Tottenham Hotspur have an important offseason ahead of them. They will need to hold onto key players while making sweeping upgrades to an attack that can scarcely score goals, as well as a midfield that Roberto De Zerbi had to work his hardest to get to play progressive football with their backs to the wall.
De Zerbi was successful with the veteran trio of Conor Gallagher, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Joao Palhinha, and he seemed to take a particular interest in the veteran loan signing from Bayern Munich, repeatedly telling the public that he 100 percent wants to keep the Portuguese international in North London.
However, it looks like Sporting CP and even Tottenham have other plans. Sporting want to bring Palhinha back to Portugal, and while the rumors did not initially seem serious, it now appears Palhinha is indeed interest in going to his home country now that he is heading past the age of 30.
Tottenham are out of the battle
According to a new report from Portuguese outlet A Bola, via The Spurs Express, things have gotten so far in terms of Joao Palhinha being tempted by Sporting that Tottenham Hotspur have actually pulled out their interest in signing Palhinha. Sporting are moving ahead with the deal, while Spurs buy option for the veteran defensive midfielder officially expires on June 1.
It is quite the change of events for Tottenham, as Palhinha scored the winning goal against Everton as part of a brilliant performance to save Spurs from relegation. With the jubilation of the celebrations and his importance in sparing Spurs, keeping Palhinha as a rotational player seemed like a foregone conclusion, especially with Roberto De Zerbi seemingly so high on the 30 year old former Fulham star.
But perhaps De Zerbi changed his mind, was never as high on Palhinha as he let on, or others in the front office have other ideas. Or maybe Palhinha himself, despite loving his time at Tottenham, wants to scale back and head to Portugal, especially since Sporting are also a big club and will be playing high level European football next season (unlike the Lilywhites).
Whatever the case, it is appearing increasingly likely that Palhinha is not going to be at Tottenham next season, which means Spurs can now look at players like Curtis Jones and Nico Gonzalez who are more box to box, progressive, and better on the ball to fill the Bayern man's shoes.
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