The New York Times

Tottenham Hotspur have appointed Johnny Heitinga as assistant first-team coach.

The 42-year-old previously held the position at West Ham United and Liverpool, prior to his appointment as Ajax head coach last summer.

Spurs head coach Thomas Frank said: “John is a great addition to our coaching staff. His ability, personality and character will add huge value both on and off the pitch.

“As a former defender, that will be one of his main responsibilities on the training pitch, and he brings great coaching and management experiences from all levels of the game, which will really help us moving forward.”

Heitinga was sacked at Ajax on November 6 with interim coach Fred Grim overseeing six victories and four defeats across 11 matches since, including the side’s 6-0 Dutch Cup loss at AZ on Wednesday, in which former Spurs striker Troy Parrott scored a hat-trick.

Heitinga only returned to the Dutch side at the start of the 2025-26 campaign, leaving his role as assistant coach under Arne Slot at Liverpool, signing a two-year deal.

The former defender won just five of his 15 games at the helm of the Amsterdam-based club, leaving them fourth in the Eredivisie and bottom of the 36-team Champions League league phase.

Heitinga previously stepped up from his role as Jong Ajax — Ajax’s second team which plays in the Dutch second tier — boss and spent six months as interim head coach of the first team in the second half of the 2022-23 season. He then spent time as an assistant to David Moyes and West Ham, before joining Liverpool in July 2024.

As a player, Heitinga came through the ranks at Ajax before playing for Atletico Madrid, Everton, Fulham and Hertha Berlin. The former defender ended his career back at Ajax in 2015-2016.

Spurs are 14th in the Premier League and return to action on Saturday at home to West Ham.

What will Heitinga bring to Spurs?

Analysis by Tottenham correspondent Elias Burke

With assistant Matt Wells departing in December to take the head coach role at the Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer, Heitinga appears to be his replacement on Frank’s first-team staff.

Wells was a highly respected training ground coach at Spurs, and had significant responsibility, particularly under Ange Postecoglou, in delivering sessions. Frank has a greater presence in training than his predecessor, but Heitinga will join first-team assistants Justin Cochrane, Andreas Georgson and Chris Haslam in helping the head coach on the training pitch and in the dugout on matchday.

Heitinga was a significant part of Liverpool’s title-winning season last year, serving as a first-team coach within Arne Slot’s staff. He helped with improving Ryan Gravenberch, who developed into one of the league’s standout midfielders under his guidance. He helped mould the Dutchman into a No 6, simplifying the role and providing clear instructions to carry out.

At Spurs, he will have the opportunity to work with young, high-potential midfielders like Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and Pape Matar Sarr, where he will hope to have a similar influence. He also worked with Liverpool’s forwards and cites several top-level coaches, including Johan Cruyff, Louis van Gaal and Pep Guardiola among his inspirations.

With Frank’s attack still yet to click, Heitinga’s experience working with and improving Liverpool’s forward line could prove an important addition to the Dane’s staff at a crucial time.

Tottenham Hotspur have announced the appointment of City Football Group’s (CFG) Carlos Raphael Moersen to the newly-created role of director of football operations.

The Athletic first reported in December that Moersen was in advanced talks to join the club.

Moersen is currently on gardening leave from CFG and is due to join Spurs ahead of the summer transfer window. He is not considered a replacement for the outgoing Fabio Paratici, who will join Fiorentina on February 4, but will work closely with Spurs’ remaining sporting director, Johan Lange.

Known as ‘Rafi’, Moersen – who has spent over a decade at CFG, most recently as its director of football transactions – will report to Lange, apart from on women’s football where he will report to Spurs’ chief executive Vinai Venkatesham.

“Rafi will lead our football administration, player care, and training ground operations, and join the club’s executive leadership team,” read a Spurs statement. “A key part of his role will be overseeing women’s football, where we will continue to drive a renewed focus and ambition for Tottenham Hotspur Women.”

Next month, Dan Lewindon is also due to join Spurs from CFG as performance director – with responsibility for medical, sports science, nutrition and psychology across the men’s and women’s team and the academy.

As well as Paratici, Rebecca Caplehorn will leave her role as Tottenham’s head of administration and football governance at the end of the January transfer window.

It has been a period of profound change in the hierarchy at Spurs. Venkatesham was appointed as CEO in April and Thomas Frank replaced Ange Postecoglou as head coach in the summer. The same month, long-serving Executive Director Donna-Maria Cullen stepped down from her position on the board. In June, chief football officer Scott Munn was placed on gardening leave before departing.

Most significantly, in September, Daniel Levy was removed as Spurs executive chairman after 24 years at the helm of the club, leaving the Lewis family in charge.

Tottenham Hotspur are exploring a permanent exit for striker Alejo Veliz and are in talks with Brazilian club Bahia over a deal.

Sources briefed on the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, indicated a fee was yet to be agreed for Veliz but discussions were ongoing.

The 22-year-old is currently on loan at Rosario Club — the Argentine club where he began his career before joining Spurs in 2023 — until June 2026, with any deal to Bahia seeing that loan move cut short.

Veliz scored five goals across 16 appearances at Rosario, whom he joined in July, with all eight of his appearances for parent club Spurs coming in the 2023-24 campaign.

Bahia are 90 per cent owned by City Football Group, whose flagship club are Manchester City, and finished seventh in Brazil’s Serie A last term. They will compete in the qualification stages for this year’s Copa Libertadores.

Veliz scored four goals in 16 appearances on loan at Espanyol in Spain’s La Liga last term, having failed to score in six appearances during a stint with Sevilla the previous campaign. His one Premier League goal for Spurs came in a 4-2 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in December 2023.

Tottenham Hotspur host West Ham United on Saturday and before kick-off, apparently, all attending are to be offered counselling.

Some say it is no time for jokes.

Here are two clubs with huge histories and a modern malaise; two clubs with unhappy fans, owner issues, governance questions, unpopular managers, recruitment failings; two clubs who appear to have lost their ‘Way’. Often declared irrelevant, it is that sense of identity and self-perception formed in the 20th century that somehow resonates well into the 21st century. It can be heard primarily in the complaints about the style of football, as well as in all the above.

Here are two clubs who have won European trophies recently — West Ham in the Conference League in 2023, Tottenham in last season’s Europa League. Yet the style of West Ham’s then manager, David Moyes, was considered negative and a mutual separation followed one year after that final, while Spurs’ Ange Postecoglou was unconvincing enough inside the club and their stadium to be dismissed a fortnight after the 1-0 victory against Manchester United that brought Tottenham’s first silverware since 2008.

