Tottenham Hotspur made two major veteran acquisitions on loan in the summer transfer window last year. After securing Mathys Tel from Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich on a permanent deal, Spurs then bagged former Fulham star Joao Palhinha on loan from the Bavarians after he spent the 2024/25 season toiling on the bench. They then landed experienced former Eintracht Frankfurt striker Randal Kolo Muani on transfer deadline day from PSG after Juventus failed to successfully negotiate another loan deal with the Ligue 1 powerhouse and defending Champions League winners.
So far, the returns on Palhinha and Kolo Muani have been more mixed than effusively positive. Palhinha started the season brilliantly as one of the best value signings of the summer transfer window, and it was seen as a foregone conclusion that Spurs would then try to buy him permanently from Bayern at the end of the campaign.
But Palhinha's play started to fall off, with Tottenham lacking badly in terms of creativity and offensive output in midfield, with the Portuguese international's strengths now no longer shrouding his weaknesses.
Randal Kolo Muani is battling back
Meanwhile, Kolo Muani started the season with injury woes, looked like the club's best striker whlie decimating PSG, and then faded back into obscurity with rumors of him wanting to terminate his loan - and rumors of Juventus wanting to push hard to bring him back this winter.
So going into Tuesday night's Champions League battle against his former club Eintracht Frankfurt, Randal Kolo Muani was under a lot of pressure. Spurs do not want to terminate his loan with how thin they are striker, but he legitimately looked mentally checked out - a player who could not give a rat's rear end about the current club he is at, which is an untenable situation.
But Kolo Muani scored against Eintracht. Whlie he was not as spellbindingly brilliant as he was against PSG,this was still another thoroughly positive performance from RKM against a former club of his on a Champions League night.
Palhinha was even better. The unsung hero of the team while Cristian Romero, Wilson Odobert, and Xavi Simons soaked up much of the plaudits, the defensive midfielder won a whopping seven tackles in a defensive monsterclass alongside Pape Matar Sarr as Tottenham Hotspur completely shut up shop in the middle of the park to secure a clean sheet win over the overpowered Eagles.
Randal Kolo Muani is not out of the woods yet, but with a strong overall creative performance and a crucial goal to the good, he staved off being ran out of Tottenham with a pitchfork, complicated Spurs forward outlook in 2026. Meanwhile, Palhinha seems to be working himself back to being more in than out, giving Spurs real food for thought to chew on transfer wise as they continue to mull their midfield options.