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On the Saturday night after Newcastle’s hard-fought draw with Bournemouth, Matthias Jaissle and his coaching staff decided to head out to a city centre Italian restaurant for dinner.

The group were “mobbed” by well-wishers and selfie-hunters and Jaissle and his team were taken aback by the affection coming their way.

He had done his research on Newcastle as a club and place before accepting the task of succeeding Eddie Howe in the summer, but the reverence with which he’s been treated since taking over has “touched” Jaissle, who feels a duty to repay it by delivering a team the supporters can be proud of.

One thing that was imprinted on the minds of Jaissle and his coaching staff after a long match day was the banner that was unfurled in the Gallowgate End by the Wor Flags tifo group that read: “Matty Jaissle’s Black and White Army”. After just a few weeks as manager, it was way more than he expected.

An emotional character

Jaissle may not appear it in press conferences, where he tends to deliver fairly succinct, direct answers, but he is an emotional character as well as an “absolute workaholic”. His ability to “connect” with the players – at 38, he is only a few years older than the senior members of the dressing room – is one thing that has been noted by Newcastle insiders.

He is a believer in regular and honest communication with the squad and Jaissle has been impressed at the character of the dressing room he has inherited. There’s been a willingness to embrace new ideas and he is convinced that with more time on the training ground – which will come as Premier League rivals embark on draining European campaigns into the autumn and winter – this Newcastle team will go from strength to strength.

But there is an acknowledgement that they are far from the finished article, with plenty of room for improvement. Team meetings have focused on chance creation and “dominating” in the final third this week, both areas Jaissle feels they are underperforming in.

If the size of the job is considerable, he has the energy to match it and it is a measure of the man that on Saturday night, after the coaching staff returned to the upmarket hotel that is serving as Jaissle’s base while he house hunts in the North East, he popped open his laptop and started to analyse the 2-2 draw that maintained Newcastle’s impressive unbeaten record.

It has been a whirlwind few weeks for Jaissle, whose working days begin at 7.30am and extend into the early evenings.

In touch with Shearer and Howe

Forays into the city have been rare – that will change during the upcoming international break – although he did enjoy a “relaxed” meal on Tynemouth beach midweek after the stress of a “full-on” transfer window.

He’s also taken time to pick the brains of Newcastle’s all-time record goalscorer Alan Shearer, a conversation that he found particularly enlightening.

Ultimately his life has been made easier by a winning start, with five points from three tough opening Premier League fixtures an impressive return for a new-look team getting to grips with a tweaked style.

Is it sustainable? That has been the narrative on Tyneside this week and Opta’s “expected points” table has Newcastle sitting in 19th, below Coventry City and Fulham. Results are out-performing the underlying metrics.

Jaissle spoke of seeing the “bigger picture” when quizzed about that on Thursday. “We have played some strong teams,” he pointed out, reasonably. And the internal feeling is that when Will Osula returns after the international break – and “crucial” new signing Matias Fernandez-Pardo beds in – they will have the speed to capitalise on the quick breaks and “diagonal” football that are going to be central to Jaissle’s plan.

His promise to staff

There should be encouragement about the way his in-game changes are improving Newcastle. That was identified in the club’s managerial due diligence as a strength of the German’s and so it is proving. Character references they took have also proved prescient.

Because there have been some really nice touches on the quiet. He wrote a letter to all of the club staff before the opening game of the season noting how many of them were Newcastle fans and promising to deliver a team that represented them.

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In midweek he sought out Fabian Schar to emphasise how important he is to him. With his three “captains” – Dan Burn, Joelinton and Malick Thiaw – missing Yoane Wissa was made skipper against Millwall to reflect his hard work behind the scenes.

Jaissle has also talked with Howe, thanking him for what he has inherited at Newcastle. While he believes there is a bright future for the club, Jaissle was mightily impressed in his first few days by the physical condition of the players. It has allowed players like Wissa and Anthony Elanga to hit the ground running in a new way of playing.

