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Welcome back to profspur analysis and a new Premier League season! As I did last year, I like to start things off with a brief accounting of what I got wrong in the prior season. This year, however, I’m also going to add some modest predictions for the 2026-27 season, which will give structure to the next version of this exercise and make things a bit more fun. I guess I should confess from the outset that I think I got last season mostly right. That is, I was concerned from the second half of last year’s preseason match against PSG that our lack of interest in keeping the ball and controlling the match could be a major problem in the year to come. I also made no secret of the fact that I didn’t think Thomas Frank was the right choice, arguing as early as September 2025 that Frank actually had not made Spurs ‘more defensively solid’; in October, that we weren’t creating enough from open play to compete toward the top of the league; and in November, when we were riding high on early results, that Spurs were riding our luck and we should expect to plummet unless something significantly changes. Picking up on these kinds of things early on made for a depressingly accurate analysis of a season I’d love to forget. But enough of that. As I said, I’m here to talk about what I got wrong. The big one is that I expected Spurs to finish in the top 6-8 places, certainly not as low as 17th. I figured the summer business (Kudus and Xavi in particular) signaled some ambition and that we had the squad for a much higher finish. Though I was never a fan of Frank at Spurs, I never thought it would be as bad as it was. I expected a lot more of Randal Kolo Muani, defending him throughout the season. In the end, he never really delivered, never found a goalscoring groove. Though he made a better effort toward the end of the season than he ever got credit for, chasing the ball down in the attacking third and causing problems for the opposition, especially under De Zerbi, it was nowhere near the performance I thought he was capable of. I expected a lot more from our attack, believing that Frank’s Brentford had always found ways to score goals, even if not the way I like my club to score them. In particular I thought Spurs would be more effective on the counter and would find the likes of Kudus and Tel in behind much more than we did. Part of my failure here was not recognizing just how much the dearth of midfield passing would impact the squad. Losing both Maddison and Deki for the season was a major blow, as were the matches Cuti Romero missed. Without those three we had very little in the way of ball progression, a problem compounded by Frank’s lack of ideas for possession and progression, forcing everything predictably from Porro to Kudus along the right flank. Our xG shot up under De Zerbi with the same personnel simply because he has an idea of how to play with the ball and get it into dangerous areas. On the whole I thought our summer business left us in decent shape when it came to attacking options. While we were able to play most of the season with players in their actual positions, it broke down in the end, revealing the extent to which we were left short in that department. I thought in September that Brennan Johnson would have a big year for us, given how good he is at running in behind to receive direct, vertical passes. See item (3) above for a partial explanation of why that didn’t happen and we ended up moving him on. Predictions for the 2026-27 Season An unwritten story of last season was how many of the teams with European competition struggled in the league. I expect that trend to continue this season, which is to say I expect Spurs to capitalize on lack of European football as we did in Ange’s first season at the helm. After what’s already been the most ambitious and impressive transfer window for Spurs since I started following the club in 2007-08, we have depth of quality in defense and midfield (and appear to be working on the front line still). So I expect a 5th place finish at minimum. I think Mathys Tel is going to have a breakout season. I think Tonda Kinsky will also have a breakout season (a little softer as a prediction since it’s kind of already that since he’s been named the first-choice keeper, but I think he’s actually going to excel and become one of the better keepers in the league). Given the transfer window is still open and Spurs are rumored to be in for Savinho and Marmoush, it’s hard to make predictions about too many of our attacking players. But if we end up relying on some combination of Richarlison and Solanke through the middle, I expect they’ll combine for more than 18 goals this season. I’m just getting this in about an hour and fifteen minutes before opening kickoff. Come on you Spurs!