That latter final, played in the Spanish city of Bilbao, was so poor it was labelled ‘El Cr*pico’.

On Saturday, we have what might be termed ‘El Disconnectico’.

Although there have been underwhelming and acrimonious times before at both clubs, this looks and sounds like the winter of their disconnect.

At Hotspur Way, Tottenham’s spectacular training ground, they are contemplating a season with a new head coach in Thomas Frank, a rejigged hierarchy and a Champions League campaign. Already, it is one laden with drama, individually and organizationally; paradoxically, the chant aimed at Frank on New Year’s Day, as Spurs drew 0-0 at his previous employers Brentford, was “Boring, boring Tottenham”.

On Saturday evening, they exited the FA Cup at home against an Aston Villa side playing the incisive push-and-run football Spurs were once famous for. It was 2-0 to the visitors at half-time, and Frank was being taunted by Villa fans about his future. Some of their Tottenham counterparts joined in. Had the second half deteriorated, Frank’s job might have been in jeopardy. Greater urgency, a goal from Wilson Odobert and some tenacity from Joao Palhinha appeased the home supporters, and Frank stays on in north London. The crowd’s desire to get behind a spirited team was clear.

Around 24 hours later, a few miles down the road in east London, more home voices joined in a chant by visiting fans, this time the 9,000 from Queens Park Rangers. West Ham had been taken to extra time in the FA Cup by a team with the 14th-best away form among the 24 sides in the second-tier Championship.

“You sold your soul for this s**thole,” QPR supporters sang. It might have spread further through the London Stadium stands had West Ham’s new striker Taty Castellanos not immediately headed in what proved to be the winner.

“Feels really nice,” said Nuno Espirito Santo, who was appointed West Ham head coach just over 100 days ago. “Happy, happy, happy. It’s going to change our week.”

It was a different tone from his programme notes, which included the line: “For several weeks now, things have been happening that are difficult to explain.”

West Ham had lost at home five days before to Nottingham Forest, a little unluckily, but they have the second-worst home record in the Premier League — seven points from a possible 33. With nine from 30, Spurs have the fourth-worst home record.

And now they meet.

Nuno, of course, had those four months as Tottenham coach in 2021. He connects both clubs, albeit in a manner which neither celebrate.

Protests also connect: supporter group Change For Tottenham will gather outside the Corner Pin pub adjacent to the stadium on Saturday to express frustration and anger at how the club are being run and, in the ongoing winter transfer window, to maintain pressure that “promises are kept” about investment into the team.

West Ham fans raised red cards in the direction of their owners during the 1-0 home defeat against Fulham on December 27 and then stayed away in their tens of thousands for the Forest match, even though it was a crucial relegation fixture. There are plans for Sunderland’s visit on January 24. Listen to the fanbases of both clubs and what you hear is that matchdays have become a chore.

This angst is not specific to January 2026 (nor does it belong solely to Spurs and West Ham). Provocations from earlier this season, and previous ones, are not hard to find. Tottenham have been in one of the three European competitions in 18 of the last 20 seasons — achievement; but have won only one trophy during that time (that Europa League final eight months ago) — under-achievement. Understandably, fans paying exorbitant ticket prices ask about that.

At West Ham, 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of them leaving Upton Park for the London Stadium, a decision that still feels to so many like a cutting of the cord.

And hovering in the background is a lingering sense of something larger. If there is no cabinet gleaming with silverware, no locality, how else do a club define themselves? In 2026, what are Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United all about?

Another connection between the two: Spurs and West Ham were the first two English clubs to win European trophies. Spurs lifted the now-scrapped European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963 and West Ham repeated the feat in 1965.

This was the era when the clubs’ modern reputations were established and both centred on, in today’s football language, methodology. Spurs had push-and-run and ‘Glory’. Across the capital, they had the ‘West Ham Way’ and the ‘Academy’. Consciously, sub-consciously, these ideas seeped under the skin.

It worked.

In 1960-61, Tottenham became the first English team in the 20th century to ‘do the double’ — win the league title and FA Cup in the same season. They won the FA Cup again a year later and in 1967, then back-to-back in 1981 and 1982. They lifted the League Cup in 1971 and 1973, the UEFA Cup (today’s Europa League) in 1972 and 1984.

Across 25 years, the equivalent of this century, Tottenham won 11 major trophies.

But they were not simply winners.

Spurs were stylish performers and had an ethos shaped by their double-winning captain, Danny Blanchflower. His most famous quotation is: “The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory.”

Hence, ‘Glory, glory, Tottenham Hotspur.’

Some observers dismiss references to this as empty nostalgia, meaningless today. Actually, in football, it is tradition and heritage. There is a difference — nostalgia is sentimental reimagining; tradition is historic reality.

Spurs do tradition well — their stadium tour is loaded with history and black-and-white photographs line the corridors. At Saturday night’s tie with Villa, half an hour before a match where the team wore retro kit saluting Spurs’ 1901 FA Cup winners, they beamed ‘Together to Glory’ in neon lights onto the front of their stadium.

Few West Ham fans think their club does tradition well.

They view the move from Upton Park to the repurposed main arena for the 2012 Olympics as a rupture, not a relocation. Apartment buildings now sit where Upton Park was for 112 years. Some are named after former West Ham players, such as Noel Cantwell and Jimmy Ruffell — though the latter’s surname is misspelt as Ruffle. A plaque in between those two blocks marks the location of the pitch’s centre circle, beneath which is buried a ‘time capsule’ dedicated to legendary captain Bobby Moore. It’s called a ‘memorial garden’; it’s a small circle of grass.

There is also an ‘Academy House’. West Ham were the first club in England to have ‘Academy’ attached as a description — official and unofficial — to their work and framework. This was towards the end of the 1950s, when West Ham reached two Youth Cup finals and had future manager John Lyall in one of those teams and England World Cup 1966 winners Moore and Geoff Hurst in the other.

Moore and Hurst were central to the team who won the FA Cup in 1964 and that Cup Winners’ Cup against 1860 Munich a year later. Thinker-coach Ron Greenwood was so thorough he sent his entire squad to watch 1860’s semi-final against Torino in person.

In 1966, West Ham reached the League Cup final. During that decade, there were three top-10 finishes in the old First Division (what is now the Premier League) and six in the top 12. Under Lyall, they won the FA Cup again in 1975 and 1980. In 1986, they finished third in the league.

