Tottenham shows ‘Spursy’ tag is hard to shake

UDINE, Italy — Tottenham Hotspur desperately want to be a club defined by winning silverware.

Wednesday’s dramatic UEFA Super Cup defeat to Paris Saint-Germain was therefore a brutal early lesson for head coach Thomas Frank in the job he has inherited. Welcome to Spurs, Thomas.

May’s UEFA Europa League triumph — their first trophy in 17 years — was supposed to herald the dawning of a new era: the shedding of the derogatory “Spursy” tag, created through years of somehow always falling short when the prize was in sight.

This was, in some ways, a step back towards those difficult days. They were 2-0 up with five minutes remaining through goals from center backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero before substitutes Lee Kang-In and Gonçalo Ramos struck, the latter in the fourth minute of added time, to force penalties.

They led 2-0 in the shootout, too, after Vitinha’s early miss, only for Van de Ven and Mathys Tel to fail from 12 yards, leaving Nuno Mendes to slot home the winning spot kick for a 4-3 win.

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The margins are fine and unforgiving. Having finally broken the psychological barrier that existed for almost two decades in Ange Postecoglou’s final game in charge, Frank will be acutely aware of the need to guard against anything approaching a return. He is, by all accounts, a “glass half-full” manager, and there was enough in his first competitive game in charge to offer tangible grounds for optimism when the dust settles on the disappointing denouement.

Two goals from set pieces, with his new captain, Romero, among the scorers. For about 70 minutes on a sweltering night in northern Italy, his team pressed superbly, looking so defensively organized and difficult to break down in a manner markedly different from the alarmingly open Postecoglou era, reflecting the work Frank has been doing in preseason. The balance in their play was back.

Mohammed Kudus, a £55 million signing from West Ham United, impressed in and out of possession playing alongside Richarlison in a 5-3-2 shape. João Palhinha, a loan arrival from Bayern Munich, added bite to midfield.

“I knew we had to do something a little bit different against PSG, so it was like a special operation,” said Frank of the change of system.

“It was, in medical terms, the operation succeeded, but the patient died. So not that good in the end. But we worked on a game plan that was a little bit different, and we were very close to succeeding.”

Frank has emphasized the importance of the collective in his preseason messaging, and there were small but telling signs of that throughout, not least when the players made a point of coming together to leave the field at halftime in unison.

It always felt like a misstep for Postecoglou to speak so dismissively about the importance of a specialist set-piece coach in an era increasingly influenced by them. Andreas Georgson, formerly of Brentford, Arsenal, and Manchester United, among others, is already showcasing how vital those details can be. PSG were almost embarrassingly lax by comparison.

And if anything, Spurs allowed PSG back into this chiefly by running out of steam, allowing their newly-instated principles of play to slip as the European champions began to find their stride.

PSG only started their preseason training a week ago following last month’s run to the FIFA Club World Cup final in the United States. They looked palpably — and understandably — undercooked, but whereas Spurs’ substitutions failed to impact the game, Fabián Ruiz, Lee, and Ramos were all heavily influential.

“I wish I knew [what went wrong],” said Frank. “Sometimes football is the smallest of margins. They kept pushing, made some subs that put us under pressure at times. But it is a shot from the edge of the box [which Lee scores with]. Before that we didn’t concede any big chances. Then the momentum built.

“I think if you play 2-2 against PSG, I think you take that. That single result is good. Then, if you separate, we have a penalty shootout, we lost, so maybe we need to work on penalties. Maybe that’s the thing to win a final. I think if everyone had said this would be a draw and we would lose on penalties, everyone would think ‘Oh, that’s quite impressive.’ And then if you look at the performance and the shift they actually put in, wow. What a mentality throughout the game. So a lot of things to be happy with.”

PSG’s pedigree came to the fore as is often the case in this fixture: the UEFA Champions League winners have beaten the Europa League in 12 of the last 13 stagings, the exception being Atlético Madrid’s win over Real Madrid in 2018.

Spurs could have become the seventh English club to win the Super Cup, but instead the opportunity passes them by with goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier making the vital save from Van de Ven in the shootout after earlier allowing Romero’s second-half header to drift past him too easily.

Who knows what the now discarded Gianluigi Donnarumma made of it all?

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Perhaps one of the conclusions to draw is that Frank needs more from the transfer market to build on what he is trying to do. Spurs have been frustrated in that regard — most obviously in missing out on Morgan Gibbs-White after he chose to sign a new deal at Nottingham Forest — but James Maddison’s serious knee injury and the absence of Dejan Kulusevski have exposed a lack of creativity. Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze and Manchester City’s Savinho are two options they have identified as potential solutions.

Whatever happens before the deadline, Frank can be hopeful that a standard has now been set by those opening 70 minutes. “Hopefully the intensity and aggressivity in the pressure early in the defending, the foundation, and the mentality to run hard, that needs to be the foundation every single time,” said Frank.

“Sometimes you succeed very well, sometimes you need to do a little bit better. Another very positive thing was the set pieces. We knew that was an area we could hurt PSG. We worked very hard on it so big credit to the players, it almost gave us the win.”

Almost. PSG boss Luis Enrique summed up how his team found a way to win, their fifth trophy of 2025.

“We have faith,” he said. “We think we can win every single match, even if we are losing. But if I am honest, Tottenham deserved much more. Football is sometimes unfair. I have to say in this case, I am very happy for that!”