Tottenham’s £185million midfield duo are set to bolster Roberto De Zerbi’s ranks and quickly join pre-season training with their new team-mates
11:17, 09 Jul 2026Updated 16:09, 09 Jul 2026
Sandro Tonali will start pre-season with Tottenham Hotspur from Friday if his work permit is sorted in time(Image: Courtesy of Tottenham Hotspur)
Roberto De Zerbi will quickly be able to start working with his new signings Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes as Tottenham’s pre-season begins.
Spurs snapped up the duo for a combined £185million with Fernandes costing £85million from West Ham and Tonali potentially becoming the north London club’s first £100million player if the £7.5million in add-ons are activated on top of the £92.5million fee paid to Newcastle.
As well as their obvious midfield ability, another benefit of signing the duo is that neither were involved in the World Cup this summer across the Atlantic which means that they can get started quickly with De Zerbi and his coaching staff for pre-season training, to learn the Italian’s ways at Hotspur Way.
football.london understands that Fernandes is set to be part of the group of players who will arrive first at the club’s Enfield training complex from this Friday for medical and physical testing and gym work. They will then begin full sessions on the training pitches with and the coaching staff from Monday.
Tonali will also be involved from Friday, but only if his work permit is finalised following his move to the club this week.
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Others involved in the early days of pre-season will be James Maddison and Dominic Solanke along with new signing Martin Dubravka, Conor Gallagher, Archie Gray, Richarlison, Mathys Tel, Destiny Udogie, Ben Davies, Souza, Antonin Kinsky, Guglielmo Vicario and Brandon Austin and younger players such as Mikey Moore, Will Lankshear, Mason Melia, Jamie Donley, Yang Min-hyeok and Kota Takai.
Mohammed Kudus and Dejan Kulusevski will be involved when they are fit to return from the long-term injuries that dashed their World Cup hopes, while Wilson Odobert and Xavi Simons will not be back until the turn of the year from their ACL injuries.
Tottenham had 12 players away at the World Cup in Cristian Romero, Kevin Danso, Luka Vuskovic, Djed Spence, Pape Matar Sarr, Pedro Porro, Lucas Bergvall, Micky van de Ven and Rodrigo Bentancur as well as summer signings Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Jan Paul van Hecke.
Only Romero, Senesi, Spence and Porro remain with Robertson and Bentancur likely to be the first back to pre-season this month from the international group after their exits with Scotland and Uruguay respectively in the group stages. All players will get offered at least three weeks of rest after their involvement at the tournament ends.
The first summer friendly at the moment involves Tottenham hosting League One side MK Dons at Hotspur Way on Wednesday, July 22 before the club heads off on its tour to New Zealand and Australia.
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