A Future Struggling to Emerge

Despite a disastrous Premier League season last year, Tottenham won the Europa League seemingly out of nowhere. That victory, unexpected by most, promised to ease the transition into the next era of Spurs football.

For as strange as this season continues to be, Thomas Frank’s side has shown promising returns.

After a bittersweet end to the Postecoglou era, Frank took over a club ready for a reset. With their icons all more or less gone, this season always felt like a clean break.

The last time that Spurs won a game in the Prem, at the time of writing, was at the end of October against Everton. Being fair to the team, November proved to be a hellish month, facing some of the league’s better sides. Even with only two points won in November, the Spurs find themselves only four points outside of the European spots. 

Having finally decided to spend in the offseason, the team prepared well for the new manager. While Xavi Simons continues to struggle in the Premier League, other signings have taken off. Mohammed Kudus looks more and more like a steal with every game played, cementing himself as a foundational piece.

For all their struggles, this new look Spurs remain well placed to challenge for Europe.

The first year of any new project always feels the toughest, but Frank seems to have a good system in place.

No matter what Postecoglou accomplished last season, the end had come. With ownership ready for a new start, the Australian was always going to be the first casualty. 

Instead of shying from the needs of the moment, Spurs jumped right into preparations for the season ahead. Bringing in the promising Brentford manager, Frank, seemed like both a safe and promising bet. The German helmed the revolution at the club, which brought them out of Championship obscurity into a life of midtable finishes in the Prem.

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Replacing Postecoglou was always going to be a tough task given what he had succeeded and the impact he had on the locker room. However, Frank’s profile mirrored that of the Australian. Both managers opted to change their team’s dressing room culture while implementing a new system.

Frank’s side still suffers from the same defensive issues that bubbled under Postecoglou, hinting at a deeper issue. With other issues popping up throughout the final seasons of the Australian, the club seemed ready to avoid these mistakes yet again via the transfer market.

Headlined by the additions of Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons, Tottenham’s summer turned out to be among the best in the Prem. Unlike Liverpool and City’s respective transfers, Spurs got a decent return almost automatically for Kudus. The Ghanian went from a player who saw his profile drop after moving to West Ham to Tottenham’s creative sub.

Perhaps the biggest impacts on the team come from improvements from players who were brought in during previous seasons. Lucas Bergvall continues to go from strength to strength, becoming one of the best midfielders in the Prem at 19. After struggling with injuries since his move, Micky van de Ven became the perfect partner to Romero, even chipping in with some world-class goals.

After letting go of Postecoglou in the wake of the Europa League victory, Tottenham risked returning to mediocrity.

The club did almost everything possible to avoid this fate by bringing in an exciting manager, promising transfers, and improving players.

Despite the encouraging summer, Tottenham’s results fail to live up to the dreams sold. Frank’s system is yet to be fully seen, given a multitude of issues.

Having chosen Spurs over a number of other suitors, Simons seemed like quite the coup for the club. Rivaling Martin Ødegaard in terms of early hype, the Dutchman spent the past few seasons trying to make good on those early projections. After growing into a bigger role with the Dutch team and successful seasons in the Bundesliga, he finally seemed ready to break through.

For as much flak as Wirtz continues to receive, Simons has quietly been ducking backlash for similar struggles. Despite some promising flashes, he’s still missing those final passes or shots. Rather than this being a massive red flag, the underlying numbers show that he will be fine in time.

Mathys Tel and Randal Kolo Muani both are yet to fully hit the ground running in the Prem. Kolo Muani, who impressed with Juve last year, struggles to show anything more than being a bench option. While Tel occasionally shows hope, it’s becoming clear that he is still very much a project player.

Combined with a leaky defense, still struggling to find a consistent back four, Spurs remain a strangely unbalanced side. With their midfield looking better game by game, there is hope that the team will end the season in a better spot.

Tottenham fell victim to a tough schedule over the past month. European competition, coupled with a murderer’s row of opponents, meant that this is likely not who the team truly is. Instead, December and January, when the schedule eases up, should give fans a better idea of where the Spurs are.

Frank’s first season, similar to what Slot is experiencing right now, reflects a club in transition.

The dying embers of the final era are gone, but the future is now struggling to be born.

Winning the Europa League title gave the club enough of a runway to try to launch this new project. Appointing Frank as manager, as well as making excellent transfers, are good steps in the right direction, even if the results haven’t been pretty.

A rough schedule only compounded the worries, but this is normal for a club in the midst of a rebuild.