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Tottenham Hotspur are suddenly giving their already worried fan base a lot more to be concerned about this January transfer window. After selling right winger Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace, Spurs have been slow to sign any new wingers to replace what is now a dangerously thin depth pool on both the left and right wings - and they could get even thinner if Spurs are not able to convince Mathys Tel to stop his abrupt crusade to leave on loan.

There is a huge mess at the club created by Thomas Frank, and it may not get any better. Losing the likes of Tel and Antonin Kinsky on loan would be bad enough to the depth and an indicting sign of how poor Spurs are at believing in their talents, but the latest transfer news could be a blow of a whole different dimension to the club's future.

According to a new report from BILD's Christian Falk, via Bayern Munich outlet iMiaSanMia, Tottenham Hotspur center back Luka Vuskovic is now squarely on the Bayern Munich transfer radar in 2026. Apparently Vuskovic was actually offered to Bayern, but thankfully for Spurs, the Bundesliga giants are only watching the Hamburg loanee at this point and are not viewing him as a transfer priority.

Tottenham cannot lose Luka Vuskovic this early

Tottenham have already done business with Bayern pretty frequently these last few years. They obviously sold Harry Kane to them, waving goodbye to their best ever player in the process and that definitely hurt. But they also acquired Mathys Tel on loan and then permanently last year, as well as Joao Palhinha on loan later in the summer.

Losing Vuskovic would be a whole different blow, of course. Because at least with Kane, the England international had made it clear that he wanted a new chapter in his career, and it was better to sell him outside the Premier League to Bayern, rather than a potential top four rival like Manchester City or Manchester United.

Vuskovic is a teenage sensation and already one of the best center backs in Europe and one of the best players in the Bundesliga. Of course Bayern would be interested in monitoring Vuskovic as an option, as he has more raw talent than any of the current center backs on Bayern, which is saying something since Die Roten are by far the best team in the Bundesliga.

Tottenham Hotspur entered the January transfer window desperately needing more help on the wings, and now the fan base has to be worried that Spurs are going to somehow enter February much, much weaker in their biggest area of need.

Spurs already sold Brennan Johnson for over 30 million euros to local rivals Crystal Palace, and while that was actually the right move considering the Wales international's lack of a clear role in the team, the right wing position is now a catastrophe with both Dejan Kulusevski and now Mohammed Kudus injured for the foreseeable future.

Worse yet, the best left winger in the squad, Mathys Tel, now understandably wants a loan move away from the unbridled incompetence of manager Thomas Frank, as he has been repeatedly snubbed out of the starting lineup by the manager despite being his team's best player at the position.

Tottenham are running out of options

Tottenham have shown interest in a wide variety of winger transfer targets, but none of them are biting. Antoine Semenyo already chose Manchester CIty over Tottenham, and neither Man City wingers Omar Marmoush or Savinho are interested in a move away; Savinho is actually injured.

The next top winger on Spurs wish list is 19 year old RB Leipzig prospect Yan Diomande, who already has six Bundesliga goals and is widely viewed as the next big thing at the position - kind of like Tel used to be. In fact, Bayern Munich want to sign him badly as the Luis Diaz understudy, while familiar Tottenham transfer rivals Yan Diomande are also very interested in him.

Spurs have been holding out hope that Leipzig would be interested in selling Diomande to them this winter, and Leipzig's recent addition of Nigerian winger Sani Suleiman seemed to point in the direction of the Ivorian international Diomande potentially being floated on the transfer market.

Unfortunately for Tottenham Hotspur, it looks like that won't be the case and Spurs will have to wait until the summer to try and bag Yan Diomande. According to a report from Fabrizio Romano on his YouTube channel, Tottenham have already tried to sign Diomande this month but were told by Leipzig that a deal is impossible to complete. Leipzig will not let Diomande leave their club this winter, as they are instead only interested in listening to offers in the summer with Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Tottenham, and even Ligue 1 powerhouse PSG all interested.