Leeds on Monday represents another stiff test for a developing Newcastle side but Jaissle has seen plenty of reasons for confidence. “The unbeaten start is not normal after such a small time together – but we want to continue this journey,” he said.

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New Meadow was the future, once. When Shrewsbury Town moved here in 2007, it marked a monumental achievement for owner and chairman Roland Wycherley, after whom a stand was ceremonially named. Having steered the club away from financial emergency and overseen a return to the Football League, Wycherley had his club in a shiny new stadium that fit their ambition.

The Croud Meadow – renamed for sponsorship reasons – is still serviceable and some improvement work was completed this summer to mark Shrewsbury Town’s 140-year anniversary. But on the whole it reflects the club that calls it home: tired, rusting in places, browbeaten. Supporters have repeatedly complained about bird faeces on the seats and in concourses. It’s certainly different to moaning about needing a new striker, but hardly better.

Shrewsbury Town have been in pain for too long. In February they won three consecutive away games and supporters wondered if they had been transported to an alternative dimension. They had watched their team win four away league games in the 23 months before that.

That late winter bounce kept Shrewsbury out of non-league football and avoided a double dip relegation from League One. Wycherley had described Football League relegation in 2003 as the worst feeling of his life. Once would be careless. A repeat two decades later was perceived negligence.

So there hasn’t been huge cause for cheer. Shrewsbury Town have lost at least 20 league games in each of their last five seasons. It is now more than eight years since they took points at a rate of over 1.3 per game over the course of a campaign. Then they finished third in League One. That now feels like half a lifetime ago.

There has been no real calamity here – does that make it worse or better? Nobody stripped the assets or quickly forced the club to the cliff edge of financial disaster. Instead a local owner simply found himself unable to fund in the same manner. And while that happened, a fanbase slowly fell out of love and ran out of hope.

It is the miserable starts to their seasons that have destroyed faith most. Whatever the caveats, early August always generates a stirring. In 2024-25, Shrewsbury won one of their first 11 league games. Last season, one of 10. They have lost four of their first five league games and now sit second bottom of the Football League.

When supporters repeatedly feel let down, they eventually stop coming and you can give up attracting new ones. Home attendances have been falling for some time. This season they average under 5,000 for the first time in almost 20 years.

We’ve said it about other clubs too, but every empty seat that was full is a mini-crisis. In provincial towns without vast fanbases, the only way to futureproof your own existence is to inspire people to stick with you as a live experience. That is impossible when the team never wins often enough and the club never seems to move forward.

One of the greatest causes for forlornness was Shrewsbury’s Waiting For Godot takeover, first touted by Wycherley four years ago and drawn out for at least half of the interim. The owner regularly stressed that he wanted to sell and that 20 different potential buyouts had not progressed because he wanted the best for the club. It should also be said in his firm defence: there is no significant external debt.

It has therefore been an odd few days as Shrewsbury’s existence played out on double speed. On Saturday, a number of fan groups released a joint open letter stating their intention to campaign jointly for a takeover to be completed and serious questions answered by the owner. By Monday, the club confirmed that the Independent Football Regulator had approved a new takeover by a US consortium.

There is still reason for caution, of course. The takeover hasn’t actually completed yet; fan groups will not dare believe it until the new name is above the door. Nor is this necessarily the silver bullet. Any buyer is signing up to lose money, supporters want them to understand football, have deep pockets and generous dispositions and be patient but ambitious. From that list, something usually has to give.

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But what choice is there but to believe? Nobody wants to spend their Saturday afternoons griping about how broken the team is and the time in between fretting about how broken the club is. They have waited so long for this and the crowds will come back if everything is rebuilt better.

If not, everybody knows what happens next or eventually. Shrewsbury Town have been one of the worst-performing football clubs in the Football League for over a year and the safety net has gone. The only natural next step without significant improvement, investment or both is non-league football for the first time in 22 years.

So this is a chance. This is probably the chance. The united fan messaging has to stay after the fragmentation that becomes an inevitability when a club struggles and everybody argues about why. A new owner will be met with a surge of goodwill until there is reason to doubt it. Few clubs in England need one more.

