Tottenham Hotspur made two sales just befor the summer transfer deadline ended. Although many expected striker Richarlison to exit, he did not end up moving to Everton in a swap for Iliman Ndiaye, who joined Manchester City instead. The two players to exit Spurs were two likable rotational pieces in disgruntled center back Kevin Danso and center midfielder Pape Matar Sarr, whom Roberto De Zerbi clearly did not want in the picture.
Sarr is headed to Serie A giants Juventus, the latest player cast away by another club to join their hodge podge of options. If certain performance bonuses are met, Sarr's loan to Juve will be made permanent for 25.6 million pounds.
But Sarr was not the worst midfielder in the Tottenham squad prior to his move. Both Lucas Bergvall and Conor Gallagher showed in the 3-0 blowout loss to Brentford on Matchday 1 of the 2026/27 Premier League season that they are worse. At least in Bergvall's case, he is a long term project, and De Zerbi and Spurs were able to convince him to stay, making it clear to the Swedish international that they have his back despite transfer interest from rivals Nottingham Forest and even Chelsea.
Pape Matar Sarr can easily outperform Conor Gallagher
What is former Chelsea man Gallagher's excuse, though? Aside from a few decent performances under Roberto De Zerbi in the relegation battle, he has been a total failure of a winter transfer for Spurs. Tottenham broke their wage structure at that time to sign him from Atletico Madrid, and they even paid extra to give up a whopping 40 million euros in order to sign him over Aston Villa.
Gallagher has been atrocious, and Pape Matar Sarr is both younger and less expensive. Spurs have lost money by signing Gallagher and now potentially selling him permanently to Turin, and if Sarr goes on to blossom under Luciano Spalletti in Serie A, then the Gallagher signing is somehow going to look like an even bigger failure.
Because adding Gallagher took valuable minutes away from both Lucas Bergvall and Sarr to develop. Bergvall was a gem for Tottenham under Ange Postecogou in the 2024/25 season, and Sarr was a gem before that in 2023/24 - and still actually played great football for both Spurs and the Senegal national team to start the 2025/26 season. With Juve, Sarr gets a real chance to have the last laugh at the expense of Gallagher, and he can really prove Spurs messed up by signing Gallagher in the first place instead of believing in him.
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