That is quite the scary group of clubs in on Diomande, and Tottenham have to be ready for an even fiercer transfer battle than they thought. But the one beneficiary of all this is young Tottenham left winger Mathys Tel, who has been wanting out of the club for a lack of minutes.

Had Spurs been able to sign Diomande this winter, Tel would have almost certainly wanted out, due to having even less minutes if Spurs were to invest a ton of money into Diomande right here and right now. Diomande's rejection means Tel is still the top guy on the left wing in Tottenham, and Spurs still have a shot at not losing him on loan (or worse). With Diomande off the table, it has never been more obvious to Thomas Frank and Tottenham: Mathys Tel is the guy. Play the man.

Tottenham Hotspur came out of nowhere and signed a player they had been linked to for at least a year, swooping in at the last second to steal former Atletico Madrid center midfielder Conor Gallagher from under Aston Villa's noses by paying a whopping 40 million euros for the former Chelsea and Crystal Palace standout.

Gallagher joins Tottenham as a new box to box midfielder to replace the entirely discarded Yves Bissouma, whom Spurs supporters are still holding out the unlikely hope that they will be able to find a suitor for this winter before his contract officially expires.

Meanwhile, many assumed that Gallagher was replacing Rodrigo Bentancur, as the signing of the Englishman came just days after Spurs fans learned that Benta would be out for a minimum of three months with a torn hamstring from the 3-2 loss to AFC Bournemouth.

Rodrigo Bentancur and Conor Gallagher are near opposites

However, Bentancur and Gallagher not compatible players in the slightest. Not that Bentancur is a true deep lying playmaker, but, quite obviously, Gallagher and Benta have very differing profiles in the middle of the park.

Tottenham fans have been wanting that deep lying playmaker for a long time, knowing that Bentancur is not cutting it. Those who assumed Spurs were signing Gallagher instead of that sort of a No. 6 were thus disappointed, but it looks like they may be able to turn those frowns around.

Because according to a fresh report from Tom Allnutt of the Sunday Times, Tottenham Hotspur are indeed interested in signing a more creative midfielder who can make top class passes from deep. They are still interested in signing that profile of player after the addition of Conor Gallagher. However, it is unclear if Spurs will have the opportunity to sign the caliber of player they want in that role this January transfer window or if they will simply have to wait until the summer window for one.

These sorts of No. 6's are in massive demand in world football. Chelsea paved the road for Enzo Fernandez for this reason, selling Gallagher in part for that purpose. Arsenal prioritized signing a couple of them to build their team around. And Manchester United are now just as desperate as Tottenham to get their hands on a player like Adam Wharton, so both Spurs and the Red Devils will likely have to resign themselves to pursuing that quality of a 6 in the summer window.

The good news is that Tottenham are not thinking of Gallagher as a Bentancur replacement, and they are not going to rest on their laurels thinking that Rodrigo Bentancur is good enough of a deep lying playmaker to stick with. Archie Gray can't do it all on his lone some - at least, not yet.

Tottenham Hotspur have a couple of players they are trying to sell after already sending Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace, as Yves Bissouma is very much on the transfer short list while Radu Dragusin could also potentially go, depending on how Spurs feel about going down a center back.

But there are other players making transfer noise due to a lack of playing time whom Spurs will want to keep at all costs. The most prominent of them is young left winger Mathys Tel, who is suddenly turning those transfer rumor whispers into shouts, as all the Thomas Frank lineup snubs have worn thin on the 20 year old star.

Tel now wants a loan move out of Tottenham - not a permanent transfer, thankfully, but despite being vital to the team as their best left winger, his lack of starts have left him with no choice but to request a transfer for more playing time.

Tottenham can't lose Mathys Tel

According to a new report from Sky Sports Germany's Florian Plettenberg, who covered Mathys Tel frequently when he was at Bayern Munich, the possibility of convincing Didier Deschamps to put him in the French national team squad at the 2026 World Cup is not the only crazy idea he has in his head leading to a desire for a transfer out of Tottenham.

