Your morning Tottenham Hotspur digest on Wednesday, February 15.
Tottenham Hotspur player ratings vs AC Milan as Sarr impresses
Tottenham suffered a 1-0 defeat against AC Milan in their Champions League round of 16 first leg. Eric Dier is set to miss the second leg through suspension with Antonio Conte having to field a young midfield following injuries to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma.
Spurs will need to score twice without conceding if they are to progress into the quarter-finals as they aim to overturn their first leg deficit. football.london Tottenham reporter Alasdair Gold has rated the players' performance against Milan as Pape Matar Sarr and Oliver Skipp both impressed.
See how the Spurs players rated here.
READ MORE: Antonio Conte sending hints about his Tottenham future, chaos in Milan and Spurs' stability woes
Levy and Conte face final Tottenham decision
Glenn Hoddle is hoping that Antonio Conte's Tottenham future can be decided one way or another after their Champions League Round of 16 tie against AC Milan. Appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo's replacement in November 2021, the Italian's future has continued to be a big talking point ever since he arrived at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Yet to commit to the club beyond the end of the current campaign, all connected with Spurs face a nervy wait over the 53-year-old's final decision. Admitting to football.london that the Champions League could have a big say on whether Conte is still Tottenham boss come August, Hoddle feels the club need to know sooner rather than later so they can get their plans in place for the 2023/24 season.
"I think it [Champions League] has got a big say," Hoddle told football.london in an exclusive interview. "It's very difficult and I'd like Antonio for Tottenham's sake to plan to come out as it's very difficult to plan as a club. Players will get on with whatever game or whatever team is picked for any weekend so that will happen, but for planning he needs to understand that the club need to know where they are going."
Ziyech wish
Rafael van der Vaart has once again told Tottenham to go out and sign Hakim Ziyech.
The former Spurs player has made no secret of the fact he is a huge fan of the Chelsea playmaker. Spurs know Ziyech only too well, having played an integral role in that famous night at the Johan Cruyff ArenA in 2019 when Spurs came from 2-0 down to beat Ajax 3-2 in the semi-final of the Champions League.
Ziyech has found life in the Premier League that much more difficult than it was in the Netherlands though, struggling to tie down a regular place in the starting XI under any of Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel or Graham Potter now.
Van der Vaart, who spent two years in north London from 2010 to 2012, has spoken a number of times about Ziyech and his future. When he left to join Chelsea in a £33.7million deal in 2020, van der Vaart said: "Still a bit heart broken our MVP is leaving Ajax and Dutch football, to have seen him in a Spurs shirt would have softened my misery."
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