Tottenham Hotspur might be 90 minutes away from booking their place in the Europa League final, taking a 3-1 lead into Thursday’s second leg against Bodo/Glimt in Norway.
Regardless of whether their European campaign ends in glory, major changes are expected this summer following Spurs’ most underwhelming domestic season in years.
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On the latest episode of The View From The Lane, Danny Kelly, James Maw and Jack Pitt-Brooke discussed which players Spurs should consider offloading and who they could target this summer.
This partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available via The View From The Lane feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Danny Kelly: James, who would you be prepared to let go of this summer, provided Spurs got offered sensible money?
James Maw: A few interesting things are at play here, the main one being what happens to Cristian Romero. He’s clearly massively talented and recent matches have highlighted how, defensively and on the ball, he would be very difficult to replace. Whether they sell him is probably the big question of the summer but he’s unlikely to sign a new contract with Tottenham. If they qualify for the Champions League, that could change his perspective. But my suspicion, and this is purely my own workings, is that it would probably make more sense to cash in now, which is painful rebuild stuff.
It is about selling at the right time, and I suspect that this summer is the right time for Spurs to sell Romero.
There’s also a bit of an issue with midfield since Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma have one year left on their deals. They may be more inclined to extend with Spurs, but if you’ve got an offer for one of those two, given we’ve had all these issues with defensive midfielders and with neither of them looking quite the part in the longer term, I would sell one. Purely based on rumours emanating from Spain that Atletico Madrid wanted Bentancur and the fact there’s interest there, I’d shift him.
Also, there’s Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, his departure is already agreed. Then there’s Richarlison — you’ve got to find a buyer so that one may be more complicated, and they might have to take a hit there but he’d be another one you’d shift. His goal record when he has played has been good (four goals from 13 Premier League games, only four of which have been starts) but he is not available enough.
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On players they could realistically sign, we talked about Johnny Cardoso before and Spurs seem to have first dibs on him. It’s not done and dusted but that deal could be done for a reasonable fee.
With Marc Guehi, Newcastle United will likely still be interested and which European competition they qualify for will be a factor. But when Spurs signed James Maddison from Leicester City in 2023, they were up against Newcastle and we thought that meant it wouldn’t happen, but it did. So what’s to say history doesn’t repeat there? I’d be up for a bit of Bryan Mbeumo, who could be available for a reasonable fee.
Jack Pitt-Brooke: I agree with James, I would definitely sell Romero this summer. Keeping hold of him for another year when he’s just going to spend that year thinking about the 2026 World Cup wouldn’t be smart. They can still make money on him and they should take.
With Richarlison, I can see why he wanted to stay, but from a Tottenham perspective, it would be better if they’d sold him to a Saudi Arabian club last summer. I don’t know if that offer will be on the table this summer, but that will have a big bearing on Spurs’ business.
For incomings, this is a slightly cowardly answer but they should sign players I haven’t heard of. They’ve spent a lot of money in recent years on Premier League players and it’s not been great. Richarlison cost more than £50million ($67m) from Everton and Brennan Johnson was £47.5m from Nottingham Forest, and those two were big overpays. Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth was a good signing and he’ll be worth the money in time, but he wasn’t cheap. Maddison has been worth the £40m but it’s not like he was an unknown quantity.
If money is going to be tight this summer, Spurs should back themselves to find some very good players in Europe who they can get for much cheaper. The most exciting signings over the last few years were players who hadn’t come from the Premier League, such as Pape Matar Sarr, Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie, Guglielmo Vicario or Dejan Kulusevski, for example. These players had a lower profile in the UK.
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If you’re buying from other Premier League teams — and this is true if you think they should go and get Premier League players who’ve had really good seasons — there’s such a premium on those guys. Spurs don’t have the cash to cherry-pick the best three or four players from mid-table Premier League teams. Especially given that they need to work on various positions. To me, that’s another centre-back, another No 9 and another midfielder at least. If they’re not going to throw £400m at it, they should lean on technical director Johan Lange’s data-led objective analysis, which has led to better talent ID. Spurs should use that and pick up some underpriced gems that I haven’t heard of.
Remember, you can listen to full episodes of The View From The Lane free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
(Top photo: Cristian Romero and Richarlison; by Warren Little/Getty Images)
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