Tottenham Kept Bergvall and Then Rationed His Minutes

Lucas Bergvall came on in the 59th minute at the City Ground on September 5, still a Tottenham Hotspur player after the transfer window had closed. Nottingham Forest had spent the summer trying to buy the 20-year-old as the man to replace Elliot Anderson. Newcastle United had gone to £46 million. Spurs said no.

Roberto De Zerbi had already told reporters the Swede was staying, 100 per cent. The league minutes since that speech have been a half at Brentford, a blank against Newcastle, and a late arrival in a 3-0 defeat at the club that wanted him most.

He Walked Out at the City Ground in a Spurs Shirt

Forest won 3-0 with two goals from Callum Hudson-Odoi and one from Ibrahim Sangaré. Tottenham’s match centre shows Bergvall came on in the 59th minute for Rodrigo Bentancur and was booked in the 70th for a foul on Hudson-Odoi. He was a visiting midfielder in the stadium Forest had hoped would be home.

That is the strange end of a summer in which he told the club he wanted a new challenge, then watched two Premier League bids die, then heard his head coach claim the matter was settled. English clubs cannot move again until January. He is still on the books until June 2031.

HOW DE ZERBI HAS USED HIM IN 2026-27

• August 22, Brentford: Started in central midfield and was withdrawn at half-time of a 3-0 defeat, logged at 45 minutes.
• August 26, Charlton: Played the full 90 in a 5-1 EFL Cup win, his cleanest night in a Tottenham shirt this season.
• August 29, Newcastle: Unused, with Bentancur and Sandro Tonali at the base and Mateus Fernandes at No. 10, in a 0-2 home loss.
• September 5, Forest: On at 59 minutes, yellow at 70, on the pitch for the third Forest goal in a 0-3 defeat.

A cup 90 against Championship opposition and two thin league cameos is the record since De Zerbi said the stay was certain. January talk returned because that pattern does not look like a reclaimed first-choice, and Forest can read a teamsheet as well as anyone.

Why Tottenham Held Bergvall Past a £46m Bid

Tottenham rejected Forest’s opening offer of £38 million in mid-July, then knocked back Newcastle at £46 million the next day, a bid that topped Forest’s approach. People close to the talks said Spurs would listen around £60 million with a heavy sell-on, which would have been a large profit on the £8.5 million paid to Djurgården in 2024. Forest were ready to break their record and still walked away from that number.

THE SUMMER BIDS TOTTENHAM TURNED DOWN

Forest had just taken £116 million from Manchester City for Anderson and had ranked Bergvall above Tijjani Reijnders and Everton’s Harrison Armstrong on their replacement list. Miltiadis Marinakis, son of owner Evangelos, watched him start for Sweden against France. Djed Spence, Brennan Johnson, and Anthony Elanga, all with Forest in their past, had given the player a good read on the City Ground. None of that moved the fee.

Newcastle’s interest had a simple hole to fill. Spurs had just taken Tonali off them, Eddie Howe backed a move, and Barcelona’s old file on the Swede was still in the background. Howe then left, Aladji Bamba arrived from Monaco, and Nico González followed from City for Matthias Jaissle. The Bergvall bid died with the rest of that summer.

Three Managers and an Ankle Cost Him a Year

Andreas Bergvall, his father, once described the original Tottenham deal as a two-year project inside a five-year contract. The project ran ahead of schedule under Ange Postecoglou. Fans voted the teenager player of the season in 2024-25, even though an ankle problem kept him out of the Europa League final win over Manchester United. He signed the new six-year deal in April 2025. Then the club changed coaches, and the minutes changed with them.

THE YEAR THAT BROKE THE TWO-YEAR PROJECT

1. September 2025: Scores his only Premier League goal in a 3-0 win at West Ham, then drifts in and out as Thomas Frank tries him in different midfield roles, including wide on the left.
2. January 2026: Damages an ankle in the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund, has surgery, and misses 10 matches, covering the end of Frank’s short reign.
3. February to March 2026: Makes two substitute appearances under Igor Tudor, whose entire Tottenham stay lasted seven matches and 43 days.
4. April 12, 2026: Starts De Zerbi’s first league game at Sunderland in a 4-2-3-1, comes off after Nordi Mukiele scores, and does not start any of the remaining six league matches.
5. May 2026: Unused against Chelsea and Everton with survival on the line, as De Zerbi leans on João Palhinha, Bentancur, and even Yves Bissouma.
6. June 2026: Tells the club he wants a new challenge while at the World Cup with Sweden.

FBref records 965 Premier League minutes last season across 23 games and 11 starts, with one goal and three assists. All competitions: 33 games, 17 starts, 1,461 minutes. The season before, he had been a central piece of a trophy side. People around the dressing room said the irritation at the end was not only the bench. He was being trained out of position, and he felt the work was being ignored even when he accepted he would not start every match.

Sweden used him in all four World Cup games under Graham Potter. He came off the bench against Tunisia (one assist in a 5-1 win), the Netherlands, and Japan, then got his first World Cup start against France in the last 32. Potter took him off in the 66th minute at 2-0 in France’s 3-0 win in New York. Four games, 181 minutes, one start. A World Cup that complicated his exit did not raise his price enough for Spurs to cash in, and it did not scare Forest off.

