All summer Tottenham Hotspur have wanted to sign a midfielder ready to slot straight into their first XI.
The idea was to recruit an energetic new No 8, someone to play alongside James Maddison in the middle of the pitch. Pape Matar Sarr enjoyed a hugely impressive breakthrough season last year but he is still only 21 years old and slightly faded towards the end of 2023-24. With Spurs facing a Europa League campaign this year on top of their domestic commitments — they will play a minimum of eight games, starting in September — Sarr will need some experienced support.
At the end of last season, it felt to many as if what Spurs actually needed was a new No 6, someone to anchor the midfield, defend against the counter-attack, and provide the stability without the ball that Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur cannot. What Tottenham needed, the argument went, was a Rodri. (Such an easy thing to say, but a harder one to deliver in reality. Players like Rodri do not exactly grow on trees.)
So Spurs have been looking for some more dynamism and legs in midfield, someone to help them to press effectively and to get into the opposition box and score goals. It makes sense: one of the issues in the second half of last season was that Spurs’ energy in midfield seemed to decline. They became too easy to play against. They became vulnerable on defensive transitions, too easily caught out after losing the ball high up the pitch. (How else to explain the fact that Spurs conceded 61 Premier League goals, as many as Fulham, more than Crystal Palace or Manchester United, when their goalkeeper and back four all enjoyed excellent seasons as individuals?). This was again evident early in the second half of Wednesday’s friendly win over Team K League, when in the space of a few minutes Spurs twice conceded a goal having lost the ball high up the pitch.
But with less than three weeks until Spurs start their season at Leicester City, there is still no sign of the experienced energetic midfielder that Tottenham were looking for. They have loaned Timo Werner again to continue deputising for Son Heung-min on the left wing, and signed three exceptionally gifted 18-year-olds: Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and Yang Min-hyuk. But perhaps not precisely the profile of midfielder to come straight into the team.
The two biggest names that have been linked with Spurs this summer will be familiar to anyone who followed previous Tottenham transfer windows. Both of them English, both young but with a good few seasons of Premier League experience behind them, and, crucially, both of them at clubs who have been under pressure to sell players to comply with Premier League PSR rules: Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey and Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher.
Spurs had a serious think about making a move for Ramsey during the January window, well aware of the fact that Aston Villa would need to sell players during the 2023-24 season to comply with PSR. If Tottenham had offered £50m in January, that might well have been enough but no deal was ever reached. Newcastle made an offer, which was rejected. At the end of the window, Emery said that Ramsey was a “very important player” who he wanted to keep at Villa Park.
Ramsey had a difficult season at Villa, managing only eight Premier League starts as he struggled with recurring metatarsal injuries as well as a hamstring problem in the second half of the season. It meant that he had to watch from the sidelines as Villa secured a fourth-place finish and Champions League football, as well as a run to the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League.
But Ramsey is still a special talent, a player whose game is all about bursting forward with the ball and clever interplay in the final third. The below graphic, of Ramsey’s forward carries of more than 20 yards over the 2022-23 season, illustrates that. (That season, 12.5 per cent of his carries were progressive, well above the average of 4.7 per cent for midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues.) Ramsey played on or from the left for Aston Villa, and would have to adjust to a slightly different role at Tottenham. But that energy would be invaluable for a team that faded over the second half of last season.
When this summer’s window opened, Tottenham were keen to revive a move for Ramsey. It was clear at the start of the summer that Aston Villa would need to sell players before the June 30 deadline if they were to bring their losses within the PSR limits. Again, if Spurs had offered £50m then it would have been very difficult for Villa to say no.
Spurs also had Giovani Lo Celso, a player Villa manager Unai Emery adores. Lo Celso played for Emery at Paris Saint Germain for two seasons (2016-17 and 2017-18) and then again on loan at Villarreal for most of 2022. Throwing Lo Celso into the deal, in theory, could give Villa a player Emery wants, get the Argentina international off Spurs’ books for the last year of his contract, and reduce the fee Tottenham would have to pay for Ramsey.
There was a period in late June when the move was on the cards. But at the very end of that month, Villa sold Omari Kellyman to Chelsea for £19m and Douglas Luiz to Juventus for £42m. Suddenly Villa had breathing space and the dynamic had changed. The fact that Villa sold Moussa Diaby to Al Ittihad for £50m last week further reduces the pressure. Ramsey is currently focusing on preparing for next season with Villa.
The other relevant target is Conor Gallagher. Like Ramsey, he is English and is proven in the league, with two loan seasons and two at Chelsea under his belt. Like Ramsey, Gallagher’s career has been in limbo for the last year or so because of PSR. Chelsea have spent huge amounts of money on players under their new ownership group and academy graduates like Gallagher represent ‘pure profit’ on the accounts. (In recent years Chelsea have sold Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ethan Ampadu, Lewis Hall, Ian Maatsen, and so on.)
Chelsea have been minded to sell Gallagher for some time, especially with his contract due to expire in the summer of 2025. Spurs are well aware of this and Postecoglou has always been especially keen on bringing Gallagher’s energy to White Hart Lane. Tottenham asked after Gallagher last summer but did not make a formal offer.
While the expectation was that Chelsea would be forced to sell Gallagher last season, the reality was that he out-shone his expensive team-mates Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, becoming one of the most important and consistent players in Mauricio Pochettino’s team. Pochettino repeatedly insisted that Gallagher was “priceless” and so he stayed throughout the season. Gallagher eventually earned a place in the England team at Euro 2024, starting their third group game against Slovenia.
Gallagher is a different profile from Ramsey, a more conventional central midfielder rather than someone who carries the ball forward from wider positions.
What stands out most is his ability to win the ball back high up the pitch. This was why he was so important to Pochettino’s high-pressing style, and why Gareth Southgate repeatedly turned to him during the Euros. We can see from the below graphic that Gallagher makes his defensive actions all over the pitch, a testament to his high-energy style.
The stylistic fit with ‘Angeball’ is obvious, especially for a team that lost some of its intensity without the ball last season. The only player who made more tackles and interceptions in the final third than Gallagher did last season was another Spurs player: Dejan Kulusevski.
With Pochettino now gone at Chelsea, and no new contract for Gallagher, the logic of the situation still suggests he will be sold this summer. The situation felt set up for Tottenham to take advantage, but this week Atletico Madrid have made a move to sign Gallagher. If Spurs want to bring him to N17, they might have to move fast.
When Postecoglou was asked about signings at a press conference on tour last week, he called for patience.
“We’re working hard to bring players in, and it’s a process that you sometimes have to be patient with,” he said. “But in terms of what we set out to do, that’s still the plan and you have to stay disciplined with that. Sometimes the timings don’t work out and it doesn’t happen as quickly as you want and you don’t get the [players] in at the right time. But I think it’s really important you stay disciplined and not run off and chase other things. What we started with at the start of summer are still there.”
Tottenham still have almost all of August left to sign another midfielder. The door is not closed yet on either Gallagher or Ramsey. There will be other names under internal consideration too. But the closer they get to Leicester on 19 August, the more fans will wonder if Tottenham will be reinforcing their midfield after all.
(Top photos: Getty Images)