Throughout the 2025/26 Premier League season, Mathys Tel has impressed Tottenham Hotspur supporters with explosive dribbling, a goal scorer's mentality, the desire to be incisive from the left flank, ball striking, work rate, and even chance creation. He has scored timely goals to take home points against Manchester United and Leeds United, and in many games this season, he has genuinely been Spurs biggest threat.
That is why it was so disheartening to see Tel yanked back and forth between the Champions League squad or constantly snubbed in Premier League matches, never rewarded by the pedantic Thomas Frank even when he shined as a substitute to change the game.
It seemed almost as if Frank was punishing Tel for not succumbing to his outlandishly cowardly brand of defensive football, rather than rewarding Tel for shining in spite of it. Tel's plight became so desperate that he was pushing for a loan move away from Tottenham for the final six months of the season, though at least the Spurs board was not as foolhardy as Frank and managed to resist losing him.
Mathys Tel is the main man now
Frank's promises to play Mathys Tel more were probably going to go unfulfilled - just ask Cristian Romero how promises work at Spurs - but it is all a moot point now. Mercifully, Tottenham have fired Frank, and now Tel has a huge lifeline and one less barrier to being handed the keys to the kingdom on the left flank.
Unfortunately, Tel has a less positive second reason for Tottenham to drive towards making him their new superstar, goal scoring winger. According to a report from French paper Le Parisien, it looks like the 2025/26 Premier League season is over for standout winger Wilson Odobert, who was recently breaking out at a level even higher than Tel with match winning displays on the right in relief of an injured Mohammed Kudus.
Earlier in the season when Kudus was healthy, Tel and Odobert were trading starts on the left, so even when Kudus comes back, Tel is THE option on the left wing, bar none. He will be sad to see his countryman go down, but most Tottenham fans have also privately felt that Tel has the more upside of the two, especially on the left wing cutting inside to score goals.
With Frank done and no longer holding him back and now even less depth on the wings, there is no excuse for Tottenham not to start Tel. He is ready for his brush with superstardom, and now it is time for him to deliver on the opportunities that will inevitably be coming his way.