Tottenham Hotspur spent a whopping 40 million euros on Conor Gallagher in the winter transfer window after Rodrigo Bentancur's injury, and even at the time, any sensible Spurs fan could cut through the media mismash about leadership, effort, and experience and see how the deal did not make much sense.
Because the first major problem with Gallagher was apparent from the beginning. Gallagher didn't bring to the table anything Spurs didn't already have - or have better. Though a serious injury to top box to box midfielder Lucas Bergvall should have, in theory, made Gallagher of value, the reality is that Spurs No. 1 need in midfield was playmaking and passing ball progression in the here and now to help star of the future Archie Gray out.
Nobody will mistake Gallagher for a technical playmaker, and that is actually precisely why Tottenham's rivals Chelsea got rid of him in the first place. Gallagher, predictably, has offered nothing of value to the Tottenham attack, nor has he offered anything unique. And as the last match against Fulham once again affirmed, Pape Matar Sarr is simply a better version of what Gallagher purports to bring.
Conor Gallagher does not offer anything new
And therein lies the second issue, which, subtly, some astute Tottenham fans already saw coming at the time of the deal. It is sincerely difficult to name a single attribute that Gallagher actually does bring to the table for Spurs.
So much was yammered about Gallagher's leadership, effort, and experience, and those three things are the harbinger of poor play and transfer overpay. If all the English punditry can wax poetic about a player are these three generic, nontangible traits that do not translate to actual performance, then you had better believe that they are propping up a good old favorite of theirs.
Gallagher is not winning the ball at a high rate. He is not progressing the ball at all. The supposed end product is nowhere near there. And there is obviously no creativity. The 26 year old Premier League veteran is getting overrun defensively, and while he is doing a nice job of drawing fouls and is averaging more key passes (one full key pass per game) than expected, he has been a big part of some terrible losses and isn't producing enough compared to the share of the ball he commands.