Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank can't be overly pleased with one aspect of his squad heading into the 2025/26 Premier League and Champions League seasons, and knowing how important it is to have a stable base from which to attack as a manager who likes to play free-flowing football, Frank will be doubly worried about Tottenham's biggest area of need.
Coming into the summer 2025 transfer window, Daniel Levy and the other big decision-makers at N17 had to know that, regardless of their next manager, Spurs needed to address their holding midfield situation with quality and quantity.
But instead of bringing out the big guns, Tottenham have signed nobody, and they are sitting idly by as good market opportunities to fortify depth at the position - and help facilitate a transfer out for the unwanted Yves Bissouma - are flying off the shelves for other clubs.
In the latest transfer twist, Fabrizio Romano has indeed given Portuguese giants Benfica the fabled "Here We Go" for a Richard Rios transfer from Palmeiras. Despite being linked to Rios for months and then watching him shine as one of the best players at the Club World Cup this summer, Tottenham didn't even try to make an approach for a 25-year-old with elite athletic and ball-winning traits in the middle of the park.
Tottenham missed out on an affordable transfer
Maybe Tottenham were worried about how Rios would translate to the Premier League, but for a 30 million euro price tag worth only a little bit more than what Bissouma will be sold for, Tottenham could have signed a player with much more upside than Bissouma and about the same downside as a clearly unwanted midfielder.
With Rios headed to Benfica, Tottenham are now down another affordable, talented, and relatively young midfield option who would have been a totally different profile to what they have and could have helped shore up the defense at the heart of the squad significantly.
Tottenham want to play exciting attacking football under Frank with players like Mohammed Kudus, Mathys Tel, and James Maddison anchoring that effort, and Morgan Gibbs-White will likely be a part of that attacking effort, too.
But you can't attack optimally without bringing in top holding midfield talent to make it all tick with covering defense on counterattacks, smart passing in possession, and deep creativity to playmake in transition. Tottenham could have had the defensive boxes checked with Rios, allowing them to land another defensive midfielder to focus on creativity. Now, they have nothing.