Tottenham Hotspur recently learned that the injury to veteran center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was more serious than they initially expected, as the Uruguayan international went down with a hamstring injury several days ago in a 3-2 loss with Bournemouth that was, at first, written off as a day to day injury that could cause him to miss a few games.
Spurs then learned that Bentancur will likely require surgery for a torn hamstring and could miss more than three months, including the upcoming World Cup. So Tottenham were immediately out on the trail for a player they already needed to sign this January even before Benta's injury, and that was a progressive deep lying playmaker with more courage to his passing and more creativity than the, quite frankly, subpar Bentancur.
Instead of signing that profile of player to help the passing game and stability in the midfield, Tottenham went ahead and signed want away bulldog Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid, fulfilling years worth of transfer rumors that, at some point, started to feel made up.
Tottenham misprofile midfielders at the ready
But it looks like Spurs really wanted Gallagher after all, even paying an extra bit of money to steal him away from the noses of Aston Villa. Tottenham are signing a player who lacks creativity to such an extent that Chelsea fans practically revolted against Mauricio Pochettino for playing him every week and were begging Todd Boehly to sell him and start Enzo Fernandez every week - and Chelsea ended up being five times better after making that change.
The Gallagher transfer following the Bentancur injury almost proves that Spurs have no clue what they are doing. They already miscast Bentancur as a midfield general when he is too cowardly to truly lead a team from the front foot and out of pressure, and he has actually been a huge reason for Thomas Frank's issues as manager, mercifully getting benched for the younger Archie Gray.
But instead of replacing Bentancur with a real No. 6 who can set the tempo of a passing game like the dream transfer targets fans want, including Adam Wharton from Crystal Palace, Spurs signed a different ex Palace player who is nothing like the profile they want.
Gallagher is not a bad player, per se, but he is not a playmaker, he is not creative, and he is not going to stabilize Spurs in possession. He is basically a worse version of Lucas Bergvall who is years older and a lot more expensive. And oh yeah, neither Chelsea nor Atletico Madrid thought he was good enough for them, which also means Spurs are badly overrating - and overpaying - Gallagher.