UPDATE: Now updated for FIFA 19 squads.
Pre Season Tournament
Once you’ve set up your manager career, the first thing you’ll do is make a decision on Pre-Season Tournaments. You can decline the invite, the only benefit is that you’ll start your league campaign sooner.
Picking from the three choices you’ll be given is completely up to you. These tournaments are an easy way to increase your transfer budget, but remember the prize fund is staggered.
More money is always tempting but competing against European giants can backfire – no prize money and poor player form going into the season. Ideally you want to come away from the tournament with some extra cash, good player form and a better idea of your playing style.
Tottenham Board Expectations and Objectives
When playing as Tottenham, your objectives are fairly consistent in the first season. These will be set across five areas:
Youth Development – usually growing two youth players by 10 points or having a youth academy graduate play 50% of the games in season two.
Brand Exposure – earn £175,999,999 through shirt sales
Financial – typically increase the value of the club over 2-3 seasons or reduce the wage bill
Domestic Success – Win the Premier League and the FA Cup
Continental Success – Reach the final or semi-final of the Champions League
Release Clauses
Because the game now randomly assigns release clauses to players in the game, you should always check this. From the squad page, go into the squad hub and switch to the financial tab. Now you can scroll through your players and check who (if anyone) has a release clause.
Release clauses on good players are often met so you might want to consider renegotiating these contracts.
Key Players to Keep
In FIFA 19, Spurs have one of the best squads in the Premier League so most of your attention should be on keeping the following key players. Harry Kane is the highest rated player in the squad and Tottenham’s talisman. Captain Hugo Lloris should also be retained, he’s one of the top goalkeepers in the game and should still have a few good years left in him. There will always be a temptation to bring in a younger understudy with higher potential, but rotating goalkeepers can be problematic.
In defence, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld form arguably the strongest defensive partnership in the league. Having highly rated centre backs on the pitch will stop your team being bullied by opposition centre forwards, so don’t let these guys go just yet. Vertonghen is two years older than Alderweireld so you might reconsider if a sizeable offer comes in. Both players are nearing the twilight of their careers, so you can’t afford to lose Davinson Sanchez either. He’s already 84 rated so is a great option for rotation, but he has 89 potential so will be the key man in your back line for years to come.
In midfield, you cannot afford to lose Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli or Heung Min Son. Even Eriksen is still only 26 and can break into the 90s, as can Alli. These three can also play in multiple positions and have remarkable stamina, great when you’re competing in four competitions. You shouldn’t forget that Eriksen is also the best set piece taker in the team.
The Rest
The general quality of the Tottenham Hotspur squad is very high. You have a core of players who already have good ratings and can grow a little more. This includes Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Lucas, Serge Aurier, Victor Wanyama and Erik Lamela.
Players to Ditch
In FIFA 19, Tottenham have a lot more players that you can afford to get rid of. Michel Vorm isn’t required as Paulo Gazzaniga can play backup to Lloris. Fernando Llorente does provide ‘another option’ but not all FIFA players will suit his style of play. At 33 years old, his rating is only going to go in one direction and that could well happen in your first season. Vincent Janssen has been frozen out of the squad in real life and in-game he no longer has a high enough potential to warrant a squad place. Moussa Sissoko seems to have turned his fortunes around in real life but isn’t worth keeping unless he gets a better rating in the winter update.
Danny Rose and Kieran Trippier are both ageing and won’t be first choice for long.
Promising Players
You should enjoy reading this because the Tottenham squad is blessed with young high potential players. Harry Winks (76/85), Juan Foyth (71/85), Oliver Skipp (64/83), Kyle Walker-Peters (71/80) and Tashan Oakley-Booth (64/81) should all be kept. Either send them out on loan or train them regularly and give them the occasional appearance.
What you do with the other high growth players is really up to you. Luke Amos (65/79), Alfie Whiteman (61/75), Anthony Georgiou (62/75) and Shayon Harrison (62/74) will all grow, but probably not above the 75 mark. If you’re a Spurs fan, you might want to keep them out of sentimentality. They’ll still develop well and some may even exceed their potential. However, sending players out on loan seems to be difficult so you might not want to risk having too many young players in your squad. Selling them is always an easy fix but their relatively small values aren’t going to bolster your transfer budget significantly.
One alternative is to sell them cheaply, but put a sell on clause in the contract. Sell them to lower league clubs where they will get game time and their value should increase before eventually being sold.
Players on Loan
Let’s start with Connor Ogilvie (61/70). Wait until his loan spell ends and sell him.
Kazaiah Sterling (61/75) is now on loan at Sunderland, once he returns it might be worth holding onto him until his value is significant. The other three all have potentials above 80 and should really be kept. Marcus Edwards (66/85), Cameron Carter-Vickers (69/84) and Josh Onomah (71/83). They’re all young and can replace ageing squad members.
Georges-Kevin Nkoudou (75/80) is the most senior player out on loan. Depending on his rating when he returns, he might be worth integrating back into your squad if you need a pacey winger- or just sell him.
Areas to Improve
Central Midfield has to be your first stop. There’s a Dembele-shaped hole in your squad that needs to be filled with a world-class CM. Dier and Wanyama are capable CDMs but truly exceptional players in this position can be gamechangers.
A goalkeeper isn’t immediately necessary. However, when Lloris does leave or start declining, a world class replacement will be required.
Providing you’re happy with Walker-Peters, you only need a promising left back for rotation.
Assuming you ditch Janssen and Llorente, you’ll be short of attacking options. Go and find a young striker that can rotate occasionally with Kane.
Suggested Transfer Targets
These suggestions are not exhaustive and might not even be the ‘types’ of players that suit your style of gameplay.
In Central Midfield, either Tanguy Ndombele or Abdoulaye Doucoure would work well.
At left back, Kieran Tierney would be an affordable but promising replacement for Rose.
Ryan Sessegnon would be a smart buy if you prefer using Son as a back up striker.
As a general rule, Spurs predominantly buy players from the English leagues (31% of their purchases over the last ten seasons). Their next most frequented countries are France (17%), Holland (12%), Spain (10%), Germany (7%) and Italy (5%).
It’s also worth noting that Spurs would not sell to or buy from Arsenal or Chelsea.
Youth Scouting
This won’t be a priority, other than to complete the Youth Development objective. If you have enough budget left over after signing any new players, I would recommend buying the highest rated youth scout available – at least with 5* judgement as detailed in my youth scouting guide. Given the size of the Tottenham squad I wouldn’t recommend flooding the senior team with youth players. Instead focus on prospects with high potential, but a reasonable starting rating. Aim for a player value of close to £500k or more.