West Ham got to another Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1976, losing to Anderlecht. Even in defeat, some diehards consider this one of the club’s great performances.

Eight of West Ham’s starting XI were born in east London or surrounding areas. The club reflected a sense of place. They did not win every week, of course not, and as with Spurs, there was a relegation in the 1970s. But by the middle of that decade, the club possessed a reputation, a ‘West Ham Way’, qualities of grit and guile personified by Billy Bonds and Trevor Brooking.

“He (Greenwood) believed that football was a game of beauty and intelligence,” Brooking wrote in his autobiography.

Brooking described West Ham as “a real community club. We had our own patch of east London and for many locals, the club was the focal point of their lives”.

But the patch of east London has vanished — there has been one domestic cup final this century (the 2006 FA Cup) and that Conference League win. Other suffering fanbases might think their run of 14 consecutive seasons in the Premier League is nothing to gripe about, but Tim Crane, author of several West Ham books, explains today’s anxiety in historical context.

“In a nutshell, it means ‘entertaining football’,” Crane says, when defining the ‘West Ham Way’. “It’s overlapping wingers, pretty triangles, football on the ground, not in the sky, creative, entertaining football. It’s scoring goals, and if that means leaking goals, so be it. If you had to put it in one word, it would be ‘entertaining’.

“If you look at the history of West Ham – OK, we’ve won a few trophies – but we’ve always entertained. That’s the bit missing these days, and that’s why there’s a hankering for what some people call the West Ham Way. If you look at the team in recent years, and probably for the entirety of this century, we’ve had far too many midfielders and defenders with zero goals, zero assists, zero shots. That is in total opposition to the West Ham Way.”

“At Upton Park, we watched all manner of rubbish — we did — but we knew we were looking at a pitch where Bobby Moore played, where Hurst, Bonds, Brooking played, a ground where families grew together. We threw away something very significant — threw it away.

“And we have replaced it with something that doesn’t produce those feelings.”

When Crane is asked if, almost 10 years on, the stadium change still matters, he replies with a philosophical answer: “Well, what is football?

“It’s entertainment, it’s a social outlet, it’s going somewhere you feel comfortable, it’s a place where you create memories, a place with soul. And none of these words can be applied to the London Stadium. Fifty years from now, maybe it will be different. But at the moment, the atmosphere is toxic, and there’s a big disconnect between the old fanbase and much of the new; the players and the people who run the club.

“So, I’d say it does matter. If you want something meaningful, it’s very difficult to get excited about the modern West Ham.”

Comparing West Ham’s anguish to Tottenham’s difficulties, Crane adds: “We’ve both won European trophies in recent years, but it’s interesting that both those managers got sacked and both sets of fans continue to complain.

“It’s because we don’t fit this modern world, we haven’t quite found our footing — unlike a Brighton or Brentford. They have got one thing right that both Tottenham and ourselves haven’t: recruitment.”

In the cold air round the back of the Corner Pin before the Spurs-Villa cup tie, Adam Nathan and Adam Manson reach for similar phrases when discussing Tottenham’s despondency. Despite the apparent erasure of the Tottenham Way and West Ham Way, and frequent mockery, Nathan says: “I do find it odd that you would criticise West Ham and Spurs for having a way of playing.”

Nathan is 38 and is too young to have seen Glenn Hoddle in action, never mind Blanchflower. He contributes to a Spurs podcast called An Echo of Glory. Like Crane, his club-specific grumbles soon morph into broader state-of-the-game concerns.

“It’s football,” he says. “We’ve been here for more than 100 years. It’s about the community, fans, culture… everything. In a sport that’s becoming so franchised, isn’t it great that fans and clubs have a set way of being what they are?

“There is a way I expect Tottenham to play. Perhaps it’s ingrained in me via osmosis from parents and grandparents. Football needs to be careful not to force these ‘Ways’ out of the game, because you will end up with a soulless sport.

“It’s been focused as much about individuals as the team — Jurgen Klinsmann, David Ginola, Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov, Gareth Bale, Harry Kane, Son Heung-min. That’s the lineage, that’s what the Tottenham Way means to me — exceptional individuals. The reason Spurs are depressing now is there’s no one I’d be desperate to come to see.”

Yet Nathan and Manson downplay the notion of Spurs fans as ideological purists and both note how there was a point when every supporter got behind the football of head coaches Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte when they were in charge in recent years. Nathan says “pragmatism is the antithesis” of Tottenham, yet both gladly accepted the club’s Europa League triumph, despite the dreadful final.

That was, they say, about winning at last. Manson admits he wept in Bilbao.

“When I started to support in the mid-1990s,” he says, “it was that — the Spurs Way, the glamour, the stadium, the white kit, Klinsmann, Ginola. Remember, Spurs won a trophy (League Cup) in 1999 under George Graham. But it was not exciting.

“Spurs are about wide players — same as Manchester United. We had a couple of weeks in the 2003-04 season when we lost 4-3 at home to Manchester City in the FA Cup, beat Portsmouth 4-3 on Jermain Defoe’s debut and drew 4-4 at home to Leicester. That was… Spurs! It’s one of my favourite eras — we lost so many games, but it was good to watch. It’s the kind of front-foot, attacking football Frank said he wanted to bring, but so far hasn’t.”

In between those Portsmouth and Leicester games, there was also a 4-2 win at Charlton Athletic — 28 goals in four Spurs matches.

There is some sympathy for Frank — Tottenham’s vast injury toll is debilitating and he has no Defoe, the future England striker who joined them from West Ham in 2004. But there is no sympathy for the club’s present-day recruitment. Spurs have the Premier League’s sixth-highest wage bill, and given the correlation between wages and season finishes, sixth is seen by some as a ceiling. Of the traditional ‘Big Six’ clubs, plus Aston Villa and Newcastle United, they have had the lowest total playing wage increase in the past five years.

“Some people in football are too focused on their floor rather than their ceiling,” Nathan says. “We are one of the richest clubs in the world, so there’s no excuse to be bad for too long.”

Manson takes that and expands on it: “The futility of the whole endeavour is killing Spurs and West Ham. The hope you can break the monopoly of these big clubs. Manchester City have spent £500million on transfers in the last 12 months, and that doesn’t include wages. Arsenal have spent over a billion pounds under Mikel Arteta (in his six years as manager).”

