Marked for Conor Gallagher
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Dejan Kulusevski 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Tottenham make home a hard place to visit
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Tottenham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Conor Gallagher 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 ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market21 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tottenham know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match19 Dec 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Aston Villa came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tottenham may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Tottenham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominic Solanke 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
The run at home goes on for Tottenham
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market23 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tottenham know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Manchester City came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match4 Nov 2026
A 3‑1 win over Ipswich Town, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Tottenham — 7.82
1 for Marcos Senesi, marked 7.82, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Dejan Kulusevski 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Tottenham cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Sandro Tonali 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.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
The crowd has taken to Xavi Simons
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match7 Nov 2026
Sunderland made Tottenham work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match4 Nov 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Ipswich Town tried to reorganise, Tottenham did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Luis Caicedo gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luis Caicedo has just signed for Tottenham, and for once the answer mattered.
Match12 Sep 2026
1‑3 to Nottingham Forest, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jan Paul van Hecke 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of João Palhinha at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tottenham.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Conor Gallagher, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Market14 Sep 2026
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Luis Caicedo arrives at Tottenham with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Conor Gallagher 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Bournemouth, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Market7 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Tottenham will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Cristian Romero
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Cristian Romero has come out of that comparison in the side, and Tottenham have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Guglielmo Vicario. Tottenham will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.