The Thomas Frank Era at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is now underway, and fans had a chance to see their new squad in action today in a 0-2 win away at League One side Reading. Frank opted to play two entirely different XIs in the first and second half of today’s friendly win, but there were a few players who were as of yet nowhere to be seen.
The biggest absence was likely Richarlison, who has been training but was not part of the matchday squad at Reading. It led to speculation that perhaps Richarlison is closer to a transfer departure back to Brazil than maybe we originally considered. However, Frank spoke to the media after the match and said it was about conditioning, and that both Manor Solomon and Kota Takai are dealing with small injuries at the moment.
“Manor, a minor calf injury unfortunately. Nothing big. Kota has a minor issue, like a contact [one], we expect him to train next week. Richy has trained well. We’re just building him. I think that’s the big thing, we’re building him. He trained well yesterday. I’m expecting a full training week and I’m expecting him right now to play next week.”
Now that doesn’t mean that Richarlison WON’T be sold to a club like Palmeiras, but that wasn’t the reason Frank gave for why Richy didn’t play today at Reading.
Other absences included the players who recently competed in the U21 Euros competition, including Wilson Odobert, Mathys Tel, and Archie Gray — all of them only recently returned after their mandaded post-Euros break and should feature more as we proceed through the rest of preseason. Of the players named to today’s squad, Brandon Austin, Ash Phillips, George Abbott, and Yang Min-heok did not make it off the bench. James Maddison, Radu Dragusin, and Dejan Kulusevski are still recovering from injury.