Marked for Ellis Lehane
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tottenham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Dec 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Tottenham heard it as anything else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Nicolò Tresoldi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Brighton's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Brighton has to find a result from somewhere.
Match14 Nov 2026
Brighton cannot find the net
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kaoru Mitoma was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Solly March falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Chelsea, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Nov 2026
43 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ellis Lehane gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 5.01, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Micky van de Ven out for 62 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tottenham will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match14 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, Tottenham do not lose
10 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tottenham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Dominic Solanke falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Tottenham, and 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match14 Nov 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Newcastle United came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Nicolò Tresoldi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Tottenham say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ellis Lehane: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Brighton have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market19 Oct 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kaoru Mitoma wants continental football; whether Brighton can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match17 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for Brighton
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Brighton are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brighton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Bart Verbruggen has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Brighton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewis Dunk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Georginio Rutter at his very best
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Brighton.
Match17 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match17 Oct 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mateus Fernandes scored in the 87th minute, Brentford had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Tottenham took the lot.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Sandro Tonali was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Tottenham right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
James Wilson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Dejan Kulusevski falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Tottenham, 2‑1 the final word against Brentford in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Xavi Simons has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sandro Tonali was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Rio Kyerematen is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Tottenham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Micky van de Ven is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Manchester United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Nicolò Tresoldi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
7.86, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Tottenham had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Tottenham game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Brighton runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market21 Sep 2026
The name of Nicolò Tresoldi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Tottenham say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kaoru Mitoma was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Solly March falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Aug 2026
62 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Matt O'Riley gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Nottingham Forest leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
The shop window has Jemerson in it
Brighton have let the market know Jemerson can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.