Tottenham Hotspur have often been accused of being reactive rather than proactive in the transfer market and signing players who will not materially help the squad compete for titles in the long term, and although they somewhat bucked that trend last summer with new additions like Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons, it did not take long for Spurs to revert back to old habits.
Already entering the January transfer market, Spurs knew they would need to sign a deep lying midfielder to help progress the ball and make plays. They needed to sign an upgrade on the overrated Rodrigo Bentancur so that the young Archie Gray would not be saddled with a role too big for him, too early.
Well, if Spurs were already needing this kind of a player, their need for one increased ten fold with Rodrigo Bentancur down injured for a minimum of three months. But instead of signing the profile to replace Bentancur, Spurs went out and bagged a box to box midfielder in Conor Gallagher.
The Conor Gallagher rumors were real
For months and months, Gallagher had actually been linked to Tottenham, and the rumors were so persistent yet never amounted to anything material for so long that Spurs supporters simply began to assume that they were fake to begin with.
Now, though, they are real, as Gallagher is headed to Tottenham Hotspur for 40 million euros. The craziest part of the deal is that it was initially debated as to whether or not Spurs were actually interested in Gallagher. Then, with Bentancur injured, Spurs suddenly made a big push to sign him when, again, everyone thought he was headed to top four side Aston Villa as midfield depth instead.
The story is, per Fabrizio Romano, that Aston Villa had actually agreed to a deal with Conor Gallagher that was worth about 10 million euros less than what Spurs will be paying Atletico Madrid for the player. Everyone thought Atleti only wanted around 25 million pounds on a loan deal with a future obligation to buy, but in order to beat Villa to the punch, Spurs are throwing way more money at Atleti to make it happen.
Gallagher is not worth that kind of money. Tottenham aim to compete with clubs like Chelsea and Atletico at the Champions League level - and these are the last two clubs Gallagher played for. But Gallagher was not good enough for either of them, which is why Chelsea shipped him out to Spain and why Atleti never played him before transfer listing him for about a year now.
The team Gallagher was good enough for? Crystal Palace, a mid table club in the Premier League. Unfortunately, that appears to be Spurs level, and they have paid an extra circa 10 million euros to Atleti to basically seal that as fact.