-min in the summer.

Bentancur usually rotates ownership of the holding midfield role with Yves Bissouma, but they both started against Wolves and it offered Spurs a more solid base in midfield from which they would take turns to push further forward.

It also allowed Dejan Kulusevski, who has been Tottenham’s best player this season, to focus on staying higher up. Bentancur’s physicality was on display throughout and it is a quality Spurs have missed. Tottenham’s record from defending set pieces is not great — as shown by Hwang Hee-chan’s goal — but the Uruguay international made a couple of crucial defensive headers. He snapped into challenges and intercepted Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s cross after Destiny Udogie had lost the ball in a dangerous area.

Bentancur is only 27, but was Tottenham’s second-oldest outfield player in the starting XI behind the 32-year-old Son. The midfielder’s experience was crucial and he could be heard barking out instructions to his team-mates.

It was an impressive all-round performance from Bentancur, which included his header that drew Spurs level after a shaky start. Sadly for Spurs, having been booked for a poor challenge late on, he will now miss the next game against Newcastle after picking up five yellows this season.

Are Son’s struggles a concern?

It is a difficult and sensitive subject for Tottenham supporters to talk about, but it is time to accept that Son has underperformed all season. In the early stages of the campaign his struggles could be attributed to a persistent hamstring injury that forced him to miss three league games. Tottenham’s captain scored recently in the 5-0 thrashing of Southampton and chaotic defeat to Chelsea but he looks well below his best.

In his prime, the South Korean would weave past defenders out wide. At the moment, he looks short on confidence and is guilty of slowing Spurs down at times. There was an example of this in the first half against Wolves when he mishit a simple pass towards Udogie that killed the momentum of a counter-attack.

When Johnson earned a penalty before half-time, it seemed like a good opportunity for Son to restore his confidence. He took ages to strike the ball and his tame effort was saved by Jose Sa. Son slowly trudged back into position and at one point put his hand on his hips in disbelief. The fact he was substituted for Timo Werner in the second half when the game was still in the balance tells you everything you need to know about his effectiveness. It looked like Son’s miss wouldn’t matter, but Larsen’s 86th-minute equaliser meant it proved costly.

Maybe there is an argument to be made that he is not a perfect fit for Postecoglou’s system. Son forged a devastating partnership with Harry Kane and thrived off running into space behind defenders. In this version of Spurs, he is expected to dribble past multiple players to find himself in promising positions. The best players find ways to adapt though and right now Son is struggling to make an impact.

What does Udogie injury mean for Reguilon?

Tottenham’s injury curse struck again on Sunday afternoon and Udogie is the latest victim. He came off in the first half of Tottenham’s 5-0 victory over Southampton on December 15 with muscle tightness, missed the next game against Manchester United a few days later and was an unused substitute in the 6-3 defeat to Liverpool before returning against Nottingham Forest.

Maybe it should not have come as a surprise then that at the beginning of the second half, he dropped to the floor and clutched his right hamstring after attempting to overlap Son. The Italy international looked in discomfort and, with Djed Spence suspended after being sent off in the 1-0 defeat to Forest, he had to be replaced by Sergio Reguilon.

Reguilon came off the bench in the Carabao Cup quarter-final victory over Manchester United, but this was his first league appearance for Spurs since April 2022. The 28-year-old’s contract expires in the summer and from next week he can sign a pre-contract agreement with foreign clubs. It might be wise for Spurs to hold on to him with all of these injuries piling up.

The left-back understandably looked rusty when he came on. He misplaced a couple of passes and wildly lunged into a tackle on Goncalo Guedes — he was fortunate that Guedes skipped over his legs. Postecoglou likes his full-backs to invert but Reguilon’s skill set does not suit those tactics. He excels at running down the wing and whipping crosses into the box. There were a couple of occasions he looked tempted to do this, but there were not enough bodies to aim for.

If Udogie’s injury is serious then Spence is primed to replace him, but do not rule out Reguilon making more appearances in the near future.

What next for Spurs?

Saturday, January 4: Newcastle (H), Premier League, 12.30pm UK, 7.30am ET

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