Plettenberg is also reporting that the young Tottenham Hotspur forward wants to play more at the striker position than rather on the left wing. He is not used very often as a No. 9, and Tel is apparently frustrated by that fact, partially leading to his desire for a transfer, which Plettenberg confirms is something Spurs are still very much blocking.

Well, if Tottenham want to block Tel 100 percent from leaving the club and taking away, by far, their best current left wing option, then they need to present a clear plan for regular playing time for Tel. They can make concessions about him playing at striker, because he is honestly better than Richarlison there and scored important goals at the position against Leeds United and Manchester United this season.

But Tel is not best off as a striker. He is a tremendous left wing prospect with the way he plays, his athleticism, his eye for goal, and his desire to shoot from range. Tottenham need to show Tel why he is best on the left wing and keep playing him there, throwing him the occasional bone at the 9 to appease him this season. He can't go.

Tottenham Hotspur already sold Brennan Johnson to start the January transfer window in one of their first orders of business, latching onto a transfer offer from local rivals Crystal Palace to recoup a fee of some significance to a player they no longer valued. Of course, they could not have predicted Mohammed Kudus's multi month injury just days later, but, alas, that is what Maghnes Akliouche will be for.

In any case, Johnson is not the only player who could officially exit Tottenham this winter transfer window. Although Spurs do not want to lose any more center back depth this year, Radu Dragusin has been pretty aggressive about wanting to return to Serie A and leave the Spurs bench behind him.

But the biggest priority for Tottenham to sell is veteran center midfielder Yves Bissouma. Now that he is on an expiring contract, it is less likely Spurs will be able to find a suitor willing to pay for a player buried on the bench and more famous for laughing gas incidents than his play on the pitch - and it's not like he was standing out brightly for Mali at the AFCON Tournament either.

Yves Bissouma needs to go

Bissouma's departure from Tottenham is much more likely now, too. Because while everyone was busy talking about Conor Gallagher and how he is not the right fit to replace Rodrigo Bentancur or fill Spurs biggest need for a deep lying playmaker who can lead the team from the front foot, we all lost sight of the player who Gallagher is really replacing.

Think about it. Gallagher is a box to box monster of a No. 8 who never gets tired, wins possession, and can affect the attack with some quality. He is a leader who works hard for the team. Basically, he is a Bissouma replacement and, as a character, everything that Bissouma is not while being both a younger and a more effective player.

He obviously comes at a higher price tag, but if Spurs were smarter and actually sold Bissouma last summer before his injury and signed Gallagher for a reasonable price instead of being forced to outbid Aston Villa and pay 40 million euros, they may not have paid that much more for Gallagher than what they would have sold Bissouma to the Turkish or Saudi Arabian leagues.

Gallagher is the Bissouma replacement in the 8. Spurs still have to sign that young, stellar No. 6 to pair with Archie Gray at the base, but Gallagher is now the experienced Premier League box to box midfielder who steps in and erases Bissouma's role in the squad completely. Now how much better does that sound when you reframe your thinking in that way?

But long term, you can see why Dragusin would want to leave Spurs. It is honestly a bit hard for him to truly gauge his playing time status since he is just coming off a long term injury and is now working with a manager in Thomas Frank who may be a better fit for his skill set than predecessor Ange Postecoglou. At the same time, though, it is pretty obvious that he is not going to be selected over Danso, Romero, or Van de Ven.

Plus, once Tottenham get Luka Vuskovic into the first team after his loan with Hamburg concludes, Dragusin is going to seem like nothing more than a potential road block to arguably the biggest teenage defensive gem in world football.

Radu Dragusin isn't just on Roma's radadr

Dragusin and his agent have been angling pretty hard for a move back to Serie A, as he was a standout player for Genoa before moving to Tottenham, where he has not been as good of a fit in the Premier League.

But another league that he could fit with his athleticism and hard nosed defending is the Bundesliga, and RB Leipzig, who love their nasty defenders, are now among the teams interested in him and ready to compete with his dream destination of AS Roma.

Per a report from Italian transfer expert Gianluca Di Marzio, RB Leipzig are ready to make a move for Radu Dragusin this January transfer window. Other clubs in Serie A have been linked to Dragusin by other reporters, but the most credible link is to the Giallorossi.