And so they are disconnected. And so Spurs fans will demonstrate.

Saturday’s match is 14th versus 18th in the 20-team Premier League. Two clubs groping for meaning, playing percentage football. And as Nathan says, the losers will be ‘meme-ified’, an impatience helping nobody.

“The modern game is: ‘You cannot lose a match’,” Crane says. “In 1976, we lost 4-2 to Anderlecht (in the Cup Winners’ Cup final) and we have reunions, we celebrate it — because of the style, because we reached the final. We were playing scintillating, attacking football. The players (in that team) went to local schools (as children). It was like watching your brother.

“There’s that song by James — ‘If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor’. We’ve seen football played the correct way.”

Manson agrees: “The whole sport has changed. Winning matters too much, and the assembling of teams and coaches is based on data, percentages. Every team wastes time now, takes long throws. The West Ham Way? The Tottenham Way? Where?”

And glory?

“This club isn’t built to win trophies,” Manson says of Spurs’ wage bill. “And if you don’t have trophies or the Tottenham Way, then what do you have? The club pretend the Tottenham Way matters. They use it as a punchline.”

Some will disagree, others will agree.

In London’s N17 and E20 postal districts, they may not want to hear jokes about losing your way.

Tottenham Hotspur have completed the signing of midfielder Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid.

The Athletic reported on Monday that Tottenham had agreed a €40million (£34.7m; $46.6m) deal with Atletico for Gallagher. Aston Villa held a strong interest in the midfielder but no agreements were reached amid Villa’s desire to maintain financial discipline.

Tottenham announced his arrival on Wednesday on a “long-term” deal.

“I’m so happy and excited to be here, taking the next step in my career at an amazing club,” Gallagher said in a press release.

“I wanted to be a Spurs player and thankfully the club felt the same. It was very easy, it happened very quickly and I’m ready to get on the pitch.”

Spurs had been interested in Gallagher across multiple windows and he was a target for former head coach Ange Postecoglou. The club asked about Gallagher in the summer of 2023 but did not make a formal offer and their interest carried over to the following year, when he eventually joined Atletico in a £38m deal.

He adds to Thomas Frank’s options in midfield, with Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall currently out with injuries and Pape Matar Sarr away representing Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations.

“Conor is a top midfielder, who we have worked tirelessly to add to our squad,” Frank added. “He is still young, so has plenty of room for improvement, but also has huge experience across the Premier League, La Liga and with the England national team.

“Conor has captained teams so will bring leadership, maturity, character and personality to our dressing room, while his running power, pressing ability and eye for goal will strengthen us in a key area of the pitch.”

Gallagher is a graduate of Chelsea’s academy and had loan spells at Charlton Athletic, Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace before breaking into the first team in the 2022-23 season, making 45 appearances in all competitions that campaign.

Chelsea rejected a £40m bid from West Ham United in 2023, with Gallagher going on to captain the side regularly in 2023-24 due to Reece James and Ben Chilwell being sidelined by injuries.

In 2024, Gallagher turned down three offers of a two-year contract extension with a club option to extend for a third and was eventually sold to Atletico, with Chelsea wanting to avoid losing the England international on a free transfer the following year.

He made 77 appearances in total for Atletico, scoring seven goals, but only made four La Liga starts this season.

Tottenham are next in action in the Premier League against West Ham on Saturday.

Why Spurs targeted Gallagher

Analysis from Jack Pitt-Brooke

Tottenham have been interested in Conor Gallagher for years, ever since he was coming towards the end of his Chelsea contract and Ange Postecoglou saw him as the perfect man to add energy into their midfield. But Spurs could never do the deal, despite interest that spanned multiple windows, to Postecoglou’s frustration.

But Spurs have never really needed Gallagher as much as they do now. Their midfield has ground to a halt in recent years, suffering from under-investment and injuries to key players. Too many of the signings have not been ready, or quite good enough. Too much pressure has been placed on Rodrigo Bentancur, who is not as good as he was, and is now out for the next three months with a hamstring injury.

Tottenham desperately need someone who can set the tempo and drive forward in the middle of the pitch. A more experienced partner for Archie Gray, a more progressive alternative to Joao Palhinha.

Pape Matar Sarr will be back from the Africa Nations Cup soon but he cannot do it all himself. Gallagher would bring many of the football qualities Spurs need right now but also some of the mental qualities and experience, having proved himself at Chelsea and Atletico Madrid in recent years. It would be a statement of intent at a time when Tottenham need one.

There has been real pressure on Tottenham Hotspur this transfer window to prove that things are moving in the right direction.

This season has felt like a new era for Spurs in more ways than one, with the departure of chairman Daniel Levy in September, the creation of various structures within the club and appointments to various roles. Tottenham are in the early stages of a profound rebuilding job, one that may take years to bear any fruit. All that their fans see is what happens on the pitch, where Spurs have been in largely miserable form since the campaign began in August — going nowhere, providing very little for fans to believe in so far.

Every single transfer window feels like the most important or the most pressured one in Tottenham’s recent history. But there has never been a moment where the north Londoners’ need to demonstrate some visible, tangible progress is as clear and pressing as it is now.

With supporters becoming increasingly vocal about their worries about the direction of their club, the stakes have rarely been higher.

Which is perhaps why the signing of Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid could be so important. Not just because of what Gallagher brings to Tottenham on and off the pitch, but also because of what he represents.

Because the 22-cap England midfielder has been a target for some time now. Go back to the 2023-24 season, which turned out to be Gallagher’s last full one with London rivals Chelsea. He was in the penultimate year of his contract and was on the market, but was also starring — often as captain — for Mauricio Pochettino’s team. It made for an unusual situation, with no new contract ever agreed. And it left other Premier League clubs on alert about the possibility of signing him.

No one in the Premier League was more keen on doing so than Spurs, then managed by Ange Postecoglou. Tottenham had been short in midfield for a long time, even after the £40million ($53.7m at the current rate) signing of James Maddison from Leicester City in the summer of 2023. They had also made enquiries after Gallagher that summer, and maintained their interest through the January 2024 window, without ever making a bid.

Going into the summer 2024 window, some fans were keen on Spurs adding a No 6 to sit in front of the defence. But the idea at the club was to sign a No 8 — someone to ideally play alongside Maddison and drive the team forward through the middle of the pitch. This was a side that needed legs and energy. Tottenham had worked on a deal for Jacob Ramsey of Aston Villa at the start of the window, but couldn’t quite make it work.