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Manchester United’s midfield has been shorn of one facet or another for a long time.

Roy Keane’s grit and leadership have never really been replaced. Nor has David Beckham or Paul Scholes’ quarterback passes.

Another skillset that has been conspicuous by its absence for nearly a decade is a technician in the middle of the park. Not since current boss Michael Carrick hung up his boots have United possessed one.

Until this season. It has been a conservative start to life in Manchester for Youri Tielemans, but in one piece of awe-inspiring, metronomic midfield mastery – one straight out of the Carrick playbook – the Belgian orchestrator-in-chief gave United supporters a glimpse into exactly what he has been brought to the club for.

United have possessed midfielders capable of similar intricacy to come up with the type of assist that effectively sealed their comfortable Champions League victory over minnows Sabah. Bruno Fernandes produces such passes with his eyes closed. Juan Mata’s fleet of foot could carve open many a defence.

None, however, have been able to do so by driving from deep, arriving late into the penalty area, before then slicing open a helpless backline like a hot knife through butter.

After a 1003-day wait for a return to Europe’s top table, the spectacle wasn’t quite what United bigwigs had in mind for their triumphant continental homecoming – a clash with an Azerbaijani side formed in 2017 – but all feels normal again in the world with this English footballing institution playing Champions League football again.

A simple, hassle-free evening was just what United supporters, uninspired by their domestic start to the season, needed ahead of a mouthwatering Manchester derby at the weekend.

Sabah, coached by one of the game’s most remarkable managerial journeymen, came to play and did not simply sit back, making United’s task all the more navigable as the match opened up.

Having settled into the contest, Patrick Dorgu squared for Matheus Cunha to open his account for the season, before Tielemans took centre stage, his stunning reverse pass setting up Fernandes for a first-half second.

Benjamin Sesko raced clear to make it three before the break, giving United a perfect opportunity to ease up, with two fewer days of recuperation before Sunday’s derby than Manchester City.

Lisandro Martinez made it four with a close-range finish in a procession-like second half, with Tielemans replaced at the interval. That tells you all you need to know about his burgeoning importance to the team already.

When we sat down with the former Aston Villa midfielder at United’s training camp in Dublin this summer, his honesty about his own fitness was perhaps somewhat alarming. Tielemans admitted last season became too much for him, in terms of volume of games.

Like many teenage wunderkids before him, the 29-year-old’s schedule has been unrelenting since he first donned the Anderlecht shirt. The Belgian captained them at 18 and has since amassed 671 games for club and country before turning 30.

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That’s more than his predecessor, Casemiro, mustered in his entire career. It is also 33 fewer than Lionel Messi hit before reaching a third decade, 52 fewer than Cristiano Ronaldo in that time. Tielemans doesn’t turn 30 until next May.

Therefore, Carrick is right to manage his game time effectively. There is no shame in coming off at half time, with the job done, having produced moments of magic like his first-half assist that would have made his manager blush on the touchline.

Now for more of the same, on a regular basis. It’s long overdue.

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Tottenham are yet to receive any formal bids for Richarlison as the final transfer windows around the world draw to a close.

Spurs’ attacking woes continued on Saturday at Nottingham Forest, where they failed to register a shot on target. They have not scored in any of their opening three league matches for the first time since 1974.

Richarlison is no longer part of the Premier League squad after telling the club he wanted to leave over the summer. Roberto De Zerbi hinted it was “not my decision” to leave him out and Spurs now have an expensive exile on their hands.

Richarlison latest

Trabzonspor, the ambitious Turkish Super Lig outfit who signed Mohamed Salah this summer, came closest to signing the 29-year-old. However, The i Paper was told the move collapsed due to “high financial demands”. That included his wages, though the transfer fee was considered the “main obstacle”.

A return to Everton fell through at the end of the English window. It was a separate deal to Iliman Ndiaye and had no bearing on the forward’s decision to move to Manchester City over north London.

Richarlison has also attracted interest from Saudi Arabia but that window has now closed. Al-Ahli were among the clubs monitoring the situation.

