Tottenham Hotspur have agreed a deal to sign Aston Villa and Man Utd target Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid
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Tottenham Hotspur have successfully hijacked Aston Villa’s move for Atletico Madrid midfielder Conor Gallagher after agreeing a £35m deal with the Spanish club.
Villa had come to a verbal agreement on a loan deal with an option to buy for the midfielder but Spurs moved to offer a permanent deal to win the race for the ex-Chelsea man.
The former Crystal Palace midfielder has also been linked with Manchester United but he will be moving to Spurs with an agreement now in place.
Reports in Spain last month said United had been lining up a £26m bid for the midfielder. Gallagher has been a regular in terms of appearances for Atletico this season, playing in 19 La Liga games, but he has only started four of those.
Giving an update on the transfer, Fabrizio Romano said on X: “Conor Gallagher to Tottenham, here we go! The player has just informed Atléti about his decision to join THFC. Spurs set to pay €40m fee, permanent deal to beat Villa. Aston Villa agreed deal with Atlético today but leave race as player didn’t give final green light.”
He then provided a further update saying that Gallagher had agreed a five-year contract with a medical this week. He added: “Tottenham have booked medical for Conor Gallagher later this week as he will sign deal until June 2031.”
Gallagher is well accustomed to the Premier League having played for both Chelsea and Crystal Palace before his move to the Spanish capital.
He played 95 times for Chelsea, scoring 10 goals and providing 10 assists. He arguably had the best spell of his career at Selhurst Park during a season-long loan with Palace. He scored eight goals and provided five assists for the Eagles.
Former Arsenal star Patrick Vieira was Gallagher’s manager at Palace and said of him during his time there: "Conor has this passion for the game when he is on the field like a Ray Parlour, but I would say he has maybe the quality finishing of a Frank Lampard.
"It is a manager's dream to have a player like Conor because when he is on the field, he will give everything. He is focused, concentrated and will always give his best. This is something that for me is really important."
He added: "I think it is his determination to progress. Every time he is putting his feet on the field, he wants to improve and to challenge himself. We know his quality and we know he can be box-to-box. He can score goals but what is really impressive with him is his work ethic in training every day.
"When you have that kind of determination to challenge yourself and to improve, you will have more chance to succeed."
Tottenham are battling numerous injury problems and Gallagher will hope he can get the chance to make an instant impact at the club - especially with a World Cup coming up this summer.