Manor Solomon walked out at Hotspur Way on Tuesday in a Tottenham shirt for the first time in longer than anyone at the club seemed to expect, starting on the right wing as Spurs opened their pre-season programme against MK Dons.
Tottenham won 1-0, the game settled by a stunning long-range volley from summer signing Mateus Fernandes. Solomon played the first half before head coach Roberto De Zerbi, who used 21 players across the 90 minutes to run the rule over his squad, took him off along with the rest of the starting group.
The selection itself is the story. Sport5 described it as a surprising inclusion, and Israeli fans reacted with astonishment on social media — several posting question-mark emojis at seeing Solomon's name in the XI at all.
That reaction has context. English reports out of London in recent weeks said De Zerbi had told Solomon directly that he was not part of his plans for the new season and was free to look for a move elsewhere, with Fiorentina — where the winger spent the second half of last season on loan — keen on signing him permanently but reluctant to trigger the reported £8.5 million option-to-buy clause in full.
Solomon addressed the uncertainty himself in comments carried by Israel's Sport1 in recent weeks. "I also know he really appreciates me," he said of De Zerbi, "but the situation at Tottenham is different." The two worked together before either arrived in west London, when De Zerbi coached Solomon at Shakhtar Donetsk.
It has been a difficult stretch in north London for the 26-year-old since his move from Shakhtar. A run of serious injuries repeatedly derailed his chances of becoming a regular contributor, and Tottenham instead sent him out on loan — first for an impressive season-long spell at Leeds United, then, over 2025-26, to Villarreal and Fiorentina.
It was at Fiorentina where Solomon did his most meaningful work, scoring twice in 16 appearances as the Italian club fought off relegation and retained its Serie A status. That form is understood to be behind the club's continued interest in a permanent deal.
De Zerbi's own situation at Tottenham has been extraordinary. He was appointed on 31 March 2026 as the club's third head coach of a chaotic campaign, replacing Igor Tudor, and inherited a squad fighting an unfamiliar battle against relegation.
He pulled it off by the finest of margins. Tottenham secured their Premier League status on the final day of the season with a 1-0 win over Everton, a result that sent local rivals West Ham down to the Championship instead.
Against that backdrop, a coach still shaping his squad for a fresh campaign starting Solomon in a pre-season friendly is being read in Israel as more than a routine rotation — a possible signal that De Zerbi wants a longer look at a player he already knows well, even as his Tottenham future remains unresolved.
