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Tottenham Hotspur surprised a lot of people on Monday afternoon by signing Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid, ending on and off again transfer speculation that has existed for at least a year between the former Chelsea player and the North London giants.

The Gallagher transfer pretty much comes in direct response to the injury to veteran center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, whose ailment in the loss to Bournemouth ended up being considerably more severe than expected. Many fans assumed Benta would only miss a couple of games with a hamstring issue, but, as it turns out, he tore the hamstring and may require surgery in what is a multi month injury.

So enter Gallagher, who was mostly a backup for Atletico Madrid, becoming the latest player to make a failed transfer from the Premier League to the Spanish capital. Gallagher has never been a star player, and whlie he is a decent footballer, the fee of 40 million euros for the 25 year old is also quite steep and a good bit more than Aston Villa were planning on paying Atletico for him before Spurs came barging in like the Kool Aid man.

Tottenham are doing the most, and it's not good

To make matters even worse than that for Tottenham Hotspur, though, not only are the club paying Atletico Madrid a boat load of money for Conor Gallagher, but they are also giving him a pretty bloated contract.

According to a report from talkSPORT transfer insiders Ben Jacobs and Alex Crook, Gallagher has agreed to sign a 5.5 year deal with Tottenham and will soon travel for his medical to make this long term deal with Spurs offiical.

Tottenham are basically going to have Gallagher under contract through the age of 30, which is pretty wild and a slap in the face to Lucas Bergvall. See, Thomas Frank and Tottenham have not been playing their best No. 8 and their midfield star of the future in his preferred position, and when they needed a No. 6 even more after Bentancur went down, they simply went ahead and signed a No. 8 who will just eat into Bergvall's (and Pape Matar Sarr's) minutes.

It is especially puzzling for Tottenham to commit so many years to Gallagher, whom Atletico Madrid, like Chelsea before them, were pretty blatantly desperate to sell. This all feels like another giant misstep by Spurs born out of desperation, and Bergvall is going to be the one holding the back at the end of it. Maybe he, too, like Micky van de Ven will begin to dream of Real Madrid and old suitors Barcelona as an escape.

Tottenham Hotspur have been running down the list of possible winger targets in the January transfer window. They started dreaming of a big move for Bournemouth star Antoine Semenyo, but he did not give them a second thought and only had eyes for Manchester City, where he has already won Man of the Match honors in his first FA Cup outing under Pep Guardiola.

Then, Tottenham turned their attention to other Manchester City wingers who could be expendable after the Semenyo transfer. But Savinho got injured and Omar Marmoush is still not interested in giving up on his career at the Emptyhad, while Oscar Bobb is now the only option Spurs could potentially finagle from the Citizens.

So that then makes the No. 1 winger transfer target on that left hand side for Spurs Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig. Tottenham went to the Leipzig well this past summer, bagging their biggest star in Xavi Simons, who is starting to pay dividends for Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham would have to pay a lot for Yan Diomande

Diomande, though, will be tough to sign. Manchester United and Bayern Munich have more transfer cachet, and they are both prioritizing the 19 year old Leipzig gem as a possible winger transfer in 2026. Leipzig, for their part, are throwing around figures of 100 million euros for Diomande and making it pretty clear that they want to avoid selling until the summer.

But maybe, just maybe, RB Leipzig will now be open to a Yan Diomande sale this winter. According to a report from Sky Sports Germany journalists Florian Plettenberg and Philipp Hinze, Leipzig are actually closing in on a deal for a young 19 year old winger from Slovak side AS Trencin, Sani Suleiman.

If that name sounds familiar to Tottenham fans, then that is because - alongside Bundesliga giants Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen, as well as La Liga side Sevilla - Spurs were among the clubs interested in the underrated Nigerian standout. He fit unde the Johan Lange special of young, unknown wingers with high upside.

It looks like Suleiman was worth targeting, because Leipzig tend to not miss when they go for these hidden gems around Europe. But Suleiman is probably more at the level of a selling club like Leipzig than a club like Tottenham that wants to get back to competing for the Premier League title.

