Thomas Frank reveals Spurs tried to sign £64m winger

Thomas Frank has confirmed that Spurs tried hard to sign Antoine Semenyo in the January transfer window.

The winger had been linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur since 2024, but opted to sign for Manchester City in a £64 million deal with Bournemouth earlier this month instead.

Ironically, Semenyo scored the winning goal against Spurs in his final appearance for the Cherries, finding the net with a superb strike deep into stoppage time.

Thomas Frank reveals Spurs tried to sign Antoine Semenyo

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Premier League clash with Man City, Frank said that their pursuit of Semenyo showed how committed the club are to finding success.

“The club work relentlessly to try to do the best they can to try to improve the squad, especially Johan (Lange), Fabio (Paritici) and Vinai (Venkatesham), and all the people behind them,” he said in his pre-match press conference.

“I mean it, we can’t be too obsessed with short-term fixes that don’t help with the long term, because if we don’t do that, then all the hard work we put in now can be limited for the future.

“And that’s not that we don’t badly want short-term success. I can promise that the Lewis family is super committed to this project; they want to do everything.

“And I will go against my rule, hopefully only once, that there’s no doubt it was clear that the club wanted to sign (Antoine) Semenyo.

“They did everything – I think that’s a clear signal that the Lewis family is very committed. That’s a big signing with finances and all that.

“So that’s the quality of players we’re looking for to improve the squad, and if we can’t find that, then it’s definitely better to take the right decisions.

“Not just saying we’re just getting quality players going forward because we all know it’s not that easy, and I’m sure, for whatever reason, we are not able to get another player or players in this window, then for the summer it’s a big summer ahead, and I’m not in doubt we’ll see big improvements there.”

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