This past summer transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur were stonewalled twice on the transfer market by arch rivals Arsenal. First, the Gunners plucked Thomas Frank's coach on the field, defensive midfielder Christian Norgaard, right from under their noses. But the most infamous move was Arsenal's last minute transfer for attacking midfielder Eberechi Eze.
The hero of the 2024/25 season for Crystal Palace after budding superstar Michael Olise's departure to join Harry Kane and Bayern Munich, Eze fired Palace to the FA Cup. He buoyed that into a big money move in the summer transfer window, and everyone seemed to think, including the world's biggest transfer reporters like Fabrizio Romano, that Eze to Tottenham was imminent.
At the last second, though, the boyhood Arsenal fan chose the Gunners, leaving Spurs in the dust. Tottenham eventually recovered to sign Xavi Simons, but the Dutchman did not even feature on the pitch when Eze sunk Spurs with a hat trick in an emabarrassing 4-1 defeat. Forget that Eze has done nothing else all season long for Arsenal; the way he humiliated Spurs not once but twice has been enough for many of the Gunners faithful as their club still sits first in the Premier League.
Tottenham fans have always been skeptical
So when Tottenham Hotspur started to show interest in another Premier League star who grew up idolizing Arsenal in Antoine Semenyo, many fans were immediately skeptical. Regardless of the fact that Semenyo has been a monster this season and a legitimate Premier League Player of the Season candidate alongside Erling Haaland, many Tottenham fans did not want to see the club go after another player who idolized Arsenal just to have the rug pulled out from them because they never intended on being a Spur in the first place.
Even after Arsenal said "no thanks" to Semenyo, Tottenham fans remained skeptical. So now that it has become obvious that Semenyo has no intention of joining Tottenham with Liverpool, Manchester United, and Manchester City being the only real contenders left in the transfer race, Spurs fans are honestly more relieved than peeved at this point.
Because the prevailing belief was that while Semenyo is a great player who can potentially help Tottenham, Spurs were never going to pay the wages of the other clubs and do not carry the same cachet as the others either. Semenyo was always going to pick someone else, including his Arsenal affinity. Therefore, Spurs would have wasted their time and resources on another doomed target, potentially missing out on someone else. So instead of being Eze'd again, Spurs know before the winter window opens to look elsewhere, perhaps to Omar Marmoush or Savinho at the Etihad.