Tottenham Hotspur have managed to land two of the most promising attacking coups of the summer 2025 transfer window in West Ham right winger Mohammed Kudus and Bayern Munich left winger Mathys Tel, who spent the second half of the 2024/25 season playing for Spurs and winning the Europa League title in the process.
Both Kudus and Tel, as well as the forthcoming Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest, should give Tottenham a significant boost to an attack that was not quite to the standard of the other big six clubs in England last season.
Despite the positivity, Tottenham should be taken to task for fumbling the signing of one of the marquee forwards in the Premier League right now and arguably the biggest individual breakout star of the 2024/25 season, Brentford's Bryan Mbeumo.
Tottenham could have made a bigger effort
Tottenham, in theory, had a significant advantage over Manchester United in the race for Mbeumo after hiring Brentford coach Thomas Frank, but they never truly took advantage of that wild card, showing only minimal interest in Mbeumo. Manchester United pursued Mbeumo for months and yet still haven't officially signed him, and while that should have given Spurs an opening to swoop in and try harder to sign the 20-goal right winger, they have instead rested on their laurels.
Now, it seems like taking advantage of Man United's hesitancy to get this deal done won't matter soon. That's because Fabrizio Romano is reporting that not only are Manchester United still "confident" in securing the Mbeumo signing, but he also confirms that, as The Athletic's David Ornstein reported, Man United have bumped up their transfer package to 70 million pounds with add-ons and are continuing talks with Brentford for Mbeumo.
It's yet another transfer blow for any Tottenham fans holding out hope for Mbeumo's arrival, and while some will point to Kudus's signing alongside Brennan Johnson and Dejan Kulusevski as Spurs having three quality left-footed right wingers now, the more grounded fans will note that none of those players have Mbeumo's goals or assist record in the Premier League - let alone both.
Tottenham could have signed both Mbeumo and Kudus this summer - or even just Mbeumo, a more productive player, for close to the same price as the 55 million-pound rated Kudus. It's baffling how Tottenham could beat Manchester United convicingly in the Europa League Final with a professional clean sheet yet look so amateurish in comparison to the INEOS crew on the transfer market.