Taking Points

After Spurs Men fizzled out heading into the international break, it was refreshing to see Spurs Women start the Women's Super League season with a win—albeit only by a single penalty goal. Neither of these teams are a finished product yet, but that's part of the fun. How will both managers continue to steadily improve their teams from the doldrums of last season's league campaigns?

In this issue: Bournemouth recap | West Ham recap | Transfer talk | News from around the Lane | Kit room

The transfer windows also closed since last writing, so I'll round up the final few bits of business for the club, as well as some general news.

PL MD3 | Tottenham 0 -1 Bournemouth

Evanilson 5'

I made the mistake of not writing down any notes about this game in the immediate aftermath, and since it's now been almost two weeks since the final whistle, my memory is failing me. This is all that stands out to me in hindsight:

• Unchanged lineup from the win over Manchester City

• Early goal put the game in Bournemouth's control

• Toothless attack, further blunted by Bournemouth's physicality

As I mentioned in the intro, we can't assume that this team is anywhere close to its final form under Thomas Frank. But the persistent drop in mentality ahead of an international break—which seems to carry over from season to season despite who is managing the squad—is a real concern.

But if we're going to play armchair psychologist, I suspect the intense start to the season (a penalty shootout loss in the UEFA Super Cup followed by Frank's first home game and another against-all-odds win over City) probably contributed to the players letting their guard drop for this fixture against the Cherries. Things were going almost too well on the pitch, despite the Super Cup loss, so I can see how complacency would creep in. It's up to Frank to nip that tendency in the bud before the next international break eve.

Notable & quotable:

• This was the first time Spurs Men had been held scoreless under Thomas Frank in a competitive match.

• Destiny Udogie made his first appearance of the season.

WSL MD1 | Tottenham 1 - 0 West Ham United

England (Pen) 86'

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to find the time to recap the final friendly for Spurs Women (a 1-3 away win), but you can check out the club's match report for details on how we ended the pre-season campaign. We ended the pre-season undefeated, though we all know that it's one thing to perform when the games don't count, and another to translate that performance into a win in a competitive match.

This match against West Ham counted for real, and we managed to grab all three points thanks to a late Beth England penalty. It was a well-earned penalty call, with Eveliina Summanen drawing the foul after intercepting a West Ham pass and driving into the box, so I don't feel too bad about winning the game on a spot kick.

Otherwise, the game was fairly even from open play, with both teams creating a couple of strong chances to score but failing to finish. The most painful moment for Spurs was a chance that Jess Naz skied after some brilliant footwork from Olivia Holdt set up the would-be assist from England. Drew Spence had her shot tipped onto the woodwork on our other big chance.

West Ham threatened Lize Kop in goal a few times, most notably during a goalmouth scramble that saw her tip out the ball with a punch that Clare Hunt was then able to head away back into the congested box, then finally clear from outside the six-yard box. Vivianne Asseyi was very active for the Hammers, as well as Seraina Piubel, who sent a close-range shot wide of the net under pressure from Kop. Hunt had one of her strongest games yet in lilywhite, leading the backline alongside the young debutant Tōko Koga.

Araya Dennis also made her WSL debut, as well as her first WSL start, having made her senior debut for the club last season in cup action. She featured at right winger rather than the left fullback position we had grown accustomed to seeing her in during the pre-season games.

Rounding out the list of debuts was the newest signing (more on her later in Transfer Talk), Cathinka Tandberg. Rather than replacing England when she subbed on, she took up the striker position while England dropped back into a false 9 role. Tandberg brought some exciting physicality in her first appearance for the team.

It wasn't a perfect performance from Spurs in the attack, but we're already seeing some much-needed signs of improvement in the defense, leading to our first clean sheet in league play since the 1-0 win over Leicester City on January 19. With Molly Bartrip, Ash Neville, and Luana Bühler all yet to begin their competitive seasons, that's a promising sign.

Notable & quotable:

• In addition to the above clean sheet stat, this was the first WSL win since the 2-3 win at Crystal Palace on January 26.

• Kit Graham made her first WSL appearance since the 2023/2024 season.

• Martin Ho's verdict on the clean sheet win:

I thought we deserved it. We pushed the game more than they did; we were more aggressive. They looked to play on the counter, and I thought we dealt with that really well. I couldn’t have asked for more… I’m delighted.

