Spurs Leave Three Big Names At Home Ahead Of Squad Reshuffle | OneFootball

Tottenham New Zealand Tour Squad Hints at Key Summer Exits

Pre-season squads are often presented as practical documents, a neat register of who is fit enough to travel and who requires more work at the training ground. In reality, they can read more like a map of a club’s intentions. Tottenham Hotspur’s 35-man group for the New Zealand tour falls squarely into that category, and the omissions are far more revealing than the inclusions.

There was, on the surface, a straightforward explanation for some absences. Several players were involved deep into the World Cup and are still being managed carefully after a shortened summer. Others are in rehabilitation, with Mohamed Kudus, Xavi Simons, Dejan Kulusevski and Wilson Odobert all staying at Hotspur Way to continue recovery work. Yet once those understandable cases are set aside, the squad list begins to say something sharper about the shape of Tottenham’s transfer window.

The background matters. Spurs have already begun to absorb the ideas of their new regime, and early signs have been framed by personnel changes as much as tactical ones. The 1-0 win over MK Dons offered one headline in particular, a debut goal from £85 million signing Mateus Fernandes, a moment of quality that will only heighten scrutiny on the midfield hierarchy being built around him. Alongside the arrival of Sandro Tonali, that has altered the landscape considerably.

Midfield pecking order comes into focus

Pape Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur were both granted what the club described as “extended leave” after their World Cup involvement. On its own, that wording might have passed without notice. Bentancur, after all, featured for Uruguay, while Sarr represented Senegal. Rest periods are common, and Tottenham have players in similar situations.

Photo IMAGO

Yet football rarely exists in isolation. The timing of those omissions, set against the recruitment of Fernandes and Tonali, lends them a different significance. Sarr has been linked with a move for much of the summer and now appears to be a player caught between usefulness and expendability, capable enough to attract interest, but perhaps no longer central to the side Tottenham are trying to construct. Bentancur’s case is more delicate. Before the ACL injury he suffered in February 2023, he had looked like one of the more intelligent midfielders in the squad, able to carry rhythm and tension in equal measure. Since then, questions over mobility have persisted, and in a system likely to demand range as well as technique, that concern becomes difficult to ignore.

Goalkeeper picture points to change

The same logic applies in goal. Guglielmo Vicario has remained in north London, officially due to a “minor knock” picked up in training. That may be true, but it does not quieten the broader sense that his future lies elsewhere. Interest from Serie A has been gathering momentum, with both Juventus and Napoli reportedly attentive to his situation, and his place at Tottenham already appears unstable.

Late last season, hernia surgery disrupted his campaign and Antonin Kinsky moved into the No.1 role. Since then, the goalkeeping order has looked increasingly settled without Vicario at its centre. The recruitment of Martin Dubravka only reinforced that impression, a decision that suggested planning for depth, experience and perhaps transition. If a goalkeeper misses a major pre-season tour while speculation around him intensifies, it is difficult not to treat that absence as a clue.

Defensive absences carry different weight

Not every omission should be read in the same way. Pedro Porro, Marcos Senesi, Djed Spence and Cristian Romero, all involved at the World Cup semi-final stage, are absent from the trip, though their situations differ. Romero, in particular, is widely expected to leave this summer, so his exclusion feels less administrative than anticipatory. For the others, workload management offers a more convincing explanation.

By contrast, several players with recent international demands have travelled. Andy Robertson, Jan Paul van Hecke, Micky van de Ven and Lucas Bergvall are all included, which rather sharpens the focus on those left behind. When some are rested and others are selected, the distinctions become instructive.

Transfer window gathers pace for Spurs

That is what makes Tottenham’s New Zealand tour squad so interesting. It offers a glimpse of a team beginning to define itself by subtraction as much as addition. Fernandes’ bright introduction, Tonali’s arrival, and the growing certainty around Kinsky in goal all point towards a side being reordered with purpose.

There may yet be innocent explanations for each individual decision. Taken together, though, the pattern is difficult to dismiss. In pre-season, selection is rarely just about the next flight. Sometimes it is about who will still be there when the season finally begins.