Thomas Frank has aimed a subtle dig at Eberechi Eze after the Crystal Palace star snubbed a move to Tottenham for North London rivals Arsenal.
The England international looked set to join Frank’s side this summer following the long-term injury to James Maddison, but the Gunners swooped in at the final moment to secure the signing instead.
And ahead of the trip to Manchester City on Saturday, the Spurs boss admitted he does not want players who are not keen to join the club.
He said: “I don’t speak about specific players, unless they are at our fantastic club.
“There have been a lot of rumours, a lot of times there’s nothing in it. That’s part of the business. There will be a lot of links, to generalise that, to be very, very clear, I don’t want any players that don’t want to come to the club.
“They don’t want to come to the club, to wear this fantastic badge, we don’t want them here.
“It’s a couple of things, the club is working very hard to see if we can strengthen the squad with players who can improve the squad. That’s what we’ll continue doing until the end of the window.”
“We are in the market and we will look to strengthen the team. We have a good squad and good players. I see 23 players working hard on a game plan for Manchester City tomorrow.
“We need to do everything we can to be as competitive as possible. I am confident we will sign a player before the end of the window. Two players in, two players out so probably a bit similar.
“It’s the same level but that’s good. it’s my job and that of my staff to make sure we can compete. Every club wants to sign players as early as possible, but it’s not that easy. I’m a positive guy, I’m not that fearful.
“I believe something will happen.”
Richarlison’s Return
In more positive news for Spurs, Frank gave a glowing review of striker Richarlison, despite reports suggesting he was offered to Palace as part of the Eze deal.
He added: “Right now, he is my starting nine. He scored two fantastic goals. He had two top games, he’s Brazilian number nine.
“He’s a very good player, I’m very happy with him. Richy wants to stay, I want to keep him, there have been no talks about anything else.
“We just played the first game, scored three goals, that’s pretty promising. It’s a long season, we need players with different abilities.
“[Mohammed] Kudus has the spark and creativity, Wilson [Odobert] does that well, Mathys [Tel] can play different positions.
“We have two good strikers in Dom [Solanke] and Richy, Brennan [Johnson] the deep runner.
“We have variation up the pitch, but again we’ll look out there for someone who can strengthen but that’s in all areas.”
