Spurs news: Thomas Frank sends transfer message after first January deal agreed

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Evening Standard

·30 décembre 2025

Spurs news: Thomas Frank sends transfer message after first January deal agreed

North Londoners have already agreed a January exit

Thomas Frank has admitted that Tottenham must become a good selling club if they are to compete at the top of the Premier League.

Spurs agreed a £35million deal with Crystal Palace for Brennan Johnson on Tuesday as they look to cash in on the out-of-favour winger in January.

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Johnson is yet to decide if he will join Palace, but with a fee agreed between the two clubs, Tottenham appear resigned to making a sizeable loss on the 24-year-old, who they signed for £47.5m from Nottingham Forest just two years ago.

The north Londoners have struggled to turn a profit on players in the last decade, making significant losses on the sales of Tanguy Ndombele, signed for a club record £63m before being released on a free transfer, and Giovani Lo Celso, brought for £55m and sold for a fee of around £8.4m.

Spurs’ failure to maximise their outgoings has held them back in the transfer market, and Frank has acknowledged it is an area in which the club must improve if they are to challenge for major honours.

“I think that is key,” Frank said in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.

“It’s not only doing one thing right, playing a specific way or getting the culture right or whatever, there is a lot of elements that we need to do well to be able to compete at the highest level.

“Part of it is being able to sell. You see the other top clubs, they are quite good at selling.

“That’s something we need to be improving. That’s something I know the guys above me are working very hard on. Everything’s linked.”

Spurs are expected to be busy when the transfer window opens in just under 48 hours, but Frank reiterated that while the club were actively looking to bring players in, the January market was difficult to operate in.

Frank routinely hesitated to spend in January during his time at Brentford, often using six-month loan deals to assess players before signing them permanently in the summer.

The Dane is adamant he is not looking for short-term fixes next month, and said that makes his and the club’s job harder when trying to identify potential signings.

“The January window is the most difficult window.,” ,” Frank continued. “Everyone is super excited, speaking about it. It will not stop after January 31. That's the way it is.

“I can't highlight enough: we are in the market. We are prepared. We are working, but I also think it's super important, as I said before, every decision I take, or I take together with the other guys in terms of decision-making, is for the future of the club.

“So, there's no reason to sign a player if you don't think it's for the future of the club, if it is just helping a little bit the next six months. We need to build something sustainable that can be very strong and powerful. That journey takes time, and that journey needs to take good, clever decisions along the way.

“That's maybe not 'wow', but good decisions that can make us more stable and more competitive and then we are from there. So we are there, but we'll see what's happening.”