Three winners and three losers from Tottenham's summer transfer window before it's even started - Opinion

The window does not open until June, but at Tottenham Hotspur the decisions are already being made – and we have identified three clear winners and three clear losers from the summer business before a single deal is done.

Stories are leaking out of N17 at a steady pace. Guglielmo Vicario to Inter Milan. Pape Matar Sarr potentially sold for £50m. Conor Gallagher likely on his way. Tottenham are even said to be considering Frankfurt goalkeeper Kaua Santos and Freiburg’s Noah Atubolu as Vicario’s replacement.

Roberto De Zerbi is reshaping this squad in his image, and the direction of travel is becoming clear well before the window opens. Some will come out of this summer much better off. Some will not.

Roberto De Zerbi finally gets the Tottenham goalkeeper his system actually needs

This one feels overdue. The moment De Zerbi was appointed, the writing was on the wall for Vicario – not because he is a bad goalkeeper, but because De Zerbi’s demands from the position go so far beyond shot-stopping that it almost requires a different job description.

Vicario goes long under pressure – the Premier League’s own channel even drew attention to it. De Zerbi needs a goalkeeper who threads passes into midfield, triggers pressing traps from the back, and is comfortable with the ball at his feet in tight situations for sustained periods. His former goalkeeping coach was explicit about it: the Italian wants his keeper to be an eleventh outfielder, not a last line of defence.

Kaua Santos, James Trafford, Bart Verbruggen, Noah Atubolu – who has 33 clean sheets in 111 Bundesliga appearances and has been likened to Manuel Neuer – whoever ends up coming in has been identified specifically because they can do what Vicario cannot. That is not a sideways move. That is the squad starting to actually match the manager’s demands.

Antonin Kinsky has played himself into genuine relevance

Nobody saw this coming six months ago. Antonin Kinsky arrived as emergency cover – a young Czech goalkeeper being thrown into a relegation battle with no time to breathe. He was supposed to be a stopgap.

He has been considerably more than that. His performances against Brighton and Sunderland showed a goalkeeper who is comfortable in possession, reads the game intelligently, and does not crumble under pressure. He suits what De Zerbi wants. He has made the goalkeeping debate genuinely interesting rather than settled.

Whoever comes in this summer will not simply inherit the shirt. Kinsky will push them. And that competition – which nobody planned for – makes Spurs better in goal regardless of which way it goes.

Lucas Bergvall steps forward with the space finally opening up

The summer exits, painful as several of them will be, create something Lucas Bergvall has not had enough of this season: room. Room in the squad, room in the system, room in the conversation about who this Tottenham team is being built around.

He is 18. He turned down Barcelona – Barcelona – to come to Tottenham because he believed in the project. Against Brighton, he won the ball back in the 85th minute in his own half, drove forward, and created the position from which Simons scored. That is not luck. That is a player who understands exactly how De Zerbi wants the game to be played, instinctively, without needing to be told.

If this summer goes well, Bergvall walks into next season as one of the first names on the teamsheet.

As for the losers from Tottenham’s summer business so far…

Guglielmo Vicario swaps Tottenham for Inter Milan

It would be easy to frame this as simply the right footballing decision – the system demands a different goalkeeper, so Vicario goes, clean and simple. It is not that clean.

Vicario delayed hernia surgery to stay available for a crucial run of fixtures. He was central to the Europa League triumph. He has given Tottenham the kind of loyalty that plenty of his peers simply would not have. He has even been described as being “inspired” by Inter legend Samir Handanovic during his formative years – so in some ways, moving to the San Siro fulfils something personal for him too. That is a complicated thing to begrudge him.

Vicario has already given his ‘yes’ to Inter, and Inter’s director Piero Ausilio has already been in London for meetings. Spurs want around £25m; Inter are offering closer to £16m-£17m. The gap will close.

This is happening.

He deserves a genuinely warm send-off. It is hard to feel he will get one amid everything else going on at the club right now.

Joao Palhinha returns to Bayern Munich after Spurs loan

Joao Palhinha arrived on loan from Bayern Munich with something to prove and, in fits and starts, showed exactly the kind of defensive solidity Spurs have lacked for years. He broke up attacks, shielded the back four, and gave the midfield a physical presence it had been crying out for.

None of it will lead anywhere. Bayern Munich are not selling. Tottenham’s finances, which the club themselves have warned could force difficult decisions if relegation happens, cannot stretch to whatever fee would be required regardless.

He gave Spurs everything he had in difficult circumstances. He goes back to Munich at the end of the season having spent four months in a relegation battle, and that is the entirety of his Spurs career. That is a hard outcome for a player who deserved considerably more.

The Spurs supporters, who deserve better than another summer of hope followed by nothing

The Brighton draw felt good for about forty minutes. A glimpse of something, finally. Then the final whistle went, Spurs were still 17th, and the supporters filed out knowing they will spend the next three months wondering whether the players they actually want to see next season will still be here.

That is the particular misery of being a Tottenham fan in 2026. It is not just the results. It is the exhausting cycle of being told things are changing, watching them almost change, and then finding out in July that the budget was not quite what was promised and three of the players you needed to keep have gone.

Tottenham’s own accounts have now warned that relegation could force player sales just to keep the lights on. The supporters know this. They are not naïve. What they are asking for – what they have earned the right to ask for – is for the club to do the difficult summer business competently, back De Zerbi properly, and not turn the first genuinely interesting manager Spurs have had in years into another casualty of institutional dysfunction. It is not a big ask. Tottenham have just spent years making it feel like one.

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