There is no question that Tottenham Hotspur have been doing Mathys Tel wrong this season. Whenever the young forward gets an opportunity to start or even get meaningful minutes off the bench, he tends to deliver, including scoring important goals against clubs like Manchester United, Leeds United, and most recently Bournemouth.
Everyone who watches Tel at Tottenham can tell that the former Bayern Munich man has that something special about him that a lot of the other forwards on the team lack. There is not a single attacking player who has the upside Tel does, and that includes Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons when you keep in mind both the athleticism and drive to score that Tel has.
So Tottenham fans can empathize with Tel when he requests a transfer out of the N17, especially since Tel is not looking to push himself out of Spurs permanently. No, what Tel wants is a loan opportunity for six months so that he does not stagnate his own development, because he knows as well as anyone with common sense that, at his age, he needs be playing first and foremost.
Mathys Tel has no shot at this
But there is another layer to the story here. Mathys Tel reportedly wants a loan transfer out of Tottenham in part because he believes he needs the playing time to prove that he can play at the World Cup in 2026 for France.
What Tottenham Hotspur need to do is convince Tel however they can to stay. A permanent transfer is obviously off the table and should never be entertained, but a loan move really is not in Spurs best interest. As his move from Bayern to Tottenham can attest, you just never know what can happen with a player once they are loaned, even if you do not add an option to buy clause.
Realistically, on that stacked France team, Tel is not going to convince an ultra conservative Didier Deschamps to play him at the World Cup anyway. It just is not in the realm of realistic possibilities, even if you have to applaud Tel for trying to dream of that happening. Obviously, he could be more likely to make that happen outside of working with Thomas Frank.
But what Spurs have to do is sell Tel on the merits of staying and present a real, honest plan to actually help his development and make use of him, especially when he is already a better player than the likes of Richarlison and has more to offer the club than loan signing Randal Kolo Muani. They also need to sober him up and tell him that he is not playing for France this year, no way, no how. But if he stays with the Spurs project, they can make him the next French pillar like Kylian Mbappe.