Tottenham’s plans for a new home have taken a twist as the club confirmed it has appointed the architects responsible for the Olympic Stadium to come up with new designs - increasing the likelihood that the current plans for a 56,000 arena may be ditched.

Officials including Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy have worked with London-based architects KSS to produce the current designs for a new stadium, with the first set of images released in 2008.

However Standard Sport understands that Levy now wants to explore alternative designs and has turned to Populous, the company behind the Olympic Stadium, the new Wembley and the Emirates stadium, the home of rivals Arsenal - for fresh ideas.

The revelation will disappoint fans eager to see the club move into a new, larger stadium. Further delays now seem likely and club officials have yet to indicate when work will begin on the stadium, although work is close to completion on a supermarket on the development site.

Tottenham season ticket holder and contributor to The Fighting Cock podcast Ricky Feegrade said: "It's frustrating. The fans were on board with the current designs as they took into account that fans want to be close to the action and the acoustics of the stadium.

"Bringing in Populous does not fill me with much hope - stadiums like Wembley, the Emirates and the Olympic Stadium are not known for having a buzzing atmosphere and are very corporate and soulless."

He added: "It is imperative that work starts on this new stadium soon as we need more tickets available and have to compete financially with clubs like Arsenal who are making more matchday revenue than us."

The move is also a blow for KSS, who designed the club’s state-of-the-art training facility that opened last summer.



Chairman David Keirle confirmed: “The club have appointed Populous and are looking at other stadium options. We are still working with the club on other projects, but the club wants to take another look at things”.

A club spokesman said: “We have approached Populous with regards to an internal fit out of the stadium. This will have no impact on timings. It is normal practice for architect firms to review and to take separate briefs."