Postecoglou wanted Gallagher, but the move was beyond Spurs. He certainly would have been expensive. And Chelsea would not have wanted to sell their home-grown captain to local rivals. In the end, Tottenham never made a formal bid. Gallagher was eventually sold to Atletico for £38million at the end of that summer window.

Without Gallagher, Tottenham went into last season with no new senior central midfielders to call upon. They bought two teenagers instead — Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray — who, for all their talents, left the team short on experienced legs in the middle of the pitch. At the end of last season, just before his dismissal, Postecoglou was talking about the “gap in the development” at Spurs, created when experienced players had left and been replaced with teenagers. He did not mention their failure to sign Gallagher, but he did not need to.

When Thomas Frank arrived from fellow Premier League side Brentford to replace Postecoglou last June, he quickly prioritised the No 6 position, wanting another defensive shield in front of the back four.

With Christian Norgaard going from his Brentford side to Arsenal, that led him to a loan move for Joao Palhinha of Bayern Munich. But even with Palhinha in, Tottenham have still looked desperately short in the middle of the pitch this season. It has not helped that Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski — the club’s two best creative midfielders from last season — have both missed the whole of this one so far with serious knee injuries. Yves Bissouma, another midfield option on paper, has not featured for Frank yet having been dropped for behavioural reasons.

That put huge pressure on Rodrigo Bentancur and Palhinha to do everything in the middle at the start of the season, with Frank increasingly moving to Bentancur and Gray in recent months. Bergvall and Pape Matar Sarr have generally been used further up the pitch.

But midfield was clearly a problem area even before the hamstring injury Bentancur picked up against Bournemouth last week. He had surgery to repair the damage on Tuesday and will be out for the next few months. Suddenly, Spurs were looking at the prospect of going into the hardest period of the season with a midfield built on a single fit and experienced player — Palhinha — who was only with them on loan. So the Tottenham hierarchy were keen to act fast in pursuit of an experienced, mobile option at the position.

Gallagher had been on the club’s radar for a long time, and had not been in the first-choice midfield for Atletico this season.

Villa were interested too, themselves in need of experience and energy in the middle of the pitch. But Johan Lange — one of Spurs’ two sporting directors — moved quickly to complete a deal, with input from soon-to-depart colleague Fabio Paratici. They offered Gallagher a permanent deal, working with the player’s camp and with Atletico for a swift outcome. Frank spoke to the 25-year-old directly too, leaving him very impressed — Gallagher could quickly see himself playing under the Dane.

Tottenham’s ownership backed their executives to get the signing done, and by Tuesday morning, Gallagher was flying back to his hometown to undergo his medical. He has arrived in time to be in contention to face neighbours West Ham United on Saturday in a hugely important Premier League game. His experience and energy, and his capacity to win the ball back high up the pitch are going to be vital. So will his enthusiastic personality in a dressing room that could do with some more positive, vocal characters.

In time, there will be a broader discussion about Tottenham’s midfield strategy, and the need for a creative passer, especially while Maddison and Kulusevski, their best two creators, are injured.

Gallagher is maybe not the solution for that issue, or for Spurs’ inability to date this season to make chances from open play. Those concerns will have to be addressed directly. But in a team so short of reliable energy and drive in the middle of the pitch, and of leadership and positive energy generally, he will surely give them a lift.

The fact that Tottenham have wanted Gallagher for almost three years now, and only just landed him, can be taken as a success of sorts for the club.

Now they need it to work on the pitch.

This is part three of a series on The Athletic taking the tactical temperature at each of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’. How have each side evolved this season, what are they doing well, and what are the issues — if any — that need fixing?

Part one, on Manchester City, is here, part two on Arsenal is here.

Thomas Frank’s appointment at Tottenham Hotspur in the summer was warmly welcomed by many. A tactically versatile manager with a proven track record at Brentford of improving young players, there was hope that the Dane taking over this Spurs squad would be an ideal marriage.

Instead, the season is unravelling.

Tottenham have won just two of their past 12 league games to sit 14th, and are out of both domestic cups. They are 11th in the Champions League with two of the eight league-phase rounds to play and should make the knockout phase’s play-off round at least, if not qualify direct for the round of 16 via a top eight finish, but there is limited belief that they can make a truly deep run in Europe’s elite club competition.

What has Frank changed in comparison to predecessor Ange Postecoglou, who left the club in June days after winning the Europa League final but also with his team having limped home fourth-bottom of the Premier League, and what issues are they facing? The Athletic breaks down Tottenham’s playing style in 2025-26.

Problems in possession

A key feature of Frank’s Brentford teams was their willingness to go long towards their forwards in a bid to move the ball quickly. That has been evident under him at Tottenham too, with 12 per cent of their passes travelling 35 or more yards, the club’s highest share of long balls in the past eight seasons.

The example below from the 2-1 defeat by Liverpool in December is one instance of this build-up pattern working. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario goes long towards midfield, where Archie Gray diverts the ball to Rodrigo Bentancur. Randal Kolo Muani pins Ibrahima Konate, while the positioning of Brennan Johnson and Lucas Bergvall prevents Liverpool’s defenders from pushing up.

Bentancur then finds Kolo Muani, who turns away from Konate and can dribble forward, with Johnson’s run dragging Virgil van Dijk and Milos Kerkez away to clear a path.

This sequence ended with Kolo Muani’s deflected shot striking the crossbar.

Spurs have sometimes used their No 9 to make out-to-in runs to generate the momentum to leap and meet long balls.

In the example below, from the 1-0 defeat of Crystal Palace a week on from that Liverpool match, Richarlison rushes in from the left to meet a Vicario long ball. Bergvall and Kolo Muani are in position to attack the second ball, with Gray and Bentancur placing themselves to help a set rest defence.

Prospective new arrival Conor Gallagher, who was often deployed out wide at previous club Atletico Madrid, should prove a handy addition in this regard — but more on him later.

The concerns for Spurs with this approach have come when shifting between styles, another trademark of Frank’s Brentford teams.

Within games, they have occasionally focused on circulating possession before going long to try to find runs in behind. But in doing so, Tottenham often leave themselves unprepared to win second balls, opening up space for opponents to exploit.

This example from the 0-0 draw at Brentford on New Year’s Day comes after Bentancur and centre-backs Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven exchanging passes for over 20 seconds without getting anywhere.

