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Tottenham Hotspur have often been accused of being reactive rather than proactive in the transfer market and signing players who will not materially help the squad compete for titles in the long term, and although they somewhat bucked that trend last summer with new additions like Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons, it did not take long for Spurs to revert back to old habits.

Already entering the January transfer market, Spurs knew they would need to sign a deep lying midfielder to help progress the ball and make plays. They needed to sign an upgrade on the overrated Rodrigo Bentancur so that the young Archie Gray would not be saddled with a role too big for him, too early.

Well, if Spurs were already needing this kind of a player, their need for one increased ten fold with Rodrigo Bentancur down injured for a minimum of three months. But instead of signing the profile to replace Bentancur, Spurs went out and bagged a box to box midfielder in Conor Gallagher.

The Conor Gallagher rumors were real

For months and months, Gallagher had actually been linked to Tottenham, and the rumors were so persistent yet never amounted to anything material for so long that Spurs supporters simply began to assume that they were fake to begin with.

Now, though, they are real, as Gallagher is headed to Tottenham Hotspur for 40 million euros. The craziest part of the deal is that it was initially debated as to whether or not Spurs were actually interested in Gallagher. Then, with Bentancur injured, Spurs suddenly made a big push to sign him when, again, everyone thought he was headed to top four side Aston Villa as midfield depth instead.

The story is, per Fabrizio Romano, that Aston Villa had actually agreed to a deal with Conor Gallagher that was worth about 10 million euros less than what Spurs will be paying Atletico Madrid for the player. Everyone thought Atleti only wanted around 25 million pounds on a loan deal with a future obligation to buy, but in order to beat Villa to the punch, Spurs are throwing way more money at Atleti to make it happen.

Gallagher is not worth that kind of money. Tottenham aim to compete with clubs like Chelsea and Atletico at the Champions League level - and these are the last two clubs Gallagher played for. But Gallagher was not good enough for either of them, which is why Chelsea shipped him out to Spain and why Atleti never played him before transfer listing him for about a year now.

The team Gallagher was good enough for? Crystal Palace, a mid table club in the Premier League. Unfortunately, that appears to be Spurs level, and they have paid an extra circa 10 million euros to Atleti to basically seal that as fact.

It did not take long for Tottenham Hotspur to react to the severe injury to center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur. The Uruguayan international went down with a hamstring ailment in a 3-2 loss to Bournemouth that initially did not seem like much to worry about. After all, Bentancur is no longer a must start for Spurs, and the injury itself seemed like nothing more than a couple of games on the sidelines.

Instead, Bentancur is out for a minimum of three months and will require surgery for a torn hamstring, even putting his World Cup at risk. So Spurs went out and made an immediate signing, ending the years long meme of a transfer pursuit of Conor Gallagher, which had been so repetitive and so fruitless for so many months that everyone just assumed the links were one giant fake.

But with Aston Villa closing in on a deal for the former Chelsea man, Tottenham swooped in at the last second and signed the box to box midfielder. Although Gallagher is not the profile that matches Bentancur, nor is he necessarily the shrewdest signing from a cost and fit perspective, he is a warm body with legitimate Premier League experience - and he was once pretty dang good over at Crystal Palace for a minute.

Tottenham need a new coach

Gallagher, at the end of the day, does not move the meter as much as another potential signing that could become a thing in the coming weeks. Because Gallagher's big move from Atletico Madrid to North London was overshadowed by another, more major move in the Spanish capital. Real Madrid, after losing El Clasico and after dealing with months of inane controversies, fired Xabi Alonso.

While Alonso did not work out for Real Madrid, few managers making their first move to one of the biggest clubs in Europe do succeed there. It takes managers with years of experience or who have been directly groomed by the club to make it over there, such as Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti.

But just because Alonso failed at Madrid does not make him a failure of a coach. Just two years ago, Alonso won the Bundesliga for Bayer Leverkusen's first ever triumph, forging an undefeated season to dethrone Bayern Munich's record breaking run. And that is why Real Madrid brought him in to replace the coaching GOAT, Don Carlo.

