Thomas Frank has said he only wants to sign players who are desperate to play for Tottenham, after Eberechi Eze snubbed the club for Arsenal.
Eze was set to move to Spurs before Arsenal stepped up their interest following an injury to forward Kai Havertz. The Gunners matched Tottenham’s bid for the Crystal Palace midfielder and Eze, who was released by Arsenal aged 13, chose the Emirates Stadium as his new home.
The blow leaves Frank with few attacking options. Richarlison scored two goals against Burnley last weekend and is set to continue in attack at Manchester City on Saturday, while new signing Mohammed Kudus made an impressive league debut. Mathys Tel and Brennan Johnson are also options on the wings, and Dominic Solanke is fit, but injuries to James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, and the departure of Heung min-Son, leave Spurs short of resources.
Frank is confident the club will make a signing before the transfer deadline on 1 September, and although he didn’t namecheck Eze, the manager laid out what he wants from a new signing.
“Talking generally, to be very, very clear, I don’t want any players that don’t want to come to the club,” Frank said. “If they don’t want to come to the club, to wear this fantastic badge, we don’t want them here.”
Tottenham looked slick in their 3-0 win over newly promoted Burnley and Frank insisted he is happy enough with his options, while admitting there is a need for more.
“I think we just played the first game and scored three goals so I think that was pretty promising. Kudus has that spark and creativity. I think Mathys Tel can play in different positions. Dom [Solanke] and Richy [Richarlison] can score goals and Brennan [Johnson] is our deep runner. We have variations.
“Of course we need to do everything we can [in the transfer market]. We have six good front players that is very competitive. Kulusevski will come back this season, probably longer term with Maddison. I am also confident we will sign a player before the end of the window.”
Frank said Richarlison, who has been linked with an exit this summer, will not be leaving the club. “Right now he is my starting nine. He scored two top goals. Richy wants to stay, I want to keep him and there’s been no talks about anything else.”
As well as Maddison and Kulusevski, Spurs are also without Radu Dragusin, Manor Solomon, Destiny Udogie, Yves Bissouma and Bryan Gil for the trip to City.
“Destiny is better and trained with the team twice, full training, just too short to be involved against City,” Frank said. “We want him to train tomorrow and get another week. Bissouma is also out. Kulusevski is out for some time and I don't want to put a timeframe on it.”