There are now very limited options remaining when it comes to high-profile leagues, with the following windows still open: Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Greece, Israel and Serbia.

Despite scoring some of the goals that effectively kept Spurs up at Anfield and Villa Park last season, Richarlison declined to sign a new contract.

Three departures

He was not the only player who expressed a wish to move on and Spurs have sold well this summer, raising more than £140m. A key part of that strategy was moving on youngsters without a clear route to the first team.

That saw Dane Scarlett, who has been on loan four times in four years, join Leyton Orient on a permanent deal. Will Lankshear is now the top scorer in the Championship after scoring eight times in nine appearances at Middlesbrough. Jamie Donley, who played as a centre-forward at youth level but has since developed into an attacking midfielder, has been sent on another loan to Luton Town.

Marmoush role

Around £145m was spent bolstering the attack with the additions of Savio and Omar Marmoush from Manchester City (a number which includes sizable add-ons of a combined £20m for the pair), and with Mykhailo Mudryk joining on loan with an option to buy. Savio started on the right against Nottingham Forest, with Marmoush as the No 9.

At City, the Egyptian’s opportunities were limited by the presence of Erling Haaland, while in Frankfurt he played either as a lone striker, alongside Hugo Ekitike in a two-man attack, or could also be deployed as a No 10 or out wide. Even as a front man, he was inclined to drop into a deeper role.

Spurs have been hit by further injuries there. Xavi Simons is still recovering from a torn ACL and James Maddison suffered a shoulder injury in the defeat to Brentford, so Conor Gallagher has been deployed further forward. Sandro Tonali has been the only ever-present in the midfield so far and has had a torrid start after his record £100m transfer from Newcastle.

Fitness and injuries

Dominic Solanke has featured in all four games in all competitions, but his minutes will continue to be managed. Last season, he completed 90 minutes just eight times and was ruled out of 31 games, largely due to an ankle injury that required surgery.

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De Zerbi is also still navigating injuries to Dejan Kulusevski, who has been out for 16 months, Mohammed Kudus, who has been edging back to full fitness, and Wilson Odobert. After the goalless draw with Forest, De Zerbi said Mathys Tel “takes too many wrong decisions”

Spurs were at their brightest against Newcastle and showed glimpses of creativity at the City Ground, yet they sit 17th in the table with no goals and no wins.

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MURRAYFIELD – It’s safe to say Newcastle United 2.0 remains a work in progress.

The word on the ground is that new boss Matthias Jaissle has made a strong start at St James’ Park. Behind the scenes, the work has been sharp; the sessions – the ones he’s been able to fit in between games – are fresh and intense.

He has projected confidence without over-promising and has had a word and a handshake with everyone at the club, from the doorman to the director of football. “A people person” is how one source describes him.

But even a manager that Newcastle believe will become one of the continent’s elite head coaches in time can only do so much with a squad that feels short of the quality required to hit the club’s goal of returning to European competition this term.

Fans have been prepared to buy into the Jaissle revolution but he needs help. A comprehensive 3-1 defeat at Murrayfield to a battle-hardened Everton – albeit with the usual pre-season caveats – was chastening. Incomings are needed as soon as possible.

“You’re smart enough to see the needs in the squad. We handle these things internally. We are aware of what we need,” Jaissle said afterwards. It was direct and dumped responsibility at Ross Wilson’s door for the reinforcements the club desperately need.

There is little disagreement internally. One insider admitted there was a need to “massively improve” in certain areas and that is no understatement.

Two full-backs, a Bruno Guimaraes replacement and a forward capable of putting the pressure on Yoane Wissa and Will Osula seem like the minimum they need. The expectation is at least three will join. A fourth is not necessarily guaranteed.

There are 19 days until the transfer deadline and 10 days until Liverpool arrive for the Premier League opener. That does not feel like much time, although Wilson, the club’s influential sporting director, projects calm.

They are working on “multiple” deals for an experienced holding midfielder – much-needed for “Jaissleball” to click – and a right-back.