De Zerbi Would Like Him, With No Promises

On Tottenham’s pre-season trip to Australia and New Zealand, De Zerbi first said he had not spoken to Bergvall and that anyone who was not proud to stay should leave. After the 20-year-old started in a penalty win over Sydney FC, the head coach shifted, still without offering the one thing the player had asked for.

I would like that he stays with us. I think he’s potentially a top, top, top player. But then I don’t want to convince anyone to stay. Tottenham is already, without me, a top club and we are not to convince anyone to stay.

Roberto De Zerbi, Tottenham head coach, after Sydney FC

He added that Bergvall wants space in a double pivot, and that he cannot give any player a guaranteed place in the first XI. “He has to improve. He’s a 2006. I would like that he stays. But if he doesn’t want, then what can I do? Nothing.” The sporting conversation, he said, ran through chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange.

The personal conversation then improved. De Zerbi later said that after 10 days of pre-season, Bergvall and his agent went to Lange to say he was happy to stay. Before Brentford, the head coach went further: “Lucas Bergvall, 100 per cent. We spoke a lot in pre-season. He’s a top player, a top potential player. I like he stays, but I think now he wants to stay and we have no problem.”

He started him at Brentford anyway, then pulled him at half-time of a 3-0 loss, and later said he had known the kid might suffer in that kind of game more than Bentancur. “He already knows he didn’t play a great game.” The public line treated it as education. The teamsheets that followed treated it as a verdict.

The Midfield Tottenham Bought for £185 Million

West Ham received £85 million for Mateus Fernandes. Newcastle received £100 million for Tonali. Together that is £185 million spent on two midfielders after Bergvall had already asked to leave. Tottenham finished 17th in May and have no European midweek this season, so those two signings do not spread across Thursday nights. They sit in the same Saturday XI he wants.

WHO IS AHEAD OF HIM IN THE QUEUE

• Sandro Tonali: Club-record arrival from Newcastle, already paired with Bentancur at the base against the Magpies.
• Mateus Fernandes: £85 million from West Ham, used as the No. 10 in that same Newcastle league game.
• Rodrigo Bentancur: Kept his place when De Zerbi needed control, and Bergvall replaced him only once Forest were already 2-0 up.
• Archie Gray and Conor Gallagher: Still in the fight, with James Maddison also listed among the bodies chasing the same minutes.

De Zerbi has said he wants a squad of 21 or 22 high-level players, not 24, and that injuries over two or three seasons are why depth matters. That is a coherent squad-building idea. It is also the sentence that turns a 20-year-old on a 2031 contract into a rotation piece with no extra competitions to eat the minutes. FBref has him on 80 Tottenham appearances and 43 starts across three seasons, plus seven Champions League games last term, five of them starts. The inexperience argument is thinner than the selection pattern.

Pre-season had offered a different picture. Fernandes was managing a calf problem, Bentancur took a longer break after Uruguay’s World Cup, and Bergvall looked like a partner for Tonali. That run is why De Zerbi could say, in good faith, that the player wanted to stay. League football has not repeated the friendlies.

Brighton Paid £46 Million for the Other Teenager

The closest parallel is Luka Vuskovic. Tottenham signed Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton for £52 million, a defender who had already played under De Zerbi, and the 19-year-old Croatian centre back saw the path close. He had just spent a season on loan at Hamburg, wanted first-team football rather than another loan, and left for Brighton at an initial £46 million, with add-ons that can take the deal to £50 million and a 20 per cent sell-on retained by Spurs.

Vuskovic, Pape Matar Sarr, and Kevin Danso all wanted out and were allowed to go. Guglielmo Vicario, Spence, and Cristian Romero also left, for Juventus, Inter, and Atlético Madrid. Tottenham raised more than £130 million in sales and still would not sanction a Bergvall departure below their number. They changed their habit of sitting on unhappy senior players, then made one young exception, and the exception is now fighting Tonali and Fernandes for oxygen.

Van Hecke’s arrival was the concrete signal to Vuskovic. Tonali and Fernandes are the same signal in midfield, only louder, and without a Championship loan as a polite off-ramp. The club that talks about the future of the team spent the summer buying the present.

Forest Already Have a January File

Oliver Glasner’s staff did not replace Anderson with a like-for-like star. Xaver Schlager arrived on a free from RB Leipzig, and James McAtee is being rebuilt as a central midfielder after a summer strength programme, which made another midfield signing less urgent at the end of the window. That is a pause, not a closed file. Forest can come back in January if the league minutes stay scarce, and Chelsea’s older interest has never fully gone away.

De Zerbi, before the Forest trip, said he wanted to play Bergvall and to put the focus on him. He then brought him on with the game already slipping. The contract still runs to June 2031. The fee Spurs want has not come down in public. The player who asked to leave is still there, and the club that asked to buy him now waits for the next window with a clear view of how often he actually plays.