Tottenham, meanwhile, are saddled with Thomas Frank in the manager's chair. And Frank just keeps getting worse and worse as the points continue to drop in the Premier League. Spurs need a new manager more than they need any player in any position, and with Alonso available, the most obvious move is to go out and get him to replace a man who may arguably be the worst manager in the English top flight this season.

There is zero trust from Tottenham Hotspur fans with their organization, because year after year, they engage in self sabotage and seem to have absolutely no clue what they are doing. There is no identity, no standard, and very little in terms of ambition on the transfer market.

Spurs have gotten some things right, though, in recent years with acquisitions of top young talents like Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Mohammed Kudus, Wilson Odobert, Xavi Simons, and Mathys Tel. Yet they sabotage even the young stars they get right by driving them into the ground with injury, not starting them at all, having the wrong coach leading them in Thomas Frank, or sticking with worse veterans like Richarlison or Rodrigo Bentancur instead of trusting these more talented youth.

Well, in a season filled with frustrating missteps led by their coach, Spurs are now contemplating another big mistake, albeit at a level of the club that goes above Frank.

Tottenham are making no sense

According to a report from Football.London reporter Matt Maltby, Tottenham Hotspur are inexplicably stepping up their interest in a transfer target who is linked witih them seemingly year after year - and for no good reason at all. Yes, you are about to hear this correctly: once again, Tottenham are interested in signing Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid, and they are apparently interested in signing the former Chelsea attacking midfielder this month.

Gallagher is not a good footballer. There is a reason why Chelsea got rid of him and are now better off with Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez ruling the midfield rather than a washed Mauricio Pochettino's teacher's pet stealing those minutes. And there is a bigger reason why, most recently, Atleti are truly desperate to sell off Gallagher and almost never start him.

If Tottenham were to make the massive mistake of wasting a transfer fee and significant wages on an aging and mediocre Gallagher, they would be throwing money down the toilet to sign an inferior No. 8 to Lucas Bergvall, who, again, should be getting a lot more minutes in 2025/26 from an incompetent Thomas Frank rather than rotting on the bench or being played out of position.

Bergvall proved last season that he is a crucial player to Spurs and helped them win the Europa League title. Even as a U21, he has more to offer creatively and technically than Gallagher, and any positives Gallagher brings in terms of a nebulous idea of "energy", the Swedish international brings that to the table ten fold.

Tottenham Hotspur center back Micky van de Ven is a special talent and one of the biggest stars in the world in his position, even if he is still somehow underrated by some of the mainstream crowd who do not see how grand of a player he is or the fact that he is just as good as World Cup winner Cristian Romero at his job.

Van de Ven, though, is increasingly cutting a frustrated figure at Tottenham, upset with the incompetence of Thomas Frank and even unwisely lashing out at fans. With each interview and transfer rumor that pushes him towards Real Madrid, Spurs fans are seeing the sad reality of a player whose head is being drawn closer to an exit, with dreams of glory outside of a club that has done nothing but disappoint its best players and supporters over the years.

Tottenham fans are no strangers to watching their biggest stars leave, including those who left before their primes. The two biggest examples are Gareth Bale and Luka Modric, who were great players at Tottenham and then became some of the biggest legends of the game and two of the most successful players trophy wise of all time at Real Madrid.

Micky van de Ven to Real Madrid is a worry

With Real still wanting another elite center back and linked to Van de Ven loosely, the Dutch star feels like the next in that line. He has Bale written all over him. Van de Ven is a headstrong, beastly talent who is ready to dominate, but his quality and reputation are being held back by Tottenham.

He is ready for a grand move to Madrid and ready to spread his wings elsewhere, and while he has not become the name Bale was at Spurs, he does have a Europa League trophy to his name and plenty of quality film in his own right.

Van de Ven has not hid his frustrations particularly well, and while he has kept his intentions close to the vest, the lack of a new contract or even a definitive message in support of a long term stay at Tottenham are not positive signs to allay the worries of Spurs fans that VDV will go the route of Bale and Modric.