The word is a breakthrough on at least one is close and news could coincide with the weekend double-header against Bayer Leverkusen and Strasbourg. “Could be,” was Jaissle’s cryptic answer when asked if anything was imminent.

Benfica’s Amar Dedic – another potential recruit without a minute of Premier League experience – is among those being considered.

There is clearly money to spend – £150m of headroom, even with Uefa’s suffocating financial rules taken into account – but Newcastle sources talk of being “strategic” and “measured”.

Good clubs do not panic in the transfer market, we are told. Jaissle’s appointment – and quick-fire assessment of the squad – has held up business a bit.

That is all well and good. But Newcastle now need to do business to show they mean business.

That much was clear in the Scottish capital, where a strong start did not hide a few nagging concerns. Chief among them is the form of Sven Botman, an influential player earmarked for a big role this season under Jaissle.

It was his mistake that allowed Iliman Ndiaye to race clear in the run-up to Everton’s first goal – not the first time he has been found wanting in Newcastle’s pre-season campaign.

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Pre-season form can be a mirage but Botman is coming off some serious injuries.

The other big anxiety is where the goals are coming from. The departure of Gordon and Guimaraes has shaved a lot of last season’s firepower from this squad and while Wissa looks sharp, he still missed chances in a first-half purple patch.

Osula can blow hot and cold, while Nick Woltemade, a second-half substitute, was fairly anonymous.

On the plus side, Bazoumana Toure appears to be a real find and, along with Sean Steur and Lukas Hornicek, looks ready to start against Liverpool. Newcastle evidently need a few more in their ilk.

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After a bruising summer, the Fabrizio Romano “journalism” show appears to be coming to an end.

The 33-year-old Italian has become the unofficial face of the transfer market over the past decade – a digital explosion that has netted him 135 million followers and a considerable amount of cash.

Yet in a cryptic LinkedIn post, Romano hinted that he is about to change career all together.

“I’m probably not gonna continue into the transfer market industry as I’m doing right now for longer,” he wrote. “It’s time to change the approach, the view… but this will be another topic soon, after the transfer window closes.”

“Journalism” is used in quote marks above because Romano is considered by his critics to be an influencer, a marketeer or an aggregator, rather than an objective reporter.

The i Paper has spoken to sources across the game for a comprehensive profile of Romano.

It shows how his influence has added millions to transfer fees – and what agents, clubs and his rivals really think of him.

Allegations of plagiarism

Romano had a great World Cup, at least in terms of earning advertising cash from a global fast food giant, a betting firm, and a cryptocurrency “prediction market” that accepts wagers on everything from sport to the outcomes of wars.

With the transfer window back in full swing, the rise of arguably the world’s most popular football journalist has appeared at times unstoppable. He is adored by his most devoted fans, who believe he is the best source of transfer exclusives, but he comes with substantial baggage.

Allegations have been levelled against him about plagiarism and his complex relationships with agents, and his commercial activities with controversial entities, not least the Saudi Arabian government, an arm of which he promoted in an obsequious video earlier this year. He has also earned cash from promoting Fifa, beer and other products.

He is facing increasing scrutiny over his reliability, with X users posting community notes underneath his tweets to correct information and the r/soccer Reddit community, which boasts over four million fans, banning all posts related to his reporting.

What is perhaps surprising about Romano’s output for someone with his reputation is quite how banal much of it is. Consider what his X account was posting around the recent World Cup final. It was, effectively, an aggregator account, posting bland information – available all over the internet – of Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal arriving at the stadium, and “news” that Spain had won, and video clips of the post-match celebrations or sadness.

Romano is probably best known for his transfer “exclusives” but he has been accused of copying other “ITK” (in the know) accounts and journalists.

In 2022, for example, Marcel van der Kraan, the head of sport at the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf accused Romano of lifting exclusives from other reporters, including by his colleague Mike Verweij. In summer 2022, Verweij reported that an Ajax player, Antony, had missed training, a scoop that Romano reported as an “exclusive” two minutes later. The only response to these allegations from Romano was a thumbs up and smiling emoji.