But someone like Diomande is ripe for a club with Spurs ambitions, and if Leipzig are signing Suleiman on the wings, that could, in theory, open up the chance for Diomande to go. Now, Diomande is better and more ready than Suleiman, so if the Suleiman transfer for six to seven million euros is sealed by Leipzig, it does not guarantee Diomande will go. But it does increase the likelihood of Leipzig being willing to listen to a hefty offer from Spurs - or someone else.

When Tottenham Hotspur learned that center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur would have to miss a whopping three months - and maybe even more - with a torn hamstring he suffered in a recent 3-2 Premier League defeat to AFC Bournemouth, they did not waste much time in signing another experienced midfielder to take his place.

But instead of landing a deep lying playmaker who can upgrade on Bentancur - as the Uruguayan international had not been doing the job particularly well this season despite a contract extension - Spurs went in the opposite direction with more of a box to box bulldog in Atletico Madrid center mid Conor Gallagher.

The No. 8 was sold by Chelsea a couple of years ago and brought to Atletico Madrid, where he has not exactly hit it off, which is why the Rojiblancos sold him. Aston Villa looked like they were about to land Gallagher, but Tottenham got serious about acquiring the English midfielder following Benta's bad injury.

Tottenham's big need has not changed

But what Spurs need to do now is go back and sign that deep lying midfielder they were already supposed to even before Bentancur got injured. See, Tottenham were in the market for a new midfielder this summer in the No. 6 role, they passed up on it, and then they were once again in the market for one this January.

So with a need in midfield existing prior to the Bentancur injury, Tottenham actually needed to sign two new midifelders. Gallagher is a veteran option checked off the list, and now Tottenham need to go out there and sign that second midfielder.

Tottenham brought in Joao Palhinha and Xavi Simons this past summer from the Bundesliga, and both have helped. Palhinha has his negatives on the ball, but he has been a great defensive destroyer and the jury is still out on his future at the club with an option to buy with Bayern Munich. Meanwhile, Simons has been getting better and better in that 10 role, shining against Aston Villa in the FA Cup despite a 2-1 defeat.

But Spurs still have not landed that deep lying playmaker to steady the ship and give young Archie Gray a load off his shoulders. Gray, by the way, has wisely started to take more starts away from Bentancur, even long before the Uruguayan's unfortunate injury.

The Gallagher move is something Spurs fans have to wait and see before fully judging, but even before that time comes, Tottenham do need to land another fish in the middle of the park.

Young winger Mikey Moore burst onto the scene in the 2024/25 campaign for Tottenham Hotspur, shining in Europa League outings and making a name for himself as the next potential star forward for Spurs at a time when the club were beginning to think about a future without Son Heung-min.

Well, that future is now, and as Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert fight for minutes out on the left with Spurs perusing the transfer market for possible options, Moore is starting double digit games for Rangers in the Scottish Premier League while out on loan - and even scoring crucial goals in the Old Firm Derby against Celtic.

Moore is someone Tottenham are thinking about as a potential starter on the left wing and someone they could bring back from his loan next season. At 18, Moore has a long way to go in his development, but with three goals and an assist this season with 1.1 dribbles completed per game, Moore is putting up some decent numbers over at Rangers.

Mikey Moore is not ready at all

The thing is, though, those are only decent numbers. Moore may be young, but he is also playing in a pretty easy league, and while it is easy for goals like the one against Celtic to stand out, there are other games in which Moore has not been as present or consistent for Rangers.

Now, Moore's stats are dragged down by the fact that he was coached by the incompetent Russell Martin to start the 2025/26 campaign, and now that Rangers are more suitably managed, things are going better for him. But just ask any Tottenham Hotspur fan and they will tell you that a truly great player has to be able to perform no matter who the manager is. Because let's just say, Spurs current coach isn't exactly one of the best in the Premier League.

Moore is doing the right things at Rangers, he is way too young for anyone to write off, and he is someone worth considering as a future part of the Spurs lineup. But the thing is, it is also too early going the other direction. It is far too early to anoint Moore as the next Son or even the next starting left winger at Tottenham.

His numbers at Rangers show promise but also paint the picture of a player who still has a long ways to go. We are talking about someone who, if he were to be at Tottenham right now, he would be nowhere near the starting lineup and would not even be a serious player in the rotation next to Odobert and Tel.