Madrid's rivals Barcelona have recently been credibly linked to the young star defender, whose versatility as a left back or in a back three is yet another boon, making him a target viably for every single elite club in European football.

For weeks, Tottenham Hotspur supporters have been aware of top executive Fabio Paratici potentially heading off to a new challenge to head up footballing operations at Fiorentina, who have literally been the worst team in Serie A this season one year after being a breakout side and are somehow an even bigger disappointment than Spurs. In fact, no team in European football have underperformed as badly as the Viola this season.

When news first emerged of Paratici's desire to abandon the Tottenham sporting project for Fiorentina's, Spurs fans were immediately concerned that he was escaping a sinking ship to get away from the dual incompetence of Johan Lange and the potentially untenable Thomas Frank at manager.

Now that David Ornstein has confirmed that Fabio Paratici will be leaving Tottenham Hotspur for Fiorentina officially once the winter transfer window ends in a report that really should have been information already clarified by Spurs to their fans amidst so much credbile reporting of his departure, we are finally seeing the full picture of what is really happening.

Fabio Paratici has lost his mind

That is because journalist Paul O Keefe has the real scoop on the situation, informing fans on social media that Paratici's head is actually gone. He is leaving for Firenze because of a new romantic relationship, while his sporting ideas have become quite absurd.

To wit, O Keefe says that Paratici wanted to fire Thomas Frank and make Igor Tudor is pick as the interim manager to replace him. If that sounds like one of the very few managers who would actually be a down grade on Frank, then, well, that is because it is.

Tudor is an unsuccessful, clueless coach with a much worse track record than Frank, because at least Frank had a lot of success at Brentford. And Frank is at least somewhat corrigible despite being passive aggressive and a bit of a doofus. Meanwhile, Tudor is a disciplinarian who does not win, does not innovate, and has not proven he can do anything particularly well at the top level.

It sounds like Paratici just wanted to give one of his buddies the job at Tottenham, and now it looks like Spurs inviting him to leave to Fiorentina without putting up much of a fight is. a way of smashing the escape hatch and jettisoning Paratici out in the outer space that is a return to Calcio. Paratici has fallen from grace, but Spurs are not about to be dragged down further by him, which is a good thing.

Against all expectations, Dominic Solanke came out of nowhere and was in the squad for the FA Cup Third Round game between Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa on Saturday. He even came off the bench for about 15 minutes, and while Spurs ended up being eliminated with a 2-1 defeat to the Lions, it was still a huge positive to see the England international back out there.

Prior to this FA Cup cameo appearance against Villa, Solanke had appeared in just three total matches for Spurs in the 2025/26 season due to a lingering foot injury that required surgery in the Fall and was slow to heal.

Thomas Frank and Tottenham had given pretty much no updates on Solanke, acting as if it would take even more weeks for the Europa League hero to make his return. But now, Frank has more concrete and positive updates for Solanke, just as he did in the days leading up to Solanke's surprise return.

Dominic Solanke is on the up and up

As per Chris Cowlin of talkSPORT, Frank confirmed that things are getting better and better for big Dominic Solanke and that the Tottenham Hotspur striker is going to be ready to get even more action next week in the Premier League when Spurs take on local rivals West Ham United.

Frank told reporters after the Aston Villa loss, “He’s in a good place. Of course, he's not fully to fit to go 90 minutes, top sharp, but he is fit enough to get out there and get 15 minutes (against Villa). Then, we build from there and he will be in a better place next week against West Ham.”

So while Solanke is not close to getting a full 90 minutes and starting over Randal Kolo Muani with Richarlison now injured, too, after doing his hamstring over the weekend, he should then, in theory, be able to get more than the mere 15 minutes he accrued in the FA Cup defeat.