Bentancur’s tendency to drop between the centre-backs means Joao Palhinha is double-marked, and Brentford’s compact shape removes Pedro Porro and Gray as options. Djed Spence inverting from left-back drags Michael Kayode forward but Keane Lewis-Potter is quick to fill the gap.

Bentancur finally plays a forward pass to Spence, who is pressured by Kayode and passes back. That triggers Jordan Henderson to press Bentancur, and he hurriedly goes long towards Wilson Odobert on the left wing.

When Lewis-Potter intercepts this pass, he has both space to operate and four team-mates up ahead in position to attack at pace.

Spurs have sorely missed a progressive passer in midfield, with James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski yet to play a league minute in 2025-26 because of injuries. Bergvall, Gray and Pape Matar Sarr (currently away at the Africa Cup of Nations) offer quality ball-carrying, but are not incisive passers. Summer signing Xavi Simons’ adaptation to the Premier League has been slow.

Tottenham rank bottom of the league for through balls attempted with just 11 in their 21 games. Among the division’s 160 teams over the past eight seasons, their 0.5 through-ball attempts per 90 minutes would rank 144th.

Frank has attempted to fill the void in different ways, primarily by instructing his central midfielders to make wide support runs to drag opposition defenders out of position. In the reverse fixture against Brentford in early December, a 2-0 home win, Simons’ run from midfield to the right wing drags Sepp van den Berg away from the centre and leads to Richarlison scoring from his cross.

Johnson, who transferred to Palace at the start of this month, got a similar goal in the 2-0 win at Manchester City in August, with Sarr playing Simons’ role to nod the ball on to Richarlison.

When teams shift responsibilities on the fly, like Kayode and Lewis-Potter in the fixture at Brentford, Tottenham struggle to break teams down. The prolonged absence of Dominic Solanke, a striker skilled at dropping deep to link up play, has been felt as much as those of Maddison and Kulusevski. (Solanke finally returned from an early-season ankle injury that required surgery in the final minutes of Saturday’s 2-1 FA Cup defeat by Aston Villa.)

This also means Spurs revert to predictable long-ball patterns when teams sit deep against them.

The Porro-Mohammed Kudus axis effectively accounts for half of their six most common progressive pass zones, as seen below.

Porro has played 134 forward passes to Kudus this season — no other Tottenham duo has more than 50. Similarly, Porro and Kudus have exchanged 147 passes within the final third. The next most common combination among Frank’s squad has been Simons and Kudus, who have exchanged just 41 passes.

After a bright start following a summer transfer from West Ham, Kudus has slowed down with just one goal and one assist in his past 12 league games. Opponents have doubled up on him or prevented him from receiving the ball in dangerous areas.

Kudus will not have an immediate chance to rebound to his early form either, having sustained a thigh injury in the recent 1-1 draw with Sunderland that could keep him out until March at least.

That troublesome home form

Spurs’ ball progression struggles have played a part in their contrasting home and away form, too.

As the table below shows, their goals and points per 90 are much better away from home, with the team playing at a quicker pace and going long more often with less possession. They press more intensely and dominate territory at home, but with no penetrative passer in the side, visiting teams have frustrated them by using low blocks and forcing Frank’s men to be the catalysts.

Away from home, Tottenham began the season with wins against Manchester City, West Ham, Leeds and Everton. But in recent weeks, hosts Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest both scored early against them and then sat back, with Spurs averaging more possession and losing both games.

Their only other loss on the road when managing less than 50 per cent possession came against league leaders Arsenal, who beat them 4-1.

An over-reliance on set plays?

In the absence of consistent attacking output higher up the pitch, set pieces have become Spurs’ primary weapon — a reversal from the Postecoglou era.

As the graph below shows, this is the most reliant Tottenham have been on dead-ball situations in eight seasons.

Spurs have scored 11 times from corners this season (joint-most in the division with Arsenal), using a mix of strategies.

One of these has been to send their initial delivery towards one post or the other and then guide the ball into the middle of the goal area, where players pin their opponents and crowd out the goalkeeper, or shoot directly.

Ben Davies’ goal against Sunderland below was a result of Romero moving out from the six-yard box to the back post to nod the ball back to Van de Ven, who was unmarked as his team-mates packed the six-yard box.

From the left, Spurs have often delivered corners directly into a six-yard box filled with bodies. Van de Ven’s goal against Everton in October saw him score from right in front of goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

While their threat from set pieces has increased, Spurs are averaging fewer corners won per 90 than they did last season (5.2 vs 6.4). Becoming more dynamic from open play will help them get into positions to earn more corners, with Arsenal a standout example of the success that brings.

Defensively, Tottenham have conceded just twice from corners, after allowing 10 goals at them last season. Their approach has often been focused on protecting the near-post zone with three men. Richarlison and Porro have often taken up this role along with a midfielder, giving the team an outlet to counter-attack with when they win the ball.

The man-markers in central zones can be manipulated on occasion into dropping into the six-yard box, leaving the area around the penalty spot open. Spence, while by no means short at 6ft 1in (185cm), has often had to mark forwards or centre-backs who are taller than him, too.

But Spurs’ overall organisation has negated those concerns admirably.

Some out-of-possession positives

Frank’s tactical flexibility has been more evident on the defensive side. Tottenham have kept seven clean sheets in their 21 league matches, already one more than their tally in the 38 of 2024-25.

They don’t tend to press too high but often work on locking up the midfield areas, with the back four largely staying flat and closer together than they did under Postecoglou. That has contributed to Spurs facing just 11.5 shots and 3.95 shots on target per 90, their lowest and second-lowest rates respectively in the past eight seasons.

Some bad habits from 2024-25 have carried over, however. They have made 25 errors leading to a shot or goal, on track to eclipse their 41 last season, their 4.7 possessions conceded in their defensive third per 90 is second-worst in the division behind only Villa (5.2) and they have conceded five times from these giveaways, joint-most alongside the Wolves team who are propping up the Premier League with only seven points from 21 games.

When their opponents are in possession, Spurs’ defending is often ball-focused, leaving them susceptible to blind-side runs — an issue that also plagued them under Postecoglou.

Eli Junior Kroupi’s goal for Bournemouth last week is an example of this. As the ball is worked to the right, Kroupi and Marcos Senesi move into the box without being tracked. The cross then goes to Senesi, who squares for Kroupi to score.

A starker example of Tottenham’s out-of-possession flaws came in that FA Cup loss to Villa.

