Do you smell that on the air? That’s the smell of flop sweat and desperation. According to the David Ornstein in the Athetic, Aston Villa is currently in negotiations to sign Atletico Madrid midfielder Conor Gallagher this month as the player is keen on a return to English football, but Tottenham Hotspur are now also actively negotiating for the player. The Ornacle is now reporting that Spurs and Atletico are nearing a €40m (£35m) deal that would bring the former Chelsea man to North London.
You might recall that Conor Gallagher was one of Tottenham’s primary targets ahead of the 2023-24 season after Ange Postecoglou first joined the club. None of us especially liked it back then, though I suspect it had as much to do with him being a Chelsea player who didn’t especially want to leave Chelsea than anything else. But now, Gallagher is 25, wants to leave Spain, and Tottenham are DESPERATE after losing Rodrigo Bentancur for three months due to a hamstring injury.
So on the one hand Conor Gallagher would probably improve the squad. He’d be probably the third or fourth best midfielder currently on the squad (assuming all of them are healthy) and lord knows we’re going to have a hard time getting through the rest of the season without adding SOMEBODY. But holy smokes y’all, I wasn’t wild on the idea of Conor Gallagher two years ago, and there isn’t much that he’s done since that sells me on the idea now, other than we are apparently a club that is nude, red, and sweaty with panic.
If Spurs actually do sign Conor Gallagher here shortly, it says a LOT about what a trash fire this club’s operations are. This is not a plan! There is no plan! This is Spurs’ recruitment team and CEO running around with their pants on fire set on top of their head. I can’t even pretend to tell you with a straight face that this signing would be done because they’ve carefully evaluated their options and think Conor Gallagher is a player they can build around for the future. It’s farcical. It’s insane. It’s further evidence that this club, after sticking a knife in Daniel Levy’s back, is officially run by doofuses needs a hard reset at all levels of the organization.
And yes, before anyone looks it up, I also think he’ll make the team, at least in the short term, better. But that’s not the point. Like, holy smokes y’all, what are we even DOING?
Make it make sense!