Spurs Summer Mode
Welcome to the off season! By the time you read this the Euros will have already begun and Copa America about to kick off, but it's pretty quiet on the Spurs front outside of having a few players on international duty.
We already received news of the first cuts to the squads with the released lists (more on that below) but will have to wait for the first signings to be announced. The Men's window is already open, while the Women's starts on June 24. Buckle up!
There's also a new home kit to discuss and lots of fun national team fashion to enjoy.
The Premier League schedule has been made official and there's plenty to dig into with the fixture list.
Then finally, stick around for a grab bag of Spurs-related news and bonus bookmarks.
In this issue: Transfer talk | Kit room | Premier League 2024/25 fixtures | News from around the Lane
Transfer talk: Released lists
Both Spurs teams have bid farewell to a handful of players each, most of which were not surprising departures.
Men's team released list:
- Japhet Tanganga
- Ryan Sessegnon
- Eric Dier
- Ivan Perišić
We already knew Dier and Perišić would not be returning from their loan clubs, and although Tanganga hasn't been officially signed on a permanent contract by Millwall yet, it's expected to happen. That just leaves Sessegnon with his future up in the air. Hopefully both young players can kickstart their careers away from Spurs, though it's a pity it didn't work out for them in lilywhite—Japhet especially since he's one of our own. With the current organizational confusion at Bayern Munich, there's a good chance that Dier remains a regular starter for the Bundesliga side, while Perišić's career is starting to wind down as he puts full focus into Croatia's Euro 2024 campaign.
Thank you and good luck, lads!
A week later, the club also agreed to a mutual termination of Tanguy Ndombele's contract—which originally ran through the end of the 2024/25 season. Because of the nature of his deal and wages, scrapping the contract wasn't much of a realistic possibility in previous seasons when there was still some hope of recouping a bit of the original fee to sign him. But it's been clear for a long time now that Ndombele has no future at Spurs, so this decision is for the best in the short and long term. It frees up more space in the squad for the club to be nimble in the transfer market this summer and allows Tanguy a chance to revitalize his career elsewhere.
Women's team released list:
- Shelina Zadorsky
- Ria Percival
- Ramona Petzelberger
- Ellie Brazil
- Asmita Ale
- Nikola Karczewska
- Gracie Pearse
Zadorsky, Ale, and Karczewska all have reported interest from their loan clubs to sign on a permanent basis, as does Percival at Crystal Palace. Petzelberger continues to be a mystery, so there's no telling where she'll go next. As for Pearse and Brazil, they didn't have a realistic chance of getting regular minutes over the other squad players competing for their positions. I think Karczewska will continue to thrive if she stays in the Frauen Bundesliga, where she was tied for third-highest scorer last season, just below international superstars like Ewa Pajor and Lea Schüller. We will have to wait and see just what level Ale and Pearse are able to achieve in their budding careers, but unfortunately, it's not quite high enough for the level Spurs are hoping to reach as a club.
Petzelberger and Brazil in particular deserve a lot of credit for being positive teammates despite their lack of game time at Spurs, while Zadorsky and Percival were hugely important to the team at one point and will be remembered very fondly.
Lots of gratitude to these players and best wishes for the future!
Men's Academy released list:
In addition to the senior player exits, the Men's list included mention of four Academy players who have left the club:
- Charlie Sayers (U21s)
- Billy Heaps (U21s)
- Kieran Morgan (U18s)
- Han Willfhoft-King (U18s)
No word yet on any departures from the Women's Academy squad.
From the grapevine:
I know I said on Twitter that there wouldn't be any transfer rumors in this issue, but there was one from a reliable source that I wanted to touch on.
• Spurs Women are said to be considering signing young goalkeeper Hannah Poulter, who was previously playing at the University of South Carolina. This is an interesting one because the club just offered a new contract to Eleanor Heeps and Barbora Votíková has just one season under her belt at Spurs, while Becky Spencer's contract status is still up in the air. Poulter is also on the radar of a couple of clubs below Spurs in the WSL table as well as Championship clubs, so I wouldn't expect her to be challenging for the starting keeper role even if she is signed. Still, the goalkeeper position is one of relative uncertainty at the moment on the Women's side.
Contract updates:
The club has already completed two contract decisions for the Men's team prior to the transfer window opening.
• Timo Werner will be staying at Spurs—but on another loan, this time on a year-long basis with an option to buy at the end of the season. That option is reported to be for around £8.5m. More Timo time, more boosegumps (the linked video has some bonus Sonny cuteness, you're welcome).