Tottenham Hotspur have been underperforming badly this season under Thomas Frank and are still buried in the bottom half of the Premier League, but, unlike last year, there is no hope of a prestigious trophy turning the tide of the narrative of a dismal season.

The one bright thing about Spurs is that they have a roster filled with great young talents, and while some of those talents - like Micky van de Ven and Mathys Tel - are now at risk of leaving, there is an exceptional nucleus of young stars worth building around. And they added a couple of more gems this past summer transfer window in Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons.

Going forward, Spurs need to pick up a few more and make sure they do not lose any of their current crop. Already, Tottenham are expecting to bring in Souza from the Brazilian Serie A, as the gem left back from Santos is ready to step in and compete with Destiny Udogie, supplanting Djed Spence, who was an awful ersatz for the Italian international as a completely unnatural left back.

Tottenham brought in Souza for a reason

But as Tottenham get ready to embrace Souza as Udogie's backup, Spurs also have to start thinking about the incumbent starter. Because one of the biggest reasons for bringing in Souza to compete at left back and eventually develop is that a harsh reality is beginning to settle in with Udogie.

Although Udogie is talented and one of European football's better left backs when healthy, he is indeed not currently healthy. And, in fact, since joining Fabio Paratici and Antonio Conte in the Premier League after flashing potential at Udinese, Udogie has been pretty rarely healthy for Spurs.

This season, Udogie has started just six Premier League games with four additioanl appearances off the bench. A total of six starts for a sure fire starter at this point in the season in mid January is quite a low return and really underscores how unreliable all the injuries have made him.

Still only 23 years of age, Udogie is a man with all the talent and potential in the world to be a world class left back, but Spurs have to wonder if he will ever realize it or if he will every be healthy enough to be someone Spurs can rely on. That makes the Souza signing more importnat than maybe some fans realize, because Spurs themselves have learned that they can no longer 100 percent count on Udogie to fulfill his destiny.

Coming into the January transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur were already desperate for a new winger who could start on the left side and fill the shoes of Son Heung-min with goal scoring and more experience than the talented young duo of Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert.

All Spurs have done on the wings so far in the winter window, though, is make a new loan move and a sale. They switched Manor Solomon's loan from Villarreal to Fiorentina, which was smart - doubly so, because with Spurs executive Fabio Paratici moving to Florence, the chances of selling Solomon off permanently increased.

The bigger move, of course, was the permanent departure of right winger Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace. While that was a wise move, now that star man Mohammed Kudus has suffered a multi month injury with Dejan Kulusevski already out on the right wing for several months with no time table for a return, Spurs have a bigger need for a right winger than a left winger.

Tottenham have no RWs left now

That is because they have no right wingers left, whereas they at least have Tel and Odobert on the left. In fact, Spurs, in their most recent matchup against Aston Villa in the FA Cup, actually had to shift Odobert over to the right, where he did a passable job while Tel quietly shined again.

Tottenham have been running out of winger options anyway, too. Antoine Semenyo was Plan A, but he rejected Spurs to join Manchester City. Spurs then thought Man City would be more willing to sell Savinho after the Semenyo acquisition, but now Savinho is off the table because he is also injured for multiple months.

Plan C was Omar Marmoush, but he has no interest in leaving Manchester City himself. So now Spurs are down to Plan D over in Manchester, and that is 22 year old winger Oscar Bobb, who, like Savinho, is actually more of a right winger than a left winger.

Unlike the others, Manchester City are pretty open about wanting to sell Bobb this winter, but there is a better option on that right wing for Tottenham Hotspur to sign than Bobb. And it all goes back to an old transfer target of Spurs - someone they were already watching closely in the summer 2025 transfer window who they have been watching throughout the season.

Young Monaco right winger Maghnes Akliouche still remains without a transfer and has been quiet on the market, but he was shining against Tottenham brightly in the Champions League this season. Akliouche is a more dynamic and productive player than Bobb, as the Ligue 1 star has three goals and two assists for the Monegasque club this season compared to zero Premier League goals and one assist for Bobb in 2025/26.

Akliouche is only a year older at 23 and is more dynamic. With Kulu's long term value unclear after such a severe injury, Akliouche could be both a Johnson and Kulu replacement, as well as a short term Kudus replacement who can then be a dream backup to the Ghanaian star.

