Marked for Xavi Simons
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market23 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luca Williams-Barnett will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tottenham the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Tottenham
Sandro Tonali and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over Newcastle United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Savinho 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
Jan Paul van Hecke is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcos Senesi, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
A derby to forget for Tottenham
Beaten 1‑2 by Arsenal in the one fixture where losing is not allowed. The football was bad enough; the week ahead will be worse.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The match ball belongs to Savinho, whose 5 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match28 Oct 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Savinho obliged against Burton Albion. 10‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Tottenham.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Both of them Mathys Tel's — 9.53
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.53, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from James Wilson at 19 — 9.09
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. James Wilson did not need any: 9.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Micky van de Ven 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.
Market2 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Tottenham
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Omar Marmoush was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
7‑1, and Omar Marmoush took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Tottenham tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Dejan Kulusevski takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dejan Kulusevski provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Sandro Tonali and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Omar Marmoush was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match3 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Tottenham and Fulham, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad5 Oct 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.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market14 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Yves Bissouma reports back to Tottenham with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Savinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Tottenham
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Marco Bizot
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shea Charles, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Player ratings
Xavi Simons beats them one at a time
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Market
Sandro Tonali linked with a move away
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The window shuts on the Tyler Dibling deal
Tottenham ran out of time with Everton. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Market7 Sep 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Tottenham until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Omar Marmoush and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Sep 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Tottenham have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
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
Bournemouth made Tottenham work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Xavi Simons was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
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Squad
International break empties Tottenham
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Market
The clock runs on Marco Bizot's contract
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Sandro Tonali's mistake