• Beth England commented on the spirited defensive performance:

The fans want to see fight and pride in our performances. We don’t want to be a team that gets rolled over easily. We conceded a lot last year and our aim is to concede far less this season, so we want clean sheets.

• Clare Hunt praised her centerback partner, Tōko Koga:

She's incredible, at such a young age, such composure. So I feel lucky to play alongside her and play with her in our team. She's got so much growth to happen... I'm loving playing with her.

Transfer talk

There were quite a few signings and outgoings at the end of the transfer windows, so I'll break it down by team.

Spurs Men

• Xavi Simons is signing on a permanent deal from RB Leipzig. The 22-year-old midfielder is a Netherlands international and originally came through Barcelona's academy. He had his breakout season with PSV Eindhoven before two successful years at Leipzig, winning the DFL Super Cup in 2023/24. He is likely to feature at either the #10 or left winger for Spurs.

I will bring flair to the team, but also hard work and discipline. I want to do everything I can to win, for the team and also for the fans.

• Randal Kolo Muani is joining on loan from Paris Saint-Germain. The 26-year-old forward has played as a striker or right winger most often. I watched him often during his stint at Eintracht Frankfurt, where he had his best-ever goals tally of 23 goals in the 2022/23 season. He's also a France international, though he was not called up for the most recent international games.

•Bryan Gil has left the club to join Girona in La Liga.

• Manor Solomon is going on loan to Villarreal, also in La Liga.

• Luka Vušković will spend the season on loan at Hamburg SV.

Spurs Women

• Cathinka Tandberg joins on a permanent deal from Hammarby. The 21-year-old striker is already a Norway international and has played exclusively in Scandinavia at the club level so far. Her nickname is "Tinka".

It turns out that Tandberg already has an affinity with Spurs and has visited N17 before:

I’ve always been a fan, watching Spurs play when I was young, and I always followed the Premier League, so this is like a dream come true to come here... My dad took us to London and we went to see [Spurs] play. It was such a good experience, the fans and everything was so big. I told my dad, "I’m going to play here one day.”

• Hayley Raso departs for Eintracht Frankfurt after just one season at Spurs.

• Anna Csiki is spending the season on loan at West Ham United.

With these final transfer moves, the club announced the final squad list and numbers for the WSL campaign.

Academy teams

• On the Men's side, forward Conall Glancy has joined as a first-year scholar, arriving from Celtic.

• On the Women's side, defender Zara Bailey has departed the club to join West Ham United's academy, while Cairo Evea-Antoine has also left Spurs' PGA setup.

Transfer window recap

Good luck to all of the players taking on loans this season, and all the best to the players who have left the club for good. And welcome to all of our new signings!

The club released a video of Johan Lange discussing the Men's transfer window with Ben Haines, but if you're like me, you will prefer to read the transcript version. Lange emphasized the key contract extensions and game-ready players as positives of the window, while bringing up the challenges of working later in the window due to Thomas Frank's mid-summer appointment and the late James Maddison injury.

Sometimes contract extensions should be celebrated just as much, because when you are extending a player's contract, that means that the transfer has been successful or that the youth development has been successful. And both with Cuti and with Djed, two very different pathways to extend the contracts over the summer but, again, we extend the contract, and that means that the players are very happy to be here, the club is very happy, things are working.

He also commented on the major exit of Son Heung-min:

I was so happy for Sonny, because he's been a club legend, and I think he got a well-deserved hero's farewell.

Some interesting tidbits from the overall WSL transfer window:

• 80% increase in spending from the summer 2024 window
• $12m total spend
• record 1,100 transfers
• average fee of just over $80,000
• only 13% of transfers involved a fee

I somehow managed not to write down the source for those figures, so shame on me, but in all likelihood, it was probably via Emma Sanders or Tom Garry reporting, since they tend to be my two go-to sources for WSL transfer news.

News from around the Lane

• The Champions League campaign is about to begin for Spurs Men. We first learned about our opponents for the league phase, as follows:

• Villarreal (H)
• Bodø/Glimt (A)
• Monaco (A)
• Copenhagen (H)
• Paris Saint-Germain (A)
• Slavia Praha (H)
• Borussia Dortmund (H)
• Eintracht Frankfurt (A)

Then the club announced our official squad list. The most notable omission was Mathys Tel.