As seen below, Unai Emery’s visiting side pass through the lines of pressure far too easily, forcing Van de Ven to step out. Donyell Malen then dribbles into that space, dragging Porro and Kevin Danso with him, before feeding goalscorer Emiliano Buendia.

Situations like these require individuals to adjust and take responsibility on the pitch. Spurs have players capable of doing so, but their over-eagerness to win the ball or close down the player in possession often sees them leave their assignments.

Romero and Van de Ven have often pushed out of the back line, with Bentancur dropping in to cover that space. But when opponents attack at pace, those rotations are harder to implement, and Tottenham have been punished.

How could Conor Gallagher impact this side?

Gallagher’s arrival should help fill the void created by Bentancur’s hamstring injury. The 25-year-old is a battling central midfielder who can crash both boxes, with his work rate across multiple areas of the pitch standing out in his two years at Atletico.

Comfort in defending space in the wide areas and central zones will prove useful, especially if Spurs commit more to the direct route.

While he is not the progressive passer this team need, Gallagher’s player radar from his final season at Chelsea shows he has useful attributes. Featuring in a fast-attacking, transitional side, he ranked highly in creative threat, ball retention and link-up play, while scoring five goals and assisting seven more in 37 league appearances.

Perhaps most importantly, Gallagher is always available — he is yet to miss a game due to injury in his senior career.

The green shoots of improvement detailed here and Spurs being only six points off fifth-placed Brentford are reasons for optimism heading into the second half of the season. But Frank and his players have plenty to do to salvage a campaign that has gone awry and win over an understandably frustrated fanbase.

Fabio Paratici’s first official spell at Tottenham Hotspur lasted just under two years. His second will last just over three months.

Paratici’s departure to Fiorentina after this transfer window closes in early February will bring an end to his four-year association with Spurs. First, as managing director of football from June 2021 to April 2023, before he was brought down by the plusvalenza scandal. Then, while he was banned from football, for two and a half years as a consultant. And this autumn and winter, for roughly 16 weeks, as one of the club’s two sporting directors.

Football executives appear two times, as Karl Marx might have put it. The first as tragedy, the second as farce.

It has been a tumultuous time at Tottenham, a year of extreme highs and lows, where more changed than anyone might have thought possible. So perhaps it is fitting that 2026 has started this way. With the much-vaunted new football structure — Paratici and Johan Lange working simultaneously as sporting directors — lasting from October 15 until the end of the winter window. Even Nuno Espirito Santo, who Paratici appointed as head coach in June 2021, managed four months before being sacked.

In recent months, sources in the football industry have wondered how long this new balance would hold for, how long Lange or even Thomas Frank would last with Paratici back in an official position of power at the club. Paratici did not see Brentford boss Frank as the right fit for Tottenham, and wanted his own man in place on the bench. But the clear view of the Tottenham hierarchy is to stick with their new head coach. And, to the surprise of many, it is Paratici, rather than Lange or Frank, who will be first out of the door.

When Paratici was brought back in October and placed at the heart of Spurs’ new structure, the hope was that he would be able to hit the ground running in this transfer window. Chief executive Vinai Venkatesham explained the division of labour between Paratici and Lange in a video interview for the club, saying that the Italian would be focused on “players, the transfer window and the loans and pathways department”.

The hope, for many fans at least, was that Paratici would do again for Spurs what he had done in previous windows. That he would fly his sleigh into Hotspur Way and unload some late Christmas gifts for Frank to unwrap: a midfielder who could move the ball forward, maybe a reliable goalscoring striker. They would go straight into the team. And the decision to bring Paratici back would suddenly look astute and far-sighted.

Maybe that will still happen. But these next few weeks will be Paratici’s last at the club. After the window shuts, his sleigh will not be returning to north London. He will be delivering players to Fiorentina in the summer instead. It adds an extra potential distraction to what is already one of Spurs’ most significant midseason transfer windows in recent years. The team looks desperately in need of reinforcements after an unconvincing first half of the 2025-26 campaign. And the majority-shareholding Lewis family, under more scrutiny since their dismissal of chairman Daniel Levy in September, need to convince the fans that they have the ambition to deliver success on the pitch.

In time, there will be more questions about Spurs’ strategy in future windows. In one sense, the Paratici restoration was required because of Levy’s dismissal. For almost 25 years, Levy had taken so much responsibility for transfer negotiations that his departure in September left an experience gap. There were questions in the football industry about who at the club would get their hands dirty in the market. So Paratici’s return felt like an acknowledgement that Tottenham needed his contacts book and his ability to get deals done. When his re-appointment was announced in October, Venkatesham hailed his “fantastic network”. One of the many questions for 2026 is how recruitment is going to work post-Levy and post-Paratici, with a new director of football operations set to join.

What makes Paratici’s sudden departure even more dramatic is the fact that his arc over the past three months was already surprising enough.

When Levy was sacked, the conventional wisdom was that Paratici’s four-year connection with Tottenham was over. Because Levy was always his patron at Spurs. It was Levy who reorganised the club to bring him in as their first (and only) ‘managing director of football’ in June 2021. It was Levy who stuck by him when he was banned. And it was Levy who leant on him as a consultant during his wilderness years, seeking his advice in the transfer market and also regarding managers. So once Levy was told to clear his desk, it felt like Paratici would have to look elsewhere for work, too.

But all of those expectations were confounded by what actually happened.

On October 15, less than six weeks after Levy’s dismissal, Paratici was unveiled as one of Spurs’ two new sporting directors. After two and a half years acting as a consultant, he was back in a big, visible role; one of the public faces of the club. It was a striking return to favour, Paratici working for a new patron, just weeks after his original backer had been ruthlessly removed.

It was not a universally popular move. There have always been staff at Tottenham who thought that the scandal which brought down Paratici tarnished the club’s reputation, especially when they were so keen to stick by him at the start of 2023. So some were aghast this autumn when the club decided to re-attach themselves to Paratici in such a visible way.

It left a series of questions hanging over his restoration. Was this the start of a new era at Spurs, one with Paratici and Lange working in harmony, bringing their complementary skills together? Or would there only be room for one of the two of them? What did this mean for Lange’s data-led focus on signing younger players? Would the club go back to a more traditional contacts-led approach to recruitment? (One associate once said that, during a transfer window, Paratici would speak to leading agent Jorge Mendes “15, 20 times” a day.)

What was clear was that the people now in charge at Tottenham had reached the same conclusion as Levy did about Paratici: that he was worth having around.

