Tottenham Hotspur's latest gamble in attack is that Roberto De Zerbi can work some magic on Mykhailo Mudryk. The pair were reunited on transfer deadline day when the 25-year-old Ukraine winger joined Spurs on loan from Chelsea for the season, with a £75million option to buy.
De Zerbi and Mudryk previously worked together at Shakhtar Donetsk, giving the Italian manager an unusually deep understanding of the winger's strengths, weaknesses, personality and attitude. Footage of De Zerbi hailing Mudryk as a future Ballon d'Or winner has resurfaced since the move was confirmed.
Mudryk has not played since November 2024, when he tested positive for the banned substance meldonium and was hit with a doping ban. His £89million move to Chelsea in January 2023 already looked like a flop before the ban struck.
Spurs' attacking crisis
Mudryk is far from the only player Spurs are pinning their hopes on. Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and Mohamed Kudus, three of the club's most creative players, barely featured in 2026, while Dominic Solanke had his last season disrupted by injuries and missed part of pre-season with further unexplained problems.
Savio and Omar Marmoush have arrived from Manchester City's bench in the hope they can rediscover the form that first attracted attention, while Mathys Tel, 21, remains what the club consider a work in progress 20 months after joining from Bayern Munich.
Spurs confirmed their 25-man Premier League squad without Richarlison, who was the club's top scorer last season and is now trying to force a move to Trabzonspor before Friday's Turkish transfer deadline. Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert are included in the squad but remain weeks from fitness after serious knee injuries, and the club's other eight attacking or creative players have managed only 33 appearances and nine goals between them in the league this year. De Zerbi's side are one of three Premier League clubs yet to score in their opening two games.
The Shakhtar connection
Much of the excitement over Mudryk's potential stems from a six-week spell at Shakhtar in which he scored eight goals in ten games, triggering a chase for his signature that Arsenal led for a long time before Chelsea won the race and handed him an eight-and-a-half-year contract.
De Zerbi had already left Shakhtar by that point. He had joined the club at the start of a season that was never completed after its winter break because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and quit soon after, remaining out of work until Brighton and Hove Albion appointed him in September 2022. He gave Mudryk his big break at Shakhtar, and the winger repaid him.
"I know the value of Mudryk," De Zerbi said while he was Brighton manager and Premier League clubs were chasing the Shakhtar winger. "He can win the Ballon D'Or in future. He has the quality to become a star."
Mudryk's blistering speed was his standout asset at Shakhtar, where he produced some of his most eye-catching performances in wartime football played at neutral venues behind closed doors.
Doping ban and a Chelsea flop
After joining Chelsea in January 2023, Mudryk went ten months without a goal. He flickered without convincing through a string of managers at Stamford Bridge, from Graham Potter to Frank Lampard, Mauricio Pochettino and Enzo Maresca.
It was Maresca who was in charge when Mudryk returned a positive test for meldonium during an out-of-competition test while training with Ukraine in October 2024. He was serving a four-year ban, of which he completed a year and a half before it was cut short this summer.
His final three Chelsea goals came in the early rounds of what became a run to the Europa Conference League title, and by the time of the ban he had been reduced under Maresca to a late-substitute role, used for his pace against tired defenders when games opened up. Any impact he makes at Spurs will be his first in English football, and will benefit Chelsea, Tottenham's bitter London rivals, one way or another.
A defensive rebuild, an attacking mystery
Goals have been a problem at Spurs since Ange Postecoglou's attacking approach gave way to Thomas Frank's more cautious style, which cost the team fluency and left them reliant on set pieces. Since Frank was sacked, that set-piece threat has faded as Spurs sold or released several of their strongest aerial players, including Cristian Romero, Kevin Danso, Radu Dragusin, Joao Palhinha and Randal Kolo Muani. Brentford exploited that weakness in the air on the opening day of the season.
Spurs' defensive rebuild was completed early in the summer, bringing leadership and Premier League experience into the squad, while Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes have arrived to strengthen midfield despite yet to find their best form. Questions remain over Toni Kinsky as first-choice goalkeeper, and the departures of Cody Gakpo and Iliman Ndiaye have left further uncertainty over firepower up front.
What comes next
Marmoush was in prolific form for 18 months at Eintracht Frankfurt, and Savio impressed during a good season at Girona before dazzling on his Spurs debut against Charlton Athletic's reserves in the Carabao Cup. He then missed the defeat to Newcastle United after club physios detected muscle fatigue, a familiar concern for players returning from spells without regular competitive football.
Kulusevski is unlikely to return in the sublime form he showed under Postecoglou two years ago, and Maddison has gone even longer without starting a match. Kudus has not started since January. Mudryk, who has not been injured but has been out of action longer than any of them, faces the added task of reaching a level that eluded him even before his ban.
With no European competition to prepare for this season, De Zerbi has more time on the training pitch to work on shape and find his best attacking formula without overloading players short of match fitness.
