{"id":220893,"date":"2026-01-01T01:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T01:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/220893\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T01:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T01:50:12","slug":"tottenham-boss-thomas-frank-breaks-silence-on-mason-melia-ahead-of-new-years-day-arrival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/220893\/","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham boss Thomas Frank breaks silence on Mason Melia ahead of New Year\u2019s Day arrival"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ireland Under-21 striker\u2019s \u20ac1.9million move from St Patrick\u2019s Athletic to Tottenham will finally become official when the January transfer window opens.SSE Airtricity League Premier Division, Richmond Park, Dublin 22\/9\/2025
\nSt. Patrick’s Athletic vs Cork City
\nSt. Patrick’s Athletic\u2019s Mason Melia celebrates scoring his side\u2019s second goal
\nMandatory Credit \u00a9INPHO\/Laszlo Geczo<\/p>\n

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank has given his first thoughts on the imminent arrival of Ireland Under-21 striker Mason Melia.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old will officially become a Spurs<\/a> player on New Year\u2019s Day, almost a year after the Premier League<\/a> side agreed a League of Ireland<\/a> transfer record breaking fee of \u20ac1.9million to sign him from St Patrick\u2019s Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That fee will be broken next year when Arsenal<\/a> complete their capture of Shamrock Rovers<\/a> wonderkid Victor Ozhianvuna, once he turns 18.<\/p>\n

Until then, Melia will carry the tag of most expensive sale from the League of Ireland<\/a> – and with that will come expectation that he won\u2019t be too far away from the first-team at Spurs.<\/p>\n

However Frank, who wasn\u2019t in charge when the deal was agreed, says a decision on Melia\u2019s immediate future won\u2019t be made until he sees the youngster up close.<\/p>\n

Melia could be sent out on loan, but Tottenham\u2019s goalscoring woes are contributing to their poor form this season.<\/p>\n

Melia had an outstanding season last year at Pat\u2019s, scoring 15 goals, including 13 in the Premier Division one in Europe, and spearheading the Saints attack under Stephen Kenny.<\/p>\n

Frank addressed the new signing when speaking to the club\u2019s media channel ahead of Spurs\u2019 trip to Brentford on New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe meet him in the club first here on 1 January. There are a lot of moving parts and then when we know all of the moving parts then we will take the final decision on what we are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our soccer newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from the League of Ireland and beyond<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ireland Under-21 striker\u2019s \u20ac1.9million move from St Patrick\u2019s Athletic to Tottenham will finally become official when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59490,61,60,2539,1102,57217,114374,91985,112,16489,38384,15010],"class_list":["post-220893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arsenal-fc","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-premier-league","tag-republic-of-ireland-national-football-team","tag-republic-of-ireland-u21-football-team","tag-shamrock-rovers-fc","tag-sports","tag-st-patricks-athletic-fc","tag-stephen-kenny","tag-tottenham-hotspur-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}