Solanke is a flawed player in his own right and probably was not worth the 65 million pounds that Tottenham paid to sign him from Bournemouth in 2024 in a record setting transfer. But he is the best all around striker Spurs have right now, unless Mathys Tel gets the chance to prove otherwise, and he showed his clutch factor in the Europa League. it is good for Spurs to have him back.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters have been appalled by the treatment of Mathys Tel by manager Thomas Frank. He has taken a standout forward on a team with poor attacking output and sabotaged him, discarding the Frenchman from the starting lineup despite the fact that Tel has been outstanding whenever given rare opportunities to start.

Now, Tel is unsurprisingly pushing for a loan transfer out this winter, and Spurs supporters should honestly be happy that the former Bayern Munich man is not outright asking for a transfer away from such a putridly run club and one of the worst managers in European football right now.

According to Fabrizio Romano, there are several clubs making approaches to Tottenham Hotspur to sign Mathys Tel, and one of the most recent clubs is Paris FC in Ligue 1. But the kicker and the part that Spurs fans will actually like is that Tottenham currently have no intention of letting Tel go on even a loan deal this winter. Per Fab, Spurs "insist" on keeping Tel.

Mathys Tel wants more minutes

But Tel is contemplating a loan out of Tottenham because he wants to play before the World Cup. With all the talent the French national team have, especially in the attack, it will be tough for Tel to break through, but it is not impossible if he lands in the right situation.

The crazy thing is that the right situation should just be Spurs. They have no better options on the left wing, and from what we have seen from the other strikers on the roster, it is honestly hard to say that any of them are definitively better than Tel in terms of athleticism, effort, technical quality, or even that little bit extra something special.

Losing Tel would be a travesty, and Tottenham fans need to make sure the club do not entertain it. A report from Romano stating that the club insist on keeping him is a positive, but that is one matter. The other matter is Spurs actually falling through and not risking losing one of their biggest talents - and someone who should be starting every game from now on.

Even a brainless blob could piece together that Tel is infinitely more important to Tottenham than Thomas Frank. As of right now, Spurs not wanting to loan Tel out to Paris FC or some other club is good, and that mentality needs to stay that way.

Tottenham Hotspur have been in an injury crisis in perpetuity. Even dating back to the end of the 2024/25 season, Spurs were down James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski who had both suffered severe knee injuries, and all these months later in January 2026, these two vital attacking players remain sidelined with no clear time table for return.

Star right winger Mohammed Kudus is out for a couple of months, and star left back Destiny Udogie remains day to day. And just as Spurs got Dominic Solanke back from injury for the FA Cup loss against Aston Villa this weekend, the club learned of yet another multi month injury. And that is not even getting into the status of another recently injured striker in Richarlison, who did his hamstring.

Center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur went down with a hamstring injury of his own at mid week in a 3-2 loss to Bournemouth, and while the injury held an uncertain prognosis at the time like most injuries, the majority of Spurs fans assumed he would miss a maximum of a few games.

Rodrigo Bentancur is cooked

Instead, Bentanacur is going to be out for a long time, even longer than Kudus. According to a new report from Argentinian outlet TyC Sports, Bentancur actually suffered a torn hamstring in that game and is going to require surgery. He will now miss at least three months recovering from the ailment, which will then put his status in doubt for the upcoming 2026 World Cup with Uruguay, which is devastating since, unlike at Spurs, he is an important starter in midfield for his national team.

Bentancur is no longer an important starting midfielder for Spurs because he has been pushed out a little bit. Thomas Frank was favoring the veteran, but his poor performances brought young Archie Gray more into the fore, and Gray has been getting more and more action lately, with fans happier to see him starting than the elder statetsman of the deep lying passing midfielders.

Gray has his own issues to iron out, but the U21 prospect is a phenom and could be a special player in the middle of the park with more bravery and progressive passing than the often cowardly Bentancur. With Bentau now injured for the foreseeable future, Frank has no excuse and no reason to turn away from Gray, who is now THE focal point of the deep lying passing at Spurs and the base of the midfield. The kings to the kingdom are fully his, and he has to run with this opportunity now.

