Mateus Fernandes Scores ‘Favourite Goal’ of His Career on Tottenham Debut

Mateus Fernandes needed three minutes to introduce himself to Tottenham’s supporters. A high ball dropped from a corner, the £85m midfielder kept his eyes on it all the way down, and he smashed a first time volley from the edge of the box into the roof of the net.

“It was my favourite goal of my career. By a mile,” Fernandes said after the strike settled a 1-0 win over MK Dons in Tottenham’s opening pre-season friendly, played behind closed doors at the club’s Hotspur Way training ground rather than the main stadium.

The goal gave Roberto De Zerbi’s rebuilt squad a winning start to the summer programme, and it did more than settle nerves for a player still getting used to life in north London. It offered the first glimpse of what a £185m midfield partnership, assembled in a single window, is capable of producing once the competitive games begin in August.

MK Dons, newly promoted to League One, offered a modest opening test for a Tottenham side that spent more on this single transfer window than any other club in world football. But for Fernandes personally, the occasion meant plenty after a breakout campaign in east London.

Fernandes made 36 Premier League appearances for West Ham last season, scoring three goals and adding four assists, and he finished the campaign joint fifth in the entire division for tackles with 103. He also picked up West Ham’s Goal of the Season award for a long range effort against Sunderland, the kind of strike that hinted at exactly what he produced on his first Tottenham outing.

International recognition has followed his club form. Fernandes earned his first senior Portugal cap in March, coming on as a late substitute in a 2-0 win over the United States.

A £185m midfield built in one window

Fernandes arrived from West Ham for £85m this summer, and he lined up alongside fellow new signing Sandro Tonali in a double pivot against MK Dons, with the Italy international a club-record £100m arrival. Between them, the two midfielders represent the single biggest outlay in one position across the entire Tottenham squad rebuild.

Fernandes’ willingness to play forward passes stood out even in a 45-minute cameo, a pointed response to a Tottenham midfield that lacked creativity last season. Not every pass came off, but the intent was clear from the opening whistle. Tonali, for his part, supplied the positional discipline, including a cynical foul to stop an MK Dons counter-attack that showed he already understands what is expected of him defensively.

When both players were withdrawn at half-time as part of a set of wholesale changes, Tottenham lost their grip on the game, a small sign of how much control the pairing offered while they were on the pitch.

Tonali’s own move carried a different kind of story. The Italy international left Newcastle for £100m, a fee structured as £92.5m upfront plus a further £7.5m in performance related add-ons, after a three year spell on Tyneside that included a ten month worldwide ban for breaching betting rules. He returned from that suspension to help Newcastle end a 70 year wait for a major trophy by lifting the Carabao Cup in 2025, and he left St James’ Park as a cult hero before completing his move south.

Dubravka steps in as Vicario’s future is questioned

Fernandes and Tonali were not the only new arrivals on show. Goalkeeper Martin Dubravka came on at half-time and produced a string of strong saves, including a late close range stop to deny an MK Dons header deep into the second half. The 37-year-old joined on a free transfer and looks a shrewd addition as understudy to new first-choice goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, who started the match and looked composed with the ball at his feet.

Kinsky’s rise and Dubravka’s arrival have put Guglielmo Vicario’s Tottenham future in real doubt. The Italy international, a target for both Juventus and Napoli, was left out of the squad entirely for the MK Dons game. His compatriot Destiny Udogie, ordinarily first-choice at left-back, also missed out, though he was present to watch from the sidelines.

A crisis, not a plan, opened the door for Kinsky to become Tottenham’s first-choice goalkeeper. He joined from Slavia Prague in January for £12.5m plus add-ons, signing a contract to 2031, after Fraser Forster fell ill on the eve of a game and backup Brandon Austin was thrust into a starting role that no one wanted him to fill. Eighteen months on, Kinsky is the one keeping Vicario out of the side altogether.

World Cup returnees and one player who wants out

A host of senior players were missing entirely from the squad that beat MK Dons, which gave De Zerbi’s fringe players and academy prospects a chance to catch the eye. Summer signings Andy Robertson and Jan Paul van Hecke, both only recently back from World Cup duty, watched on rather than played, as did Micky van de Ven, Lucas Bergvall and James Maddison.

Bergvall’s situation is one to watch through the rest of pre-season. Interest from both Nottingham Forest and Newcastle has been noted, with the Sweden midfielder understood to want to leave Tottenham this summer.

Mohammed Kudus, Dejan Kulusevski, Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert were absent for a different reason, with all four still working their way back from injury.

Youth given its chance at Hotspur Way

With so many senior names unavailable, De Zerbi turned to Tottenham’s academy for the second half, and the response was encouraging. Mikey Moore, fresh from a loan spell at Rangers last season, caught the eye from the left and will use pre-season to push for a regular place in the first-team plans.

Midfielder Rio Kyerematen played the full 90 minutes, filling in at left-back in the first half and right-back in the second, a versatile display from a 21-year-old yet to make his first-team competitive debut. It was 17-year-old Luca Williams-Barnett who shone brightest, deployed in a deeper midfield role and playing with a level of confidence that belied his age. His pinpoint pass over the top for Min-Hyeok Yang produced a clear chance that went begging, but the pass itself was proof of what Williams-Barnett can offer.

Williams-Barnett has made just one senior appearance for Tottenham, but his performance against MK Dons suggested he could force his way into De Zerbi’s plans before the season is out. He, Moore and Kyerematen will get further chances to impress when Tottenham travel to Australia and New Zealand later in pre-season, with each of the trio needing a strong summer to convince a head coach who has already shown he is prepared to spend heavily on ready-made alternatives in their positions.

A summer of heavy spending and academy exits

Tottenham have spent more money than any other club in world football this summer, a direct response to consecutive 17th-placed Premier League finishes. Fernandes and Tonali join Van Hecke, Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Dubravka in a combined outlay running to more than €267 million across the window, a scale of investment that reflects how far De Zerbi and the club’s hierarchy believe the squad needed rebuilding.

That spending has come alongside a wave of academy departures. Will Lankshear, Tynan Thompson and Alfie Devine all left the club this summer in a combined £34m of sales, funds that will have gone some way toward financing the new arrivals. Against that backdrop, seeing homegrown talents such as Williams-Barnett, Moore and Kyerematen catch the eye against MK Dons carried extra significance for a club that still wants to produce first-team players from within.

The scale of that spending only makes sense against how desperate last season became. De Zerbi was Tottenham’s third head coach of the campaign, appointed after Igor Tudor lasted just seven games and 44 days in interim charge, with the club sitting 17th in the Premier League and only a single point above the relegation zone with seven matches left to play. Sporting director Johan Lange called De Zerbi “one of the most creative and forward-thinking coaches in world football” on his arrival, and the summer rebuild has been the clearest evidence yet of how far the club is prepared to go to make sure that situation is never repeated.

What comes next

Tottenham’s pre-season continues with a trip to face Auckland FC, before matches against Sydney FC and Chelsea in Australia, and further friendlies against Getafe and Hoffenheim in August as De Zerbi builds toward the Premier League opener. Robertson, van Hecke, van de Ven and Bergvall are all expected to feature as their World Cup recovery time runs down, while the futures of Vicario and Bergvall look set to dominate the remaining weeks of the window.

Auckland, Sydney and a friendly against Premier League rivals Chelsea will all offer fresh evidence of how the new-look squad is knitting together before the serious business begins. For now, though, the story from Hotspur Way belongs to an £85m midfielder who needed three minutes to show why Tottenham paid so much to bring him in.