In June last year, an X account specialising in football, EIF Soccer, accused Romano of “stealing and plagiarising people’s tweets word for word”. Citing a specific example, they pointed to a post they published on 20 June last year, and then an identical post Romano made on Instagram the next morning, right down to Romano using the same text verbatim and the same photo, with no attribution.

The i Paper asked Romano a long list of questions in writing about his work and he failed to respond to any question or answer any calls.

A key question around the 2026 World Cup is whether Romano made a factual error around England star Elliot Anderson’s imminent move from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City because he initially copied information from someone else, or just had an inaccurate source.

On 25 June, he posted on Instagram that Anderson was moving to City for £130m. That was wrong. In fact it was later confirmed Anderson would move for £116m with no add-ons, something Romano himself then posted on X.

When challenged on social media why he changed his story within hours, he said other media were originally reporting the same £130m figure as him, which suggests he either had an unreliable source in the first place or was simply copying the reporting from others.

Blurring lines between journalism and PR

Romano has also been accused of accepting money to make social media posts about footballers, from their agents or others close to them), to raise their profiles. A journalist in the US, Jose Roberto Nunez, alleged Romano had posted innocuous “news” about Philadelphia player Chris Donovan getting a new contract, for a fee of $1,100 (£800). The i Paper asked Romano to comment but he did not respond.

You can look at the video that Donovan himself released, saying his agent had told him Romano would announce his contract extension. And also the report that another player from the same agency that then looked after Donovan was being tweeted about by Romano.

Romano also appears to have a relationship with a Glasgow agency, StormSportsSX, with Romano posting about low-profile players such as Josh Mulligan moving to Hibs from Dundee. The agency has boasted of “a close network of trusted journalists to advance our clients’ interest in the media”.

Asked by The i Paper if there had ever been a direct cash incentive to promote such deals, Romano did not answer. Similarly he was less than clear about his relationships with players at clubs in 2024 after it was reported that he was making social media posts for cash, not least in Scandinavia.

Norwegian club Valerenga FC told journalist Andreas Selliaas that it had been approached about such an offer by an intermediary linked to Romano, called Memmo.

Romano denied to Selliaas that he has ever received money for tweeting about potential transfers or the promotion of players.

Backlash from rival journalists

Romano has had a number of high-profile run-ins with journalists from the mainstream media about his methods.

Florian Plettenberg, a reporter at Sky Germany, recently accused Romano of “fail[ing] to credit the original source in a large share of your Instagram posts” and deleting stories that turned out not to be true. In response, Romano accused Plettenberg of “fake news”.

Luke Edwards of The Telegraph also took Romano to task about his reporting of Julian Alvarez’s supposed desire to leave Atletico and move to Barcelona.

Edwards said Romano helped “start the fire by excitedly reporting the interest. Add kindling to ensure it keeps burning by constantly tweeting the same thing with the words changed or moved into a different order”.

There was a public spat, with Edwards saying Romano has no relationship with Newcastle United because, unlike other clubs, “they know what you do”. Romano did not respond to this allegation.

The i Paper has spoken to multiple executives at English top-flight clubs and most view Romano as “an agitator”, often playing a role for a player or agent in seeking a move.

“Agents have traditionally played this role themselves, going direct to media contacts,” one source said. “But now Romano just tells 135 million people, which creates waves, and pressure.”

One executive from a mid-table Premier League club told The i Paper that a “Big Six” club wanted one of their players and involved Romano in “promoting” this link – although we have no evidence a fee was involved.

According to the source, Romano reported the move as a “done deal” based on information from the buying club, despite the transfer not having been agreed.

The buying club ultimately paid more than intended, while the selling club received a higher fee than expected. “[It] didn’t make us happy Romano was involved but we got millions more than expected,” the source said.

‘The most disgusting thing he’s ever done’

Arguably Romano’s most controversial event was reporting that former Chelsea, Everton and Newcastle player Christian Atsu was alive after an earthquake in Turkey.

