Tottenham Hotspur made quite the splash on Monday, bringing in Conor Gallagher from out of nowhere, sliding in behind Premier League rivals Aston Villa to coax the Atletico Madrid man to join them for a rather hefty 40 million euros.
That is the price it took for Spurs to convince Atleti to make the move with them instead of Villa, and Spurs fans can only hope that the gamble pays off. Winter transfers for veteran players have a way of biting teams in the behind, especially if they are made out of desperation from a key injury, which was the case for Spurs who lost Rodrigo Bentancur for three months (at least) just days earlier.
Gallagher appeals to Tottenham for a few reasons, though. He is experienced and was a strong player in the Premier League before fizzling out as a poor fi for Diego Simeone in Madrid. Gallagher was not bad for Chelsea despite being pushed out so Enzo Fernandez could (rightfully) take over, and he was excellent before that for local London rivals Crystal Palace while out on loan.
Conor Gallagher is one of the healthiest players in the world
Beyond the Premier League experience, Gallagher is a box to box player with veteran leadership, an amazing work rate, and he almost never misses a game. In fact, if you look at his injury history record on Transfermarkt, Conor Gallagher has literally never missed a game in his carer due to injury. In fact, he has never been injured nor missed a game for any reason; he just missed five days without missing any games during the 2023/24 season for an illness.
But Tottenham Hotspur supporters know that their team is cursed. It does not matter how clean your bill of health is: once you come here, you are doomed to an injury. So while Gallagher comes in with the best ability of availability, Spurs fans will recall that the same was said about record breaking 65 million pound striker signing Dominic Solanke in 2024 when he joined from Bournemouth.
At that time, Solanke had never missed more than 10 games at once since the 2018/19 season when he had a 13 game absence with a groin strain. And he had only suffered two injuries since the 2020/21 season before moving, never missing one game in the preceding 2023/24 campaign for the Cherries.
Now, Solanke can barely get on the pitch for Tottenham. He only just returned from a serious, nagging foot injury that cost him months and required surgery. Solanke has missed a total of 28 games this season and had missed 12 in his first season at Tottenham. Gallagher comes with a great bill of health, but he has to worry about becoming the next healthy player to suddenly become not so healthy, like Solanke, at the N17.