RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The new Premier League season is upon us. Yeesh, it really feels like the World Cup only just ended yesterday, doesn't it? Welcome to soccer. Off season? I think not. You can see why the guys on Wall Street are so keen. Truly, this is the sport that never sleeps.
In the lead-up to the 35th season of what is indisputably the biggest domestic football league in the game, we're going to be looking into seven of the biggest and most intriguing teams the Premier League has to offer. We shall see what you might need to familiarize yourself with if you're coming to the English game fresh from the top flight, catch you up if you've been dropping in and out, and go rummaging through the weeds to satisfy my own curiosity. And there's plenty to be curious about when it comes to our first team, the survived-by-the-skin-of-their-teeth "Big Six" club that is Tottenham Hotspur.
Because the joy is all the greater when it's delayed and delayed... and delayed. It's a comparison that'll aggravate die-hards of both teams, but think of Tottenham as the New York Knicks of the English game. This is a club with a rich history but not one that would put themselves in the upper echelon on silverware alone. A big team in a mega city (though in this case certainly not the biggest game in town), their fanbase has to go through it in pursuit of trophies.
The Europa League win in 2025 brought an estimated quarter of a million fans onto the streets of north London as the club celebrated its first trophy in 17 years. Just imagine what the scenes would be if they ended a 66-year wait and earned a third league title. For now, imagining might be as close as you can get.
No, they are not. Or at least, they were not the last time we saw them in action. In a few of the previews to come, we're going to give you far less conclusive answers; we might even spend some time interrogating the nature of the question. Not for Tottenham though. Jeez they were bad.
For most of the last two decades it was taken for granted that a team with their commercial might -- their most recent accounts showed revenue of over three-quarters of a billion dollars -- was functionally safe from relegation. The rising tide of Premier League TV money lifted the other boats, though and all it took was some competent sides coming up from the Championship for Spurs to have to stare down a cataclysm. If West Ham forward Pablo hadn't fouled David Raya... if Joao Palhinha hadn't scrambled home some clutch goals... if Aston Villa hadn't tanked their pre-Europa League semifinal game.
This was a legitimately bad team, albeit one that was only at real risk of relegation because of the relative strength of those around them. Their tally of 41 points has rarely been insufficient for survival, but it is also rare that a good team gets so unlucky to end up with so few. In terms of expected goals difference, Spurs were not all that much better than the Leicester City side that went down in 2022-23 and were a shade ahead of the West Ham side they pipped to survival. In short, there was a very real prospect that we could have been covering this team's prospects last week in our EFL preview.
Quite a lot, no great surprise given how far below expectations Spurs plumbed. Perhaps the most significant change for Tottenham's medium-term future came before the season was out, Roberto De Zerbi brought in both to keep the good ship Spurs from the sink and to eventually send it to calmer seas. Eleven points from his final seven games was an impressive return, an expected goal difference of 1.97 the fifth-best in the division during that period. Survival secured, the Italian has had vast authority to carry out widespread changes on the Tottenham squad.
That has meant radical investment in a faltering midfield, Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes arriving for a combined fee of nearly $250 million. The latter is a sparkly young prospect who could flourish under De Zerbi's tutelage as the likes of Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister did during the managers time at Brighton. There are more questions about Tonali, a solid passer who had his moments at Newcastle, but rarely enough to suggest this was a player who would command a nine-figure fee. Still, his new manager knows Tonali well from his time at Brescia, and it took only a 10-minute phone call for the Italy international to make the switch from Tyneside.
The big money spending might not be at an end. De Zerbi has spoken of a "bomba" that would strengthen his attack. Is that Manchester City winger Savinho, on whom Spurs are closing in on? Both he and Cody Gakpo, to whom they have been linked, profile as the sort of players who would add options to an inexperienced frontline, but shopping on the fringes of your once rivals is hardly worthy of a bomba. There might yet be a surprise name to enter contention.
While it is hard to parse out what Spurs are planning in attack, at the other end of the pitch the logic is much clearer. After a turbulent season in which his off-field behaviour was oft questioned, Cristian Romero is set to leave, Atletico Madrid his likely destination. His talent is not in doubt; his temperament is. Ultimately, it was hard to see much of a future for a club captain who had to be urged to return from Argentina to be present on the sidelines for the relegation decider on the final day of the season. Djed Spence is also close to departing to Inter Milan.
In place of those two comes four-fifths of a new defensive line. Marco Senesi, a free addition from Bournemouth, adds the passing that this squad so desperately needs while Andy Robertson is an experienced guide for Destiny Udogie at left back. Martin Dubravka arrives as a backup goalkeeper with Antonin Kinsky expected to be promoted to first choice should Guglielmo Vicario depart. He wants to go back to his native Italy and is wanted by Juventus.
The final piece of defensive business has the highest risk of backfiring. At 19 Luka Vuskovic was one ...
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