Tottenham Hotspur have already sold Brennan Johnson to start the January transfer window, and they have made a few key loan maneuvers, including switching forward Manor Solomon over from Villarreal to Fiorentina, where executive Fabio Paratici will eventually join him.

As Tottenham try to bring in other players besides left back prospect Souza, who will soon officially join Spurs this winter, they are also negotiating some potential sales for players like Yves Bissouma in midfield.

But the player pushing the most for a transfer out of the N17 is young center back Radu Dragusin. Fresh off a major injury, Dragusin does not see a path to playing time as the fourth center back behind stars Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, as well as the reliable Kevin Danso.

Tottenham reject Radu Dragusin's dream

So Dragusin wants a move out this winter, preferably back to Serie A, which is a league he fit much better than the Premier League. The former Juventus prospect has been linked to Juve, but the Italian giant with the most interest in him is AS Roma - and he seems to be pushing publicly for a move to join the Giallorossi.

According to a new report from Football.London, Tottenham Hotspur have actually rejected the latest transfer offer from Roma for Radu Dragusin. It is actually a loan offer for the center back, but Spurs still did not want to grant the 23 year old his wish to join the "Gladiators" - as if being a gladiator was such a high ranking status at that time.

Anyway, the answer to why Tottenham want to hold onto Dragusin is pretty obvious. Not only have they not actually seen how he fits under Thomas Frank - or whoever replaces Frank in the nearer future than even the club would like to admit - but, most importantly, they can't really afford to sell more players right now.

Souza is coming in at left back, but Ben Davies is still important cover there. So for all intents and purposes, Spurs only really have the four center backs in the squad when you include Dragusin with Danso, Romero, and Van de Ven.

Tottenham do not want to go thinner than that. And if they are going to lose the depth with Dragusin, there is no point in loaning him for six months and getting no money back right now when these six months are the six months they would need him. They could maybe justify selling him in the summer when Luka Vuskovic takes his place after his loan deal is done, but a loan this winter does not make as much sense for Spurs.

Tottenham Hotspur were outclassed yet again on Saturday afternoon, eliminated from the FA Cup in the latest humiliation that clearly proves to Tottenham Hotspur fans that Thomas Frank is not the right man to lead this now sinking ship.

But despite the poor all around performance of Spurs as a team, there were a few individuals who did distinguish themselves positively in a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa that, once again, really underscores the differing trajectories of these two clubs.

Xavi Simons was obviously the main positive for Tottenham and is a star of the future at the N17, but a more veteran acquisition from the Bundesliga this summer was also a standout in the middle of the park in the second half.

Joao Palhinha was falling off

Joao Palhinha started the season hot but recently fell off, casting his future in doubt with the option to buy him on loan from Bayern Munich for about 25 million pounds. While his defensive prowess earned him praise, the Portuguese international also received wide spread criticism for his poor play on the ball and lack of progressive carrying or passing.

Well, after a jaw dropping bicycle kick in the 3-2 loss to Bournemouth, Palhinha once again distinguished himself positively on Saturday afternoon with a grand all around performance against Aston Villa, particularly in the second half when Tottenham Hotspur were finally starting to claw their way back into the game.

Palhinha was obviously magnificent defensively with a whopping five interceptions and so much hard work to try and break up play as everything else was falling apart. But he was also quite good offensively, which was a positive change of pace for the veteran midfielder. He had two key passes, two dribbles completed, and two fouls drawn in an all around performance that was all parts active, progressive, and, yes, even creative.

Tottenham have a tough decision to make with Joao Palhinha whenever the 2025/26 season ends, because he is 30 but is still showing he has plenty in the tank athletically. And while it is debatable the trade off between offense and defense, there should be little doubt that his highs have been higher than either Yves Bissouma or Rodrigo Bentancur as veteran Tottenham midfielders - and his lows are far less low than Bentancur's disaster classes or Bissouma's inane laughing gas antics.

Palhinha has to keep playing like this and showing offensive involvement, but between the bicycle kicks and this show of determination and heart in an otherwise dreary defeat, the man is absolutely on the right track to changing his course back to a positive one.