• Elsewhere in Spurs Men cup news, we drew Doncaster Rovers at home for the League Cup third round. The match will be on September 24.

• João Palhinha was named Player of the Matchweek for MD2, meaning a Spurs player won this new award for the first two weeks after Richarlison won on the inaugural week.

• Djed Spence earned his first cap for the England senior national team, becoming the 80th Spurs player to do so—a record number of players from one club to play for the Three Lions.

• In Spurs alumni news, three former players are nominated for the Premier League Hall of Fame: Jermain Defoe, Teddy Sheringham, and Les Ferdinand. You can vote here.

• Bri Campos has left the club to take an opportunity with Sweden Women's U17s-U19s. We still don't have confirmation from the club on who will comprise Martin Ho's full coaching staff.

• As I mentioned in my Women's Super League preview issue, Daniel Levy has stepped down (or rather, was stood down) from his role as Executive Chairman. Peter Charrington will now be taking on the new role of Non-Executive Chairman. In addition, Adam Gardiner has been appointed as Chief Marketing Officer. The club put out a statement insisting that, despite all of these changes, the club is not for sale. In the midst of all this news, CEO Vinai Venkatesham spoke about the new leadership's vision for the club in a new interview.

Kit room

The final kit of the season was recently launched, after it had already seen matchday action in a Spurs Women friendly.

2025/26 Third

It's yellow! It's extremely yellow. It's a shade of yellow that I personally would not choose for my (rather pale) self.

I'm not against "retro" kits, although calling something from the 2000s retro is a bit of a stretch if you ask me. Either way, Nike has rolled out many kits this season inspired by the Total 90 range from yesteryear. I see the concept they were going for, but the execution could have been better. And they didn't even bring back the best part of those old kits, in my opinion, which was the large sleeves.

I don't think it's the worst kit we've had in recent history, but every time I look at it, I feel like there's just something off about the neck, sleeve, and back detail placements, not to mention the garish color combo of bright yellow and nearly royal blue. It's giving youth soccer.

My grade: C-

Hopefully next season's slate of kits gives me a reason to feel excited about buying a Spurs shirt again—though perhaps not if tariffs are still an issue. As it is, I'm not rushing out to buy any of the three on offer this season, though I do prefer the black away kit over the other two.

I'll close out this issue with an anecdote from my own life: I went to see Son Heung-min play this week!

It was my first time watching our Spurs legend play live, and he did not disappoint. Playing with South Korea in a friendly against Mexico in Nashville, he scored a belter of a volleyed goal to equalize after a familiar face from the Premier League, Raúl Jiménez, opened the scoring for El Tri. Son didn't start the match, but immediately raised the level for Korea when he came on at halftime. His teammate Oh Hyun-gyu gave Korea the lead (he also provided the assist for Son), but Santiago Giménez found an equalizer for Mexico in the absurdly long stoppage time.

It was a bummer to see Korea have to settle for a draw at the last minute after making the comeback, but honestly, all of the goals scored were phenomenal, and it was a very fun, competitive match to watch. International soccer is truly special.

The atmosphere was also great; it was mostly Mexico fans, as could be expected since this was one of their "home" games for the MexTour, but maybe a third of the fans in attendance were rooting for Korea. There was a group handing out mini Korean flags and t-shirts, which I grabbed even though I had worn my Sonny Korea kit to the game. Speaking of kits, I saw so many Spurs shirts with Son on the back—mostly from seasons past, but there were lots of the new away kit, too. I thought I would see more LAFC Son kits, but only spotted one. I also enjoyed seeing so many Bayern shirts repping Kim Min-jae; he had a good performance in Korea's backline and wore the captain's armband in the first half.

It's possible I might never get to see Son play live again, depending on how the MLS schedule works out next season, so I'm glad I made it out to this game. Seeing him score such a beautiful goal nearly brought me to tears. Nice one, Sonny.

I had some bonus bookmarks for y'all, but this is getting a bit long, so I'll save them for next week's issue.

This weekend, Spurs Men have a derby match with West Ham United, while Spurs Women head to Martin Ho's old stomping grounds of Everton—at their new permanent home ground, Goodison Park. Lots of intrigue to go around, and both games should teach us more about these evolving Spurs teams.

COYS

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