One correspondent and former associate of Romano claimed “this was probably the most disgusting thing he’s ever done”.

On his Facebook page, Romano told his followers on 7 February 2023 that Atsu was alive and in hospital after being found with a foot injury and breathing difficulties. Actually Atsu was dead, and his body was found on 18 February.

An actual journalist, with any scintilla of credibility, would have reported that Atsu was alive “according to” whoever provided that information. But Romano instead stated as fact that Atsu was alive, and his family took hope from this declaration from an “authoritative” source, apparently close to footballers.

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While many people find Romano’s work distasteful, and his adverts for so many companies to be crude, he will be front and centre during the rest of this summer’s transfer window, entertaining and informing his many millions of fans.

What the future holds is less clear, with a transfer into straightforward PR apparently on the cards, after he recently incorporated a new company in Italy which will “specialise in marketing and sponsorship activities”.

As the man himself might say, using a catchphrase he has been accused of nicking from someone else: “Here we go!”

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It is as if everyone at Tottenham Hotspur has suffered a collective bout of amnesia of late.

Some of it has been justified. When you have just watched two full Premier League campaigns of non-stop suffering and nearly been relegated, why wouldn’t fans be excited about making signings for £100m?

And supporters should be hopeful. They live to enjoy because they never know when they will have to live to merely endure again. That shouldn’t be the moxy with which the operators of a football club do their business, however.

On Monday evening, Tottenham announced they had tied Micky van de Ven to a new contract which will run until 2031. It was reported in his native Netherlands that he will earn €75m (£64m) across the length of that deal, roughly translating to £240,000 a week. This brings him in line with the club’s newest set of top earners, alongside Sandro Tonali, Conor Gallagher and Xavi Simons, all of whom were signed within the last 12 months.

It’s a clear pivot in strategy from Spurs to up their wage bill in order to beat rivals to key targets – Arsenal and Manchester City were keen on Tonali, Aston Villa thought they had Gallagher and Chelsea were interested in Simons.

But it doesn’t make as much sense to greatly reward Van de Ven for the three years he has had at Spurs so far, let alone off the back of his most self-destructive one.

Tottenham’s troubling results last season were largely down to the coaching of their ill-fated managers Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, though the players who didn’t fall victim to their injury crisis mustn’t escape blame either.

Van de Ven, once infamous for paper-thin hamstrings, started more games than any teammate with 45. He captained the team 18 times having been promoted into the first-team’s leadership group by Frank. Spurs finished 17th, again.

Even if you remove Tottenham’s final position from the equation, Van de Ven’s performances were inconsistent, particularly after his early-season scoring surge. Most notably, he got himself sent off in a 3-1 loss at home to Crystal Palace in March, which signalled to the world Spurs were serious relegation candidates.

With Cristian Romero – Tottenham’s most disgraceful captain since Sol Campbell – set to be sold, Van de Ven will become the best outright defender at the club. Still, that did not require Spurs to hand him a ludicrously lavish new contract, especially given his previous deal still had three years left to run.

If Van de Ven is your top centre-back on £240,000 a week, where are you going? Is this real ambition or simply trying to one-up the previous regime built on frugality? Who else was going to pay him anywhere near that salary?

Most of Tottenham’s summer business screams that they simply don’t want to be associated with the Daniel Levy era any longer.

Van de Ven is still a decent player with scope to improve quickly. Were he to have been shopped around, a fair few of Europe’s elite would have shown some level of interest. The hope with him is that, at 25, his best years are still ahead of him.

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But he is hugely reliant on pace and there is little evidence he can be an above-average box defender. Those are uncertainties that should have put the frighteners on those in Spurs’ risk management department.

This is all just another sign that Tottenham are trying to draw a line under the 2025-26 season without acknowledging or attempting to understand why it happened in the first place.

It is not only spending which has been a problem for Spurs, but spending wisely. They are continuing to show they deserve the same level of trust in the transfer market as you would give to a five-year-old with a £50 note in a sweet shop.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/Eroc0Ip