The big thing that could help Tottenham when they play PSG in the UEFA Super Cup

Tottenham have the chance to win a second European trophy in a matter of months when they take on PSG in the UEFA Super Cup, and it’s fair to say some Spurs fans might be slightly worried after seeing the Champions League final.

PSG demolished Inter in Saturday night’s final in Munich with Desire Doue the star man in a 5-0 victory that brought 23 shots from the expensively-assembled French side and the bulk of the possession as they ran the show at the Allianz Arena. Luis Enrique’s side will provide a huge challenge to Spurs on August 13 at Udinese’s Stadio Friuli in the UEFA Super Cup.

Tottenham, who earned their place in that final with their 15-game run to win the Europa League against Manchester United in Bilbao, will be a better team by then, with injured players back and fit as well as new signings hopefully in place and bedded in as the club must build a squad capable of handling the Champions League next season as well as the domestic campaign.

However, Spurs fans are understandably concerned about facing an all-conquering, attacking PSG side that have blown away Europe’s best this campaign and have looked unstoppable with their gallery of star names and talents.

There is one other thing to take into account though ahead of the UEFA Super Cup that might play some small part on the night in Udine.

It’s that PSG’s long 2024/25 season is not about to finish any time soon for any of their players thanks to a ridiculous fixture schedule that consumes this summer.

First up there is international duty for their countries in the next fortnight with World Cup qualifiers for some before the controversial Club World Cup begins in the USA, a competition that will see 32 teams from across the world compete to be named the best side on the planet.

FIFA have ensured it is a lucrative competition for clubs to use their best players at with £775million in prize money split across the 32 teams and the winner taking home just under £100million.

PSG are in Group B alongside Atletico Madrid, Botafogo and Seattle Sounders and will start their fixtures by taking on Atletico on June 15. It is a month-long competition with the round of 16 taking place in late June and early July, the quarter-finals and semi-finals squeezed into the following week, then the semi-finals on July 8 and 9 before a final that takes place at the MetLife Stadium in New York on July 13.

But why does all of that have anything to do with Tottenham? The answer lies within the break afterwards, for all players must by FIFA regulations get a minimum of three weeks off as holiday to rest after any competition.

So if PSG were to reach the final, then their players would need to finally be handed their summer break which should last until at least Sunday August 3. After such a long season with a potential 66 matches to be played – Spurs have had 60 – Luis Enrique could even give some of those over-used players a longer period off.

Either way, at the least those PSG players would only be returning to pre-season training just over a week before the UEFA Super Cup match against Tottenham. By that point Tottenham will have already been back in training for more than a month and have played friendlies against Arsenal, Newcastle and Bayern Munich with another game or two expected to be added to the schedule.

Spurs will be as sharp as they possibly can for the Premier League season begins just a couple of days after the match against PSG, although the French side are going to have an issue because the Ligue 1 campaign kicks off that same weekend. That’s because the woeful timing of the new-look Club World Cup means it arrives in the summer before the World Cup in 2026 and that in turn will ensure that a number of star players will be playing almost non-stop for three seasons that merge into one.

So exactly what kind of PSG side turns up on August 13 at the Stadio Friuli remains to be seen and exactly what physical condition they will arrive in. Enrique will have to be very careful with the game time for many of them during the match. Tottenham must improve their squad this summer but either way the north London side should be the sharper team going into the contest as they look to add another European trophy to the freshly-dusted cabinet.