As Conor Gallagher floundered as a substitute in another horrendous Tottenham Hotspur outing, doing nothing but get overrun against former employers Crystal Palace in a 3-1 loss, every single Spurs supporters could only look back at his 40 million euro transfer and groan at a panic buy that never should have been made.
All the while, the manager of Spurs next opponents, Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone, can only laugh, because Gallagher was the center midfielder he sold to Spurs for more than his market value. Simeone had been desperate to sell Gallagher for months, if not a year, pretty quickly giving up on the player Atleti signed from Chelsea when he realized that the man did not have the tactical IQ or technical quality to play for a top La Liga and Champions League side.
Atleti have ambitions of winning La Liga again one day and being a Champions League contender, which was their status briefly in the 2010s under Simeone. Tottenham's aspirations are, at this point, to avoid Premier League relegation, and Gallagher is so poor that he cannot even help Spurs achieve that.
Diego Simeone knew Conor Gallagher wasn't good enough
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid have one of the best winter signings in new addition Ademola Lookman, who was one of the best forwards in Serie A. Spurs could have signed him both last summer and this winter, and in their failure to do so, they signed Gallagher who then helped Atleti fund the Lookman signing.
Lookman is already en route to the Copa del Rey Final and has been an asset to a Rojiblancos side that is preparing to lose Antoine Griezmann to Orlando City in MLS this year. Meanwhile, Spurs already lost Son Heung-min to MLS last summer and failed to replace him when Lookman was sitting right there, disgruntled at Atalanta and ready to return to the English Premier League to be Spurs new starting left winger while Mathys Tel developed.
Atletico Madrid and Tottenham will clash head to head with very different tales of the winter transfer window on their minds and very different results domestically. Los Rojiblancos are competing for Champions League places and a prestigious cup title, while Spurs are out of their domestic cup competitions and barely above the drop zone.