Tottenham’s £320m Reboot Faces Early Criticism After Defeats
Tottenham’s £320m reboot is already under scrutiny. Two games, two defeats, no goals – and this time they were turned over at home by a Newcastle side reborn under Matthias Jaissle.
At the heart of it all were Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa, two players who looked lost last season but now carry Newcastle’s new energy. Each scored, each punished Spurs’ wastefulness, and each walked off to the sound of boos aimed firmly at the home side after a 2-0 defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Big spend, small return
Tottenham’s summer was supposed to change the mood. Eight new signings, £320m spent, a new-look squad for Roberto De Zerbi. The early verdict from the stands was brutal.
A week after being dismantled 3-0 at Brentford, Spurs returned home hoping for a reset. They handed a debut to Omar Marmoush, pushed the game to Newcastle, and for an hour looked the sharper side. It still wasn’t enough.
Lucas Hornicek, Newcastle’s young goalkeeper, kept Spurs at bay with a series of important stops. On 15 minutes he flew to his left to claw away Mathys Tel’s curling effort. Two minutes later, Lewis Hall threw himself in front of Pedro Porro’s close-range shot to deny what looked a certain goal. When Jan Paul van Hecke rose to meet Bruno Fernandes’ corner just before the break, Hornicek again stood firm.
Spurs had the territory, the shots, the noise. They didn’t have the finish.
They also didn’t get the decision they wanted. Three minutes into the second half, Marmoush nipped in front of Malick Thiaw in the box and went down under contact. Referee Peter Bankes waved away the penalty appeals, VAR stayed with the on-field call, and the frustration inside the stadium grew.
Elanga swings it, Wissa finishes it
The pressure finally told – just not in the way Spurs expected.
On 62 minutes, Nico Gonzalez, making his own Newcastle debut, picked his moment. A long diagonal pass forward, a clever cushioned header down from Amar Dedic, and Elanga did the rest. The winger, revitalised after last weekend’s goal against Liverpool, spun sharply in the area and drove a shot off the inside of the left post and in.
One chance. One goal. Clinical where Spurs had been careless.
De Zerbi threw on three substitutes in response, chasing a spark that never came. The structure slipped, the distances went, and Newcastle grew in belief.
Ten minutes later, they killed it.
From a corner, substitute Nick Woltemade rose and nodded the ball into the six-yard box. Wissa, back to goal, reacted first. With a hooked finish over his head, he sent the ball looping into the net and Newcastle’s away end into delirium. A player who had drifted under Eddie Howe now looked transformed under Jaissle.
By the time Peter Bankes blew for full-time, many Spurs fans were already heading for the exits. Those who stayed let their feelings be known. Two games in, and a side built at huge expense was booed off their own pitch.
‘We are not a team yet’
De Zerbi cut a calm, if pointed, figure afterwards.
“For 60-65 minutes we played better than Newcastle. We had a chance to score but we didn't. After they scored, we lost distances,” he told Sky Sports.
“We had more chances and shot more on goal. We are not a team yet. We have to improve a few things.
“Forget the result, but I'm not angry. We are working well. We were unlucky today, especially with the result.”
Luck, though, was not the word chosen in the studio.
Jamie Redknapp saw a different problem: leadership.
“There’s a lot of new players at Spurs and it's going to take time,” he said on Saturday Night Football. “The manager has got a jigsaw puzzle and he's got to figure out how to fit the players in, what system to use, who the best three players are in midfield.
“There are going to be teething problems.
“I also look at the senior players and players like Van de Ven didn't do enough to lead today and certainly with the goals.
“Players who have been there for a long time can do better.”
Jaissle’s Newcastle find their edge
On the opposite touchline, Jaissle had every reason to enjoy the moment.
“It was incredible and I'm really proud,” the Newcastle boss said. “We are really proud as a club, as a coaching staff to see a team on the pitch delivering the match plan at a high level already, but also seeing players fully committed to what we're doing.
“This is a good start and a moment to enjoy.”
It already feels like more than that. Elanga and Wissa, signed for a combined £110m last summer, looked like expensive misfits under Howe. Under Jaissle, they suddenly resemble the players Newcastle thought they were buying.
Sky Sports’ David Richardson captured the mood at full-time.
“In Elanga and Wissa, it's like two new players!” Jamie Carragher observed from the gantry, as Newcastle’s travelling support sang into the north London night.
Jaissle also trusted Gonzalez from the start, and it was his incisive ball that unlocked Spurs for the opener. The team played with a freedom that had been missing, a togetherness that carried them through some heavy first-half pressure, and a ruthlessness that Spurs never matched.
For all the pre-season talk of a struggle under a new coach after another awkward transfer window, Newcastle walked out of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium singing about Europe. The chants were delivered with a smile, but they carried a hint of belief.
Spurs, by contrast, are left with a blunt attack, a bruised fanbase and a manager insisting his side “are not a team yet”. With the money spent and the patience already thinning, how long will he be given to prove they can become one?