Tottenham Hotspur recently learned that the injury to veteran center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was more serious than they initially expected, as the Uruguayan international went down with a hamstring injury several days ago in a 3-2 loss with Bournemouth that was, at first, written off as a day to day injury that could cause him to miss a few games.

Spurs then learned that Bentancur will likely require surgery for a torn hamstring and could miss more than three months, including the upcoming World Cup. So Tottenham were immediately out on the trail for a player they already needed to sign this January even before Benta's injury, and that was a progressive deep lying playmaker with more courage to his passing and more creativity than the, quite frankly, subpar Bentancur.

Instead of signing that profile of player to help the passing game and stability in the midfield, Tottenham went ahead and signed want away bulldog Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid, fulfilling years worth of transfer rumors that, at some point, started to feel made up.

Tottenham misprofile midfielders at the ready

But it looks like Spurs really wanted Gallagher after all, even paying an extra bit of money to steal him away from the noses of Aston Villa. Tottenham are signing a player who lacks creativity to such an extent that Chelsea fans practically revolted against Mauricio Pochettino for playing him every week and were begging Todd Boehly to sell him and start Enzo Fernandez every week - and Chelsea ended up being five times better after making that change.

The Gallagher transfer following the Bentancur injury almost proves that Spurs have no clue what they are doing. They already miscast Bentancur as a midfield general when he is too cowardly to truly lead a team from the front foot and out of pressure, and he has actually been a huge reason for Thomas Frank's issues as manager, mercifully getting benched for the younger Archie Gray.

But instead of replacing Bentancur with a real No. 6 who can set the tempo of a passing game like the dream transfer targets fans want, including Adam Wharton from Crystal Palace, Spurs signed a different ex Palace player who is nothing like the profile they want.

Gallagher is not a bad player, per se, but he is not a playmaker, he is not creative, and he is not going to stabilize Spurs in possession. He is basically a worse version of Lucas Bergvall who is years older and a lot more expensive. And oh yeah, neither Chelsea nor Atletico Madrid thought he was good enough for them, which also means Spurs are badly overrating - and overpaying - Gallagher.

There is no question that Tottenham Hotspur have been doing Mathys Tel wrong this season. Whenever the young forward gets an opportunity to start or even get meaningful minutes off the bench, he tends to deliver, including scoring important goals against clubs like Manchester United, Leeds United, and most recently Bournemouth.

Everyone who watches Tel at Tottenham can tell that the former Bayern Munich man has that something special about him that a lot of the other forwards on the team lack. There is not a single attacking player who has the upside Tel does, and that includes Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons when you keep in mind both the athleticism and drive to score that Tel has.

So Tottenham fans can empathize with Tel when he requests a transfer out of the N17, especially since Tel is not looking to push himself out of Spurs permanently. No, what Tel wants is a loan opportunity for six months so that he does not stagnate his own development, because he knows as well as anyone with common sense that, at his age, he needs be playing first and foremost.

Mathys Tel has no shot at this

But there is another layer to the story here. Mathys Tel reportedly wants a loan transfer out of Tottenham in part because he believes he needs the playing time to prove that he can play at the World Cup in 2026 for France.

What Tottenham Hotspur need to do is convince Tel however they can to stay. A permanent transfer is obviously off the table and should never be entertained, but a loan move really is not in Spurs best interest. As his move from Bayern to Tottenham can attest, you just never know what can happen with a player once they are loaned, even if you do not add an option to buy clause.

Realistically, on that stacked France team, Tel is not going to convince an ultra conservative Didier Deschamps to play him at the World Cup anyway. It just is not in the realm of realistic possibilities, even if you have to applaud Tel for trying to dream of that happening. Obviously, he could be more likely to make that happen outside of working with Thomas Frank.

But what Spurs have to do is sell Tel on the merits of staying and present a real, honest plan to actually help his development and make use of him, especially when he is already a better player than the likes of Richarlison and has more to offer the club than loan signing Randal Kolo Muani. They also need to sober him up and tell him that he is not playing for France this year, no way, no how. But if he stays with the Spurs project, they can make him the next French pillar like Kylian Mbappe.

Tottenham Hotspur have often been accused of being reactive rather than proactive in the transfer market and signing players who will not materially help the squad compete for titles in the long term, and although they somewhat bucked that trend last summer with new additions like Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons, it did not take long for Spurs to revert back to old habits.

