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Coming into the January transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur were already desperate for a new winger who could start on the left side and fill the shoes of Son Heung-min with goal scoring and more experience than the talented young duo of Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert.

All Spurs have done on the wings so far in the winter window, though, is make a new loan move and a sale. They switched Manor Solomon's loan from Villarreal to Fiorentina, which was smart - doubly so, because with Spurs executive Fabio Paratici moving to Florence, the chances of selling Solomon off permanently increased.

The bigger move, of course, was the permanent departure of right winger Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace. While that was a wise move, now that star man Mohammed Kudus has suffered a multi month injury with Dejan Kulusevski already out on the right wing for several months with no time table for a return, Spurs have a bigger need for a right winger than a left winger.

Tottenham have no RWs left now

That is because they have no right wingers left, whereas they at least have Tel and Odobert on the left. In fact, Spurs, in their most recent matchup against Aston Villa in the FA Cup, actually had to shift Odobert over to the right, where he did a passable job while Tel quietly shined again.

Tottenham have been running out of winger options anyway, too. Antoine Semenyo was Plan A, but he rejected Spurs to join Manchester City. Spurs then thought Man City would be more willing to sell Savinho after the Semenyo acquisition, but now Savinho is off the table because he is also injured for multiple months.

Plan C was Omar Marmoush, but he has no interest in leaving Manchester City himself. So now Spurs are down to Plan D over in Manchester, and that is 22 year old winger Oscar Bobb, who, like Savinho, is actually more of a right winger than a left winger.

Unlike the others, Manchester City are pretty open about wanting to sell Bobb this winter, but there is a better option on that right wing for Tottenham Hotspur to sign than Bobb. And it all goes back to an old transfer target of Spurs - someone they were already watching closely in the summer 2025 transfer window who they have been watching throughout the season.

Young Monaco right winger Maghnes Akliouche still remains without a transfer and has been quiet on the market, but he was shining against Tottenham brightly in the Champions League this season. Akliouche is a more dynamic and productive player than Bobb, as the Ligue 1 star has three goals and two assists for the Monegasque club this season compared to zero Premier League goals and one assist for Bobb in 2025/26.

Akliouche is only a year older at 23 and is more dynamic. With Kulu's long term value unclear after such a severe injury, Akliouche could be both a Johnson and Kulu replacement, as well as a short term Kudus replacement who can then be a dream backup to the Ghanaian star.

Tottenham Hotspur recently learned that the injury to veteran center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was more serious than they initially expected, as the Uruguayan international went down with a hamstring injury several days ago in a 3-2 loss with Bournemouth that was, at first, written off as a day to day injury that could cause him to miss a few games.

Spurs then learned that Bentancur will likely require surgery for a torn hamstring and could miss more than three months, including the upcoming World Cup. So Tottenham were immediately out on the trail for a player they already needed to sign this January even before Benta's injury, and that was a progressive deep lying playmaker with more courage to his passing and more creativity than the, quite frankly, subpar Bentancur.

Instead of signing that profile of player to help the passing game and stability in the midfield, Tottenham went ahead and signed want away bulldog Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid, fulfilling years worth of transfer rumors that, at some point, started to feel made up.

Tottenham misprofile midfielders at the ready

But it looks like Spurs really wanted Gallagher after all, even paying an extra bit of money to steal him away from the noses of Aston Villa. Tottenham are signing a player who lacks creativity to such an extent that Chelsea fans practically revolted against Mauricio Pochettino for playing him every week and were begging Todd Boehly to sell him and start Enzo Fernandez every week - and Chelsea ended up being five times better after making that change.

The Gallagher transfer following the Bentancur injury almost proves that Spurs have no clue what they are doing. They already miscast Bentancur as a midfield general when he is too cowardly to truly lead a team from the front foot and out of pressure, and he has actually been a huge reason for Thomas Frank's issues as manager, mercifully getting benched for the younger Archie Gray.

But instead of replacing Bentancur with a real No. 6 who can set the tempo of a passing game like the dream transfer targets fans want, including Adam Wharton from Crystal Palace, Spurs signed a different ex Palace player who is nothing like the profile they want.

Gallagher is not a bad player, per se, but he is not a playmaker, he is not creative, and he is not going to stabilize Spurs in possession. He is basically a worse version of Lucas Bergvall who is years older and a lot more expensive. And oh yeah, neither Chelsea nor Atletico Madrid thought he was good enough for them, which also means Spurs are badly overrating - and overpaying - Gallagher.

There is no question that Tottenham Hotspur have been doing Mathys Tel wrong this season. Whenever the young forward gets an opportunity to start or even get meaningful minutes off the bench, he tends to deliver, including scoring important goals against clubs like Manchester United, Leeds United, and most recently Bournemouth.

Everyone who watches Tel at Tottenham can tell that the former Bayern Munich man has that something special about him that a lot of the other forwards on the team lack. There is not a single attacking player who has the upside Tel does, and that includes Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons when you keep in mind both the athleticism and drive to score that Tel has.

So Tottenham fans can empathize with Tel when he requests a transfer out of the N17, especially since Tel is not looking to push himself out of Spurs permanently. No, what Tel wants is a loan opportunity for six months so that he does not stagnate his own development, because he knows as well as anyone with common sense that, at his age, he needs be playing first and foremost.

Mathys Tel has no shot at this

But there is another layer to the story here. Mathys Tel reportedly wants a loan transfer out of Tottenham in part because he believes he needs the playing time to prove that he can play at the World Cup in 2026 for France.

What Tottenham Hotspur need to do is convince Tel however they can to stay. A permanent transfer is obviously off the table and should never be entertained, but a loan move really is not in Spurs best interest. As his move from Bayern to Tottenham can attest, you just never know what can happen with a player once they are loaned, even if you do not add an option to buy clause.

Realistically, on that stacked France team, Tel is not going to convince an ultra conservative Didier Deschamps to play him at the World Cup anyway. It just is not in the realm of realistic possibilities, even if you have to applaud Tel for trying to dream of that happening. Obviously, he could be more likely to make that happen outside of working with Thomas Frank.

But what Spurs have to do is sell Tel on the merits of staying and present a real, honest plan to actually help his development and make use of him, especially when he is already a better player than the likes of Richarlison and has more to offer the club than loan signing Randal Kolo Muani. They also need to sober him up and tell him that he is not playing for France this year, no way, no how. But if he stays with the Spurs project, they can make him the next French pillar like Kylian Mbappe.

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.