Marquee Moves, Mixed Feelings

Morning.

Window done. Deep breath.

Enya said something on the pod this week that stuck. NFL logic: when your team is bad, you pour all your energy into the off-season. When your team is good, you barely notice it. She reckons that's what just happened to us – six weeks of transfers: refresh-refresh-refresh. Because football hadn't given us much else to hold onto.

But the window was good. Really good. I don't buy the ten-out-of-ten scoring – you don't know how well a window's gone until eighteen, twenty-four months in – but the ceiling of players we can attract has clearly moved. Tonali under the Tottenham floodlights, for example. Fernandes taken from West Ham. Getting Savinho when City, Chelsea and Liverpool are the clubs we've been used to losing those fights to. That's not nothing.

Mudryk will split the room, and fair enough. I'll rate that one this time next year. Tosin too – you don't judge a fourth-choice centre-back in his first month.

What I actually want to talk about is what happens next.

There's a mood I keep running into – WhatsApp groups, comments – that goes: "I don't expect us to win a game before the international break, and that's fine, we're rebuilding." I get where it comes from. It's protective. But it's a disservice to the team, to De Zerbi, and honestly to us. We can't pre-accept defeats. If we're serious about this appointment being the right one, we should be serious enough to back it from the first whistle.

Forest away is a game we can get a point from. Everton the week after is a game we should be winning. Villa after that is a proper test, but again – we're allowed to believe.

That's the whole point of this thing. One email, Saturday morning. What happened, what's happening. No panic, no clickbait. Just the football.

Glad you're here.

Keep it Lilywhite #OhSo33,
– Jim

Dang. What do I even say? I feel like I went into the Newcastle game full of optimism, only to have it dashed yet again.

Though perhaps one could say my mood hasn’t been the best since I had surgery on Tuesday. My head’s a bit gone with all the meds and whatnot. Lol.

But I’ve taken some time to reflect on the match, even in my drug-induced state, and all I can say is that the game was pretty terrible by any standard. It’s disappointing to say that, considering all the firepower we’ve brought in, but can we really excuse these kinds of performances?

Yes, there is something to be said about the players still needing to gel and learn how one another play, as well as adapting to a new manager and grasping a new playstyle. It takes time for these things to fully sink in. But I don’t think anybody would blame Tottenham fans for being disappointed with the team thus far.

The positives for me came from the midfield. Tonali really disappointed me against Brentford, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him taking up space in midfield and generating one-twos. I thought he looked great alongside Marmoush, our new signing. It’s promising, but nothing is promised. Keep that in mind.

As someone who also really likes Tel, his performance against Newcastle really frustrated me. There were moments when I thought he was too selfish and others when he wasn’t selfish enough. He’d only half take on his man, and most of the time, his touches weren’t there. And don’t even mention that free kick. How he managed to kick it that high… goodness me.

Even if the midfield was decent, it still wasn’t enough to generate good attacking opportunities. By the 80th minute, our last shot on target had come from Marmoush in the 36th minute. That’s ridiculous.

Plus, there were plenty of opportunities that should’ve been tucked away but weren’t followed through because we didn’t have a proper striker in the box. I think Solanke should’ve come onto the pitch much sooner – Marmoush isn’t a striker, and that’s okay. Let him play on the wing or in midfield.

I can see the bits and pieces coming together, but it’s frustrating that we’re still getting these kinds of results. But like Jim said, we can’t pre-accept defeats. We should go into every match hoping to get something out of it, and with Forest and Everton up next, we should hope to grab a couple of points.

That’s all for now. Until next week.

Spurs made some “marquee” signings before the transfer window closed, drawing mixed reactions. Signing Mudryk and Tosin from Chelsea – Mudryk on loan and Tosin permanently – makes for a mixed bag, to say the least.

Mudryk hasn’t played a professional match since the 2024/25 season due to a doping ban. It’s not crazy to say that fans aren’t exactly sure what to make of this signing. After all, how good can he be if he hasn’t played in two years? He wasn’t exactly magical when he did play for Chelsea, either. But De Zerbi really wanted the signing, having worked with Mudryk previously, so that’s that.

Several players have also gone out on loan: Kevin Danso to Sunderland – which is really disappointing, in my opinion, because I like him a lot – Mikey Moore to FC Köln, Kota Takai to Sint-Truiden, Souza to FC Porto, and Pape Sarr to Juventus. At least Sarr has been reunited with Vicario.

I don’t think Mikey Moore going out on loan is a bad thing. He’s just about there in terms of becoming a really good player, but he’s missing a few things that I think can only come with experience.

For example, his attacking play and connections with the midfield are great. But there are moments when he’s just not fully in sync, or when his tracking and man-marking aren’t the best. Pair that with Archie Gray at full-back – poor kid – and now you’ve got a very weak right side. So Moore going out on loan is probably for the best.

I think the loans for Takai and Souza make sense as well, though I thought Takai was decent in pre-season. Honestly, will we ever see these players actually play for Spurs? What was the point of signing them? It’s so frustrating to think about sometimes.

I hope they both do really well at their clubs.

There is no written Analyst section this week but Enya and Jim have dropped a new video.