While it was initially Levy’s plan to bring Paratici back, the new hierarchy signed off on the plan after the former’s departure. And so in November, Paratici was in the Bahamas with the Lewis family (along with Venkatesham and Lange) for a series of planning meetings, and a social event on patriarch Joe Lewis’ yacht. It felt like the clearest sign yet of Paratici’s return to prominence under the revamped leadership. And it got people wondering what his plans for Spurs in 2026 would be.

The fascinating question, of course, is why Paratici would walk out on Spurs so soon after rejoining them. He loves the Premier League, and dividing his time between Italy and London. There has always been speculation about a return to his homeland: at the start of last summer, he was close to taking over as sporting director at Milan, before they went for Igli Tare instead. Ultimately, his personal circumstances have changed and some sources believe that is why he is going back to Serie A.

There is no disputing that Paratici will have far more power at Fiorentina than he has at Tottenham. He will be assuming total control of the Florence club’s football activities. And there is a theory that Paratici has found in recent months that he could not quite get both hands on the steering wheel at Spurs. He used to have quite a lot of leeway under Levy — he was even allowed to appoint Nuno — but the club have a different structure now, with two sporting directors and a CEO.

If Paratici hoped he would have total autonomy and control at Tottenham, then that was never on offer. As mentioned earlier, he did not think Frank was the right fit for Tottenham, but the position of the hierarchy supporting the Dane has been very clear in recent weeks. If Paratici thought he was getting total control, he should have known what he was walking into in the new structure.

The sudden conclusion to this story, this curtailed final act, means that Paratici will never get to write a final chapter of his time at Spurs.

He still has a clear legacy at the club, in the players that he has signed (or advised on their signings) over the years. Cristian Romero, Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur were all very good acquisitions, arriving for far less than market rates. Pape Matar Sarr and Destiny Udogie have developed well. Guglielmo Vicario, James Maddison and Micky van de Ven were all important to Ange Postecoglou’s side and last season’s Europa League triumph. Some will argue that Paratici signed some good individuals but oversaw the decline of the level of the whole group. Others will point out that the bigger strategic decisions were out of his hands.

Paratici never quite achieved what was hoped for in 2021 — that he would bring “Juventus standards” to Tottenham.

Now that he is about to disembark from the ship again, responsibility will lie with others to start turning it around.

Tottenham Hotspur are closing in on a deal to sign Atletico Madrid midfielder Conor Gallagher.

Spurs have made a bid for worth €40million (£34.7m), which is expected to be accepted — while the midfielder is keen on the move.

Aston Villa also held a strong interest in Gallagher, however no agreements were reached amid their desire to maintain financial discipline.

The 25-year-old England international has spent 18 months in Spain after joining Atletico from Chelsea in a £38m deal in the summer of 2024.

He was a regular under Diego Simeone in his first season, registering 50 appearances and four goals.

Minutes have been more sporadic this campaign, Gallagher making only four starts in La Liga — although he was named in the starting line-up for the Supercopa de Espana loss to Real Madrid on Thursday.

Gallagher came through Chelsea’s youth system and made 95 appearances for the senior side after loan spells at Charlton Athletic, Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace. The Athletic reported in the summer of 2025 that Palace were interested in re-signing him.

He was included in the England squad for the last three major international tournaments under Gareth Southgate but has not been called up by current head coach Thomas Tuchel this season.

Gallagher’s profile key for Spurs

Analysis by Jack Pitt-Brooke

Tottenham have been introduced in Conor Gallagher for years, ever since he was coming towards the end of his Chelsea contract and Ange Postecoglou saw him as the perfect man to add energy into their midfield. But Spurs could never do the deal, despite interest that spanned multiple windows, to Postecoglou’s frustration.

But Spurs have never really needed Gallagher as much as they do now. Their midfield has ground to a halt in recent years, suffering from under-investment and injuries to key players. Too many of the signings have not been ready, or quite good enough. Too much pressure has been placed on Rodrigo Bentancur, who is not as good as he was, and is now out for the next three months with a hamstring injury.

Tottenham desperately need someone who can set the tempo and drive forward in the middle of the pitch. A more experienced partner for Archie Gray, a more progressive alternative to Joao Palhinha.

Pape Matar Sarr will be back from the Africa Nations Cup soon but he cannot do it all himself. Gallagher would bring many of the football qualities Spurs need right now but also some of the mental qualities and experience, having proved himself at Chelsea and Atletico Madrid in recent years. It would be a statement of intent at a time when Tottenham need one.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur is expected to be out for around three months with a hamstring injury sustained in their Premier League game against Bournemouth last Wednesday.

Bentancur, 28, was forced off in the latter stages of Tottenham’s 3-2 defeat by Bournemouth. Head coach Thomas Frank confirmed at full time the midfielder had sustained a hamstring injury and that initial assessments had indicated it appeared significant.

Spurs are expected to look to the transfer market to supplement their midfield in the wake of Bentancur’s diagnosis, sources briefed on the situation say.

Bentancur has made 28 appearances in all competitions this season, starting 17 of his side’s 21 Premier League matches. He signed a new long-term contract with the club in October.

The Uruguay international joins a Spurs long-term injury list that already includes James Maddison, Mohammed Kudus and Dejan Kulusevski. Richarlison was also forced off during Saturday’s FA Cup defeat to Aston Villa with a suspected hamstring injury, while Lucas Bergvall missed the match due to a problem picked up against Bournemouth. Striker Dominic Solanke, meanwhile, returned following four months out with an ankle injury.

Spurs are 14th in the Premier League and return to action against West Ham United on Saturday.

Bentancur injury exposes under-investment

Tottenham have been left even weaker in the middle of the pitch by the news that Bentancur will require surgery on a hamstring injury.

The Uruguayan has been one of Spurs’ most important players so far this season, starting the season partnering Joao Palhinha in the middle and, more recently, Archie Gray.

Even though Tottenham have rarely dazzled in the middle of the pitch, Bentancur has still been busily trying to hold everything together. Spurs’ reliance on Bentancur has been a sign of the under-investment in the midfield in recent years.

Now that Bentancur is out for the next few months, Palhinha and Gray will have to be the starting pair, at least until Pape Matar Sarr comes back from international duty — Senegal play their Africa Cup of Nations semi-final against Egypt on Wednesday. And Tottenham will surely need another experienced addition in the middle of the pitch.