• Brandon Austin has signed a new contract keeping him at the club until 2029. I'll be honest, that seems like a rather large extension for a player who has yet to make his senior debut for Spurs. But there must be some rationale to it... perhaps Fraser Forster is considering retirement? Either way, it would be nice to see Austin finally make an appearance between the sticks.
Kit room
The first two kit releases have landed, and as usual, I have thoughts!
2024/25 Home
We've had a couple of weeks to get used to the new home kit, and I'm not gonna lie, I needed some time for it to grow on me.
And yet, my primary feeling is still ambivalence. It's... fine? I'm underwhelmed. It's certainly not bold or taking any risks. I can appreciate that it's a clean, traditional look that will appeal to many demographics—or at least, not actively turn them off—but I don't feel an urge to rush out and buy it any time soon. Perhaps I will find myself scrambling to find one later in the season if we win a trophy in it, but I'll cross that bridge when and if it comes.
It just seems like Nike phoned it in with this one, and we get the very least amount of effort from our kitmaker far too often. Last season's away kit was a rare exception of a Nike-era Spurs kit that had some special details while still looking fresh and polished, not chaotic. But most of the time, we're caught in one of two camps with Nike: obnoxiously over-designed or verging on boring. This season's home kit is definitely in the latter category for me, but at least I don't hate it.
My grade: C+
The players look confident and content in it, to be fair. And a special shoutout for the anthem jacket that Guglielmo Vicario is so beautifully modeling here. I suspect he makes it look better than it actually does in person on a mere mortal, but good for him!
2024/25 Goalkeeper
Speaking of Vicario, he also has a new kit to wear in goal.
Goalkeeper kits usually have something of a pajama vibe about them, but I don't mind this one too much. The tonal color palette of yellow and dark gold/orange is quite striking and works nicely with the navy badge, logo, and sponsor. The print avoids looking too much like a bus seat pattern and looks dynamic and playful, much like our beloved keeper's personality. Here's to seeing lots of clean sheets from Vicario in this shirt!
My grade: B
I don't want to get into all of the disappointing aspects of the kit offerings again (you can read my first Kit Room segment from last summer for those concerns), but it's worth reiterating that Nike is dropping the ball with its limited supply of women's/curvy fit goalkeeper kits. Currently, that fit isn't available for Spurs' new keeper kit. You'd think Nike would have learned from the near-instant sellouts of various women's keeper kits (like for the international players post-World Cup and the recent rollout of NWSL keeper kits), but maybe they like leaving money on the table. Strange strategy if you ask me.
As a general note, it's interesting that all kits are being sold without sleeve sponsor logos this season. I certainly won't complain!
Bonus international kit room
There have been so many great kits on display already at the Euros, Copa America, and Women's friendlies that I just had to share a few of my favorites—featuring our Spurs players, of course.
It's funny how much I appreciate yellow kits since I rarely ever wear the color myself. It's tricky for those of us on the paler end of the skin tone spectrum.
Premier League 2024/25 fixtures
As usual, there's the caveat that all of these dates can be changed on a whim at the broadcasters' desires, but Tottenham's Premier League fixtures for next season are finally here!
The campaign will be starting a little bit later and ending a little bit later than last season, and we'll have the added difficulty of participating in the Europa League. Besides those Thursday nights in Europe, there will also be four midweek PL matches to contend with and test the depth of the squad, as well as a "bank holiday matchweek," whatever that means. A midweek match that doesn't feel like a midweek match, I guess?
But on a positive note, it looks like Spurs have a much more balanced league schedule than last season, with no true "month of death" this time around. I am eyeing that end-of-the-season stretch with a bit of trepidation, because a Liverpool away match followed by two London derbies is never a fun time—though we have no way of knowing yet how strong any of our opponents will actually be until the season begins in earnest. There's still a whole transfer window to play out that could potentially change the dynamics.
And although we got stuck with away matches on opening day and Boxing Day again, we at least got a home match for the closer. Since we aren't playing a (likely) relegation candidate on the final day as we have the last few seasons, that home-field advantage could prove to be very important if we're still in the chase for top 4 or even the title.
Besides those three dates, the first matches I looked for were the NLDs. Both of them fall early in the first and second halves of the season, for better or worse, and the home fixture is just our fourth league fixture of the season. That should be interesting! On the flip side, both of the Chelsea fixtures fall relatively late.
