Tottenham Hotspur spent an eye watering 40 million euros to sign center midfielder Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid when Aston Villa were on the precipice of signing him for substantially less. But that is the price you pay on the winter transfer market for desperation, as Spurs were both eager to beat a Premier League rival and to replace the injured Rodrigo Bentancur with an established signing with experience in the English top flight.
That said, Gallagher was only really ever great for a mid table side in Crystal Palace, as Chelsea wanted little to do with him, selling him to an Atletico Madrid side that pretty quickly also realized that Gallagher was nowhere near good enough for their starting lineup.
Tottenham are themselves worse than a mid table side like Palace at this point, having just lost 2-1 to West Ham United to send their club into a necessary tail spin, with Thomas Frank now finally facing serious ramifications for his woeful coaching.
Tottenham signed the wrong guy
Meanwhile, Conor Gallagher did nothing to help Frank's status. It was only his first game and a readjustment period is plausible, but it was still jarring to see how inept he was. Gallagher, as he did at Chelsea and Atleti, ran like a headless chicken, offering no progression or real quality in midfield as the worst of the players on the pitch for either team in the middle of the park.
Like Tottenham Hotspur are doing with Crystal Palace after selling Brennan Johnson to them for 35 million pounds, Atletico Madrid have to be laughing at Spurs all the way to the bank for the Lilywhites spending 40 million euros on a backup level player.
Worse yet, Atletico Madrid are on the verge of signing a significantly better center midfielder who both fits them better and has better overall quality. And it is a name famliar to Tottenham, because both Manchester United and Spurs were both very interested in him in past transfer windows before being priced out.
According to a report from Marcos Duran of Madrid based outlet Relevo, Atletico Madrid are pushing hard to sign Atalanta star Ederson, and the Brazilian international has actually now agreed to personal terms with the Rojiblancos. He is pushing hard to join Atleti, and because Atalanta and Atleti have very good relations, there are signs pointing to a deal being done; it is just pending an agreement between the Serie A and La Liga giants.
Ederson has been one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe for years and is a real box to box star. He is better with more potential than Gallagher and suits ball winning and on the ball progression better. Although he lacks creativity and would thus not be a signing for Tottenham Hotspur, for example, Atleti could be getting him at the same price as a better player than Gallagher, and that really hammers home how badly Spurs got jobbed out by Atleti here.