Although Spurs do not seem interested in selling Dragusin to Roma at this time due to center back depth concerns, perhaps they will be more swayed by Leipzig as a landing spot, especially if Dragusin is willing to hold out until the summer transfer window.

That's because promising Leipzig left winger Yan Diomande is one of the dream transfer targets for Spurs this year. Tottenham want to sign a new winger, and Diomande is in high demand among the top clubs in Europe with his goal threat, future upside, and explosive athleticism. If Dragusin wants Leipzig, maybe he could be the make weight that lowers Diomande's price - or even, in a less likely case, gets Leipzig more willing to sell Diomande to them this winter.

Tottenham Hotspur will soon officially wave goodbye to executive Fabio Paratici, who will, at the end of the current January transfer window, transition to a new role at a new club. Paratici will become the Director of Football at Fiorentina in February, returning to Serie A and leaving Johan Lange and the rest of the incompetent troup behind him at the N17.

It is a sad way for Paratici to end his time at Tottenham, as he was a popular figure around the club and had only just returned again after suspension to help Spurs secure a decent loan signing in Randal Kolo Muani to close the summer 2025 transfer window.

But Paratici started to develop some pretty wild ideas towards the end of his Tottenham tenure, including a plan to replace Thomas Frank with a manager who would somehow be even worse - Italian mid table specialist Igor Tudor.

Fabio Paratici knew it all along

Then again, Paratici was ultimately right about the most important thing, and that is what he told Tottenham NOT to do during the summer transfer window back when he was in more of an advisory role at the club.

According to a report from The Athletic's Jack Pitt-Brooke, all along Fabio Paratici was telling key decision makers at Tottenham Hotspur that Thomas Frank was not the right man for the job and that Spurs should not hire the Danish manager to replace Ange Postecoglou. He insisted that Spurs hire someone else, though this report does not specify who he had in mind (it likely was not Tudor, who was already hooked up with Juventus at the time).

Paratici may be slowly going off the rails now, but he was quite prescient about Frank in the summer while the rest of us were swept up in the Brentford Moneyball craze. Frank has since gone on to prove Paratici very right and everyone else at Tottenham very wrong.

Tottenham are a demonstrably worse team in the 2025/26 season with Frank as manager, which is wild considering Spurs were a lowly 17th in the Premier League under Big Ange. Firing Postecoglou was not necessarily the wrong option, but hiring Frank has proven to be a calamity, much to the delight of rivals Arsenal and Chelsea who teed off on Spurs in head to head games. Had Spurs heeded Paratici's warning abotu Frank, perhaps the club would be in a very different situation now with a young nucleus that is honestly much better than Frank makes them look.

Tottenham Hotspur made a huge transfer splash in the Premier League market on Monday, bringing former Chelsea (and Crystal Palace) man Conor Gallagher back to England, spending 40 million euros to swoop in and steal the veteran center midfielder right from under the noses of rivals Aston Villa.

Gallagher is a bit of a controversial signing, but it seems like most Tottenham fans are looking forward to the 25 year old returning to the Premier League. Not only would Gallagher being a success rub some salt in the wounds of Chelsea fans, but Spurs supporters are also just happy to be bringing in a competent warm body who has leadership chops and a demonstrated desire to fight for the crest on his shirt.

The Gallagher transfer comes just days after Tottenham learned that the injury to another veteran center midfielder, Rodrigo Bentancur, was more severe than expected. Benta went down with a hamstring injury against AFC Bournemouth, and, as it turns out, he actually tore his hamstring and will need surgery that will cost him at least three months of action - and maybe even the World Cup.

Rodrigo Bentancur is headed for the transfer list

But Bentancur has to be more worried than he may even think at this point. He is an expendable player to Spurs, regardless of the rather faulty contract extension he prematurely received to start the 2025/26 Premier League season. He has already been displaced by the much more promising Archie Gray in that deep lying playmaker role, and because Gallagher is more of a No. 8 than a No. 6, Spurs could always still sign another midfielder in 2026, too.

