Spurs star is becoming Frank’s own Rice

Give an inch and the

Premier League will take a mile. Tottenham Hotspur’s concession of form and results over the past few years have left them scrapping among the bottom half of the table.

While 2025 saw plenty of hierarchical change, we’re yet to see the fruits of the transformation as Thomas Frank finds himself at a dangerously low ebb, six months since leading Spurs out into battle.

Injuries have left the Danish coach frustrated, that and poor club recruitment across several campaigns. While the likes of Micky van de Ven stand out as shrewd purchases, there’s a sense that Tottenham need to streamline and sharpen their transfer dealings going forward.

Why Spurs’ recruitment is being criticised

Cristian Romero is Tottenham’s club captain, and he is also one of the board’s most vocal critics at the moment.

Tottenham sold Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace for £35m but failed to replace him with a talented and prolific winger. Efforts were placed onto signing Antoine Semenyo and Savinho, neither or whom joined Frank’s side and who instead are now teammates at Manchester City.

More frustrating is the wider trend. Tottenham have not been averse to spending since the turn of the decade, and when you look at their net-spend balance since losing the Champions League final to Liverpool in 2019, they are third among Premier League clubs.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Van de Ven is a testament to the recruitment strategy when it goes to plan, and if the board can focus on going forward, we could finally see the turnaround

After all, Johan Lange has recently overseen the Lilywhites’ best signing since the now £100m-valued Van de Ven was signed from Wolfsburg for £43m in 2023.

Spurs’ best signing since Van de Ven

Tottenham have suffered a litany of issues this season. A porous defence and blunt attack have made things difficult for Frank, but a stuttering engine room has hindered any creativity or progressiveness reaching through to the frontline.

What Tottenham would give to have someone of Declan Rice’s ilk turbocharging their midfield. The Arsenal star is Mikel Arteta’s chief lieutenant at the heart of his title-challenging project.

Well, Spurs might actually have their man in Conor Gallagher, who doesn’t need to reach the same world-class reputation as his Three Lions teammate to play a crucial role in securing sustained success for Tottenham.

An all-action and hard-working midfielder, Tottenham signed Gallagher, a Chelsea academy graduate, from Atletico Madrid for about £35m in January, a pivotal signing as Rodrigo Bentancur fell to a hamstring injury.

Against Man City last weekend, the 25-year-old ran the show, with analyst Raj Chohan remarking that he “got the better of Rodri” in the crucial central battle.

He’s barely settled back into the Premier League, but already he’s becoming a star man at Tottenham, his energy once leading former Chelsea teammate Moises Caicedo to claim he’s “like a machine“.

In this, Gallagher is something like Rice, often misprofiled as a deep-lying midfielder due to his tireless energy and natural combativeness.

Regardless, averaging six duels and 6.7 ball recoveries per Premier League game so far, it’s clear to see where the comparison comes from, and it’s easy to see how he bested Rodri in a thrilling encounter last weekend.

Gallagher’s box-to-box presence is exactly what Frank’s side have been missing in the Premier League this season, their midfield stale and static, lacking creativity.

Gallagher might not be Rice, but he shares many properties with the Gunners talisman, and it’s a profile which could finally push Frank’s system forward.

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