Tottenham Hotspur are making moves out of nowhere, going from one of the quietest big clubs in the Premier League to potentially signing two highly talented, relatively young, exciting, and well-established Premier League stars in West Ham's Mohammed Kudus and Morgan Gibbs-White of Nottingham Forest.
And it doesn't look like Tottenham will be resting on their laurels thereafter. Nor can they afford to. Although Spurs won the Europa League, they were a ghastly 17th in the Premier League and are at risk of Champions League humiliation without substantial upgrades, specifically to the base of an oft-overrun midfield.
Give Me Sport's Dean Jones reports that Tottenham have found a potential solution to the No. 6 problem that plagues them in midfield, as they have made contacts with Bayern Munich and enquired about the availability of Joao Palhinha, who was briefly one of the best 6's in the Premier League at Fulham before making an expensive move to Bavaria, where, like so many others, he has failed to get the requisite minutes to make an impression.
Current Tottenham man Mathys Tel, who just moved permanently to North London this summer, knows that position all too well, and perhaps Thomas Frank and Spurs can benefit from Palhinha's plight and return him to the Premier League and his former glory.
The profile Thomas Frank eyes
Palhinha is reportedly the profile Frank wants for Tottenham in the defensive midfield, which would then point to the new Spurs coach desiring a destroyer type in the middle of the park who can help the likes of Lucas Bergvall and James Maddison focus more of their efforts on offense and chance creation.
At the right price, most Spurs supporters wouldn't necessarily roll their eyes at a Palhinha transfer, but the young Adam Wharton of Crystal Palace is the more appealing player, particularly over the long term, who Tottenham fans desire at the base of a new-look midfield under Frank.
That said, Palhinha and Wharton are both very different profiles - and both profiles that Tottenham need in a midfield that was so thin and so poor in quality last season that it was a chief architect of the club's 17th-placed finish.
Signing both wouldn't be contraindicated at all, and while cost may be prohibitive, that could also be mitigated if Tottenham can sell unwanted players like Yves Bissouma and Richarlison for satisfactory transfer fees. Palhinha would be easy enough to sign, given how little of a role he has for Bayern.