As for the newly promoted teams, we will be hoping to give Leicester City a disappointing return to the top flight in the opener, but we don't play Ipswich Town and Southampton until late autumn.
Overall I think we got a pretty fair schedule and will be well set up to compete on all fronts as long as the summer recruitment goes well.
News from around the Lane
• Vicky Jepson has earned her UEFA Pro License. Congrats Vicky! She's been a valuable part of Robert Vilahamn's coaching staff and will surely be bringing her new tactical learnings to the training ground this season.
• Meanwhile, the Senior Assistant Coach on the Men's side, Chris Davies, is leaving Spurs to become Manager at Birmingham City.
• After writing the last regular issue of the newsletter, the Men's U21s won the PL2 Playoffs and I would be remiss to let that achievement go uncelebrated. They defeated Sunderland 3-1 with a brace from Will Lankshear and a stoppage-time goal from captain George Abbott. Congratulations to the youngsters on a dominant season and the trophy to cap it off!
• The Women's Super League confirmed the key dates for the 2024/25 season. The campaign will begin and end earlier than last season, and as usual, there will be a winter break in the middle (just over a month long).
• I already mentioned the key dates for the Premier League earlier, but it's notable that the PL will not have a mid-season break—which seems like a strange decision in light of the teams in European competition having an additional two group stage matches starting this season. The potential for player fatigue isn't lessening, but rather getting worse.
• The Men's team already has a packed pre-season schedule announced:
- July 17 @ Heart of Midlothian (Edinburgh, Scotland)
- July 20 @ Queens Park Rangers (London, England)
- July 27 @ Vissel Kobe (Tokyo, Japan)
- July 30 @ K League All-Stars (Seoul, South Korea)
- August 3 @ Bayern Munich (Seoul, South Korea)
- August 10 vs Bayern Munich (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium)
• Fans visiting the stadium for that final pre-season match will see a very important change to the facilities. The club has introduced nine fully accessible changing rooms so that parents and caregivers of all genders can attend matches and other stadium events with their babies. This is obviously great news in and of itself, but can I also just say how pleasantly surprised I am to see the club publicly aligning itself with a feminist organization by name? Wonderful stuff.
• However, my praise for the club must be tempered by their poor handling of Rodrigo Bentancur's recent racist remark about his teammate and captain, Son Heung-min. The problem is that they are treating it primarily as a personal matter and ignoring the very real offense caused to Spurs' Asian fans, particularly its Korean fans; they were directly implicated in the player's "joke." As Bentancur represents the club—even when he is playing with his international team—the club owes fans a proper apology beyond just a promise that it will do better with its anti-racism initiatives and education in the future.
There could still be possible repercussions from the FA, but the initial response from the club feels like they are hoping to sweep the matter under the rug. I appreciate that Son has personally forgiven his teammate—not that he ever had much of an option to do otherwise publicly, considering the pressure he would be under to "move on" by fans with no appetite for actual consequences for racism—but he was not the only person harmed by Bentancur's remark. The hurt he caused a large section of the fanbase must be addressed, especially before the team heads to Asia next month for the pre-season tour. Asian Spurs fans' support should not be taken for granted, nor should their disappointment with Bentancur and the club be dismissed.
Bonus bookmarks
• Amy James-Turner on the role football can play in addressing the climate crisis:
Amy James-Turner
Let’s make sustainability a core value of football. The stakes are high, but together, we can make a difference. This isn’t just about the future of our sport; it’s about the future of our world.
• Lucas Bergvall got the profile treatment in The Athletic recently, and it's well worth a read. This piece is by the outlet's new beat reporter for Spurs, Jay Harris.
Jay Harris
Luckily it sounds like Bergvall has some sensible parents and a healthy dose of patience himself. We'll have a better idea after pre-season of whether or not he's ready for the Premier League stage.
• I haven't had a chance to watch the recent Oliver Skipp "driving home with" interview in full yet, but it's on my watchlist.
• I don't think I ever shared this podcast interview with Becky Spencer on Wrexham goalkeeper Mark Howard's show, and it's well worth a listen.
When you hear about the ups and downs Becky has had in her career, it makes it all the more impressive that she was able to handle losing the #1 spot at Spurs Women earlier this season and reclaim it. Thank goodness she did, because we needed her heroics in the penalty shootout with Manchester City!
I hope everyone is having a relaxing summer so far! It'll probably be a quiet next couple of weeks on the Spurs news front, so the next issue may be a while. In the meantime, enjoy the international tournaments and keep your fingers crossed for some positive transfer decisions.
COYS
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