Already entering the January transfer market, Spurs knew they would need to sign a deep lying midfielder to help progress the ball and make plays. They needed to sign an upgrade on the overrated Rodrigo Bentancur so that the young Archie Gray would not be saddled with a role too big for him, too early.

Well, if Spurs were already needing this kind of a player, their need for one increased ten fold with Rodrigo Bentancur down injured for a minimum of three months. But instead of signing the profile to replace Bentancur, Spurs went out and bagged a box to box midfielder in Conor Gallagher.

The Conor Gallagher rumors were real

For months and months, Gallagher had actually been linked to Tottenham, and the rumors were so persistent yet never amounted to anything material for so long that Spurs supporters simply began to assume that they were fake to begin with.

Now, though, they are real, as Gallagher is headed to Tottenham Hotspur for 40 million euros. The craziest part of the deal is that it was initially debated as to whether or not Spurs were actually interested in Gallagher. Then, with Bentancur injured, Spurs suddenly made a big push to sign him when, again, everyone thought he was headed to top four side Aston Villa as midfield depth instead.

The story is, per Fabrizio Romano, that Aston Villa had actually agreed to a deal with Conor Gallagher that was worth about 10 million euros less than what Spurs will be paying Atletico Madrid for the player. Everyone thought Atleti only wanted around 25 million pounds on a loan deal with a future obligation to buy, but in order to beat Villa to the punch, Spurs are throwing way more money at Atleti to make it happen.

Gallagher is not worth that kind of money. Tottenham aim to compete with clubs like Chelsea and Atletico at the Champions League level - and these are the last two clubs Gallagher played for. But Gallagher was not good enough for either of them, which is why Chelsea shipped him out to Spain and why Atleti never played him before transfer listing him for about a year now.

The team Gallagher was good enough for? Crystal Palace, a mid table club in the Premier League. Unfortunately, that appears to be Spurs level, and they have paid an extra circa 10 million euros to Atleti to basically seal that as fact.

It did not take long for Tottenham Hotspur to react to the severe injury to center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur. The Uruguayan international went down with a hamstring ailment in a 3-2 loss to Bournemouth that initially did not seem like much to worry about. After all, Bentancur is no longer a must start for Spurs, and the injury itself seemed like nothing more than a couple of games on the sidelines.

Instead, Bentancur is out for a minimum of three months and will require surgery for a torn hamstring, even putting his World Cup at risk. So Spurs went out and made an immediate signing, ending the years long meme of a transfer pursuit of Conor Gallagher, which had been so repetitive and so fruitless for so many months that everyone just assumed the links were one giant fake.

But with Aston Villa closing in on a deal for the former Chelsea man, Tottenham swooped in at the last second and signed the box to box midfielder. Although Gallagher is not the profile that matches Bentancur, nor is he necessarily the shrewdest signing from a cost and fit perspective, he is a warm body with legitimate Premier League experience - and he was once pretty dang good over at Crystal Palace for a minute.

Tottenham need a new coach

Gallagher, at the end of the day, does not move the meter as much as another potential signing that could become a thing in the coming weeks. Because Gallagher's big move from Atletico Madrid to North London was overshadowed by another, more major move in the Spanish capital. Real Madrid, after losing El Clasico and after dealing with months of inane controversies, fired Xabi Alonso.

While Alonso did not work out for Real Madrid, few managers making their first move to one of the biggest clubs in Europe do succeed there. It takes managers with years of experience or who have been directly groomed by the club to make it over there, such as Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti.

But just because Alonso failed at Madrid does not make him a failure of a coach. Just two years ago, Alonso won the Bundesliga for Bayer Leverkusen's first ever triumph, forging an undefeated season to dethrone Bayern Munich's record breaking run. And that is why Real Madrid brought him in to replace the coaching GOAT, Don Carlo.

Tottenham, meanwhile, are saddled with Thomas Frank in the manager's chair. And Frank just keeps getting worse and worse as the points continue to drop in the Premier League. Spurs need a new manager more than they need any player in any position, and with Alonso available, the most obvious move is to go out and get him to replace a man who may arguably be the worst manager in the English top flight this season.