So Gallagher is not a short term replacement for Bentancur. He is another body in the middle of the park to help Spurs stay afloat in the Premier League, and Spurs definitely pushed harder for him in the aftermath of losing an established veteran rotational player in the middle of the pitch.

For some odd reason, Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank seems to have no interest in giving Mathys Tel an extended run of games at either left winger or striker, even though the Frenchman is both one of the most promising players on the team and already the best option on the left wing.

Spurs have no experienced players at the position after selling Son Heung-min to MLS club LAFC this past summer, signing not a soul to replace the South Korean legend. This season, Tel has been the best goal threat and overall player when given opportunities at the position, and he has, likewise, played well at striker.

Yet Frank has not given Tel many starts or meaningful minutes. Tel has played just 465 Premier League minutes this season with a meager five starts and five additional appearances off the bench. With three goals, Tel has nearly as many goals as starts, though Frank has yet to reward the 20 year old with more playing time.

Tottenham lost a key player to injury

That may be coming to change soon, because Tottenham just lost veteran striker Richarlison to a hamstring injury in a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa over the last weekend. That knocks Frank's main striker out of the lineup, giving Tel an easier path to playing time at striker, including in two striker looks.

And with Mohammed Kudus injured and both Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel now the main starting wingers on the right and left, respectively, there is literally zero reason for Thomas Frank to continue to snub the ex Bayern Munich man.

On top of all that - as if this were not enough to sway the manager - Tel is mired in transfer rumors. The U21 talent has specifically requested a loan transfer out of the N17 in order to obtain more playing time before the 2025/26 European league seasons end and the 2026 World Cup begins.

While Tel's dreams of World Cup glory with a highly competitive France squad are likely misplaced, the overall sentiment is well taken. Tel is at a stage of his career where he needs to play, and if Frank is going to keep actively holding back despite plainly seeing that Tel is both his best short and long term option, then Tel may as well cut his losses and leave, implicitly until Spurs get their act together and hire a less incompetent manager.

All the forces of the footballing universe are combining to tell Frank that it is now the time to make Tel a regular starter in the attack. That left wing needs to have his name written in permanent marker.

Tottenham Hotspur made quite the splash on Monday, bringing in Conor Gallagher from out of nowhere, sliding in behind Premier League rivals Aston Villa to coax the Atletico Madrid man to join them for a rather hefty 40 million euros.

That is the price it took for Spurs to convince Atleti to make the move with them instead of Villa, and Spurs fans can only hope that the gamble pays off. Winter transfers for veteran players have a way of biting teams in the behind, especially if they are made out of desperation from a key injury, which was the case for Spurs who lost Rodrigo Bentancur for three months (at least) just days earlier.

Gallagher appeals to Tottenham for a few reasons, though. He is experienced and was a strong player in the Premier League before fizzling out as a poor fi for Diego Simeone in Madrid. Gallagher was not bad for Chelsea despite being pushed out so Enzo Fernandez could (rightfully) take over, and he was excellent before that for local London rivals Crystal Palace while out on loan.

Conor Gallagher is one of the healthiest players in the world

Beyond the Premier League experience, Gallagher is a box to box player with veteran leadership, an amazing work rate, and he almost never misses a game. In fact, if you look at his injury history record on Transfermarkt, Conor Gallagher has literally never missed a game in his carer due to injury. In fact, he has never been injured nor missed a game for any reason; he just missed five days without missing any games during the 2023/24 season for an illness.

But Tottenham Hotspur supporters know that their team is cursed. It does not matter how clean your bill of health is: once you come here, you are doomed to an injury. So while Gallagher comes in with the best ability of availability, Spurs fans will recall that the same was said about record breaking 65 million pound striker signing Dominic Solanke in 2024 when he joined from Bournemouth.

At that time, Solanke had never missed more than 10 games at once since the 2018/19 season when he had a 13 game absence with a groin strain. And he had only suffered two injuries since the 2020/21 season before moving, never missing one game in the preceding 2023/24 campaign for the Cherries.