By OkayGoal
Conor Gallagher has spent the last few weeks turning doubters into fans at Tottenham, and that is exactly why the idea of selling him in January has started to make sense to some people.
Tottenham have won three league games in a row, over Coventry City, Chelsea and Crystal Palace, and they go to Elland Road on Saturday chasing a fourth before the international break. The midfield that did it was built in the summer, and Gallagher was not in the middle of it.
With bodies coming back in every area, the question is no longer whether Gallagher is good enough for Roberto De Zerbi. It is whether there will be any minutes left for him once everyone is fit. We have looked at both sides of it.
Why is this even a question?
Because Spurs now have two of everything, and in some places four. Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes have become the double pivot, two starts together and two clean sheets, and nobody at the club is going to split them while the results keep coming.
The double pivot is spoken for
Fernandes cost a club-record £85m from West Ham, Tonali took that record off him four days later, and after a slow start Tottenham’s expensive new midfield is finally justifying the fee. Behind them sit Rodrigo Bentancur, available again after his three-match ban, Lucas Bergvall, who has been a doubt with a knee problem, and Archie Gray, who can play there as well as at full-back.
That is five senior options for two places before Gallagher’s name even comes up.
And the No 10 queue is about to get longer
De Zerbi has used Gallagher further forward too. Before the Palace game, talking through his options for the playmaker role, he said: “We can play with Marmoush as a 10, with Conor Gallagher as a 10.”
The trouble is who else is coming. James Maddison is fit again and pushing for a start. Dejan Kulusevski is back after 526 days out and has just returned to the Sweden squad. Xavi Simons is reported to be ahead of schedule in his recovery from a torn ACL and is due back in team training later this month, and Wilson Odobert is the other long-term absentee working his way back from a knee injury. Give it until the turn of the year and the No 10 queue could be four or five deep.
The case for selling Gallagher in January
Squad numbers are only half of it. A player who has found form is worth more now than he will be after six months on the bench, and January is the window where his recent form will count for the most.
Spurs also have obvious holes elsewhere. The front line has carried less of the load than the midfield, and Dominic Solanke goes to Leeds still waiting for a goal since his stoppage-time equaliser at Old Trafford. If the money from Gallagher went on a striker or a better No 10, it would be hard to call that bad business.
There is a ruthless argument, and we understand it. De Zerbi did not build this side around Gallagher, and on the ball he still isn’t the kind of midfielder the head coach’s possession game is designed for.
What does Gallagher give De Zerbi that nobody else does?
Legs, mainly, and a willingness to go into places other players avoid. It was Gallagher who was in the thick of it at Stamford Bridge when Cole Palmer stepped on his ankle and picked up a second yellow card, leaving Chelsea with ten men before Mathys Tel sealed the 2-0 win.
Against Palace he came on for Solanke early in the second half and was still arriving in the box late on, forcing a superb save out of Dean Henderson from a second ball. Off the bench against tired legs, that energy is hard to replace, and none of Maddison, Kulusevski or Simons plays the No 10 the same way.
He can also drop deeper, so he covers two positions at once. That matters more than it sounds in a squad with this injury history.
Was Bentancur’s ban a blessing in disguise?
It may have been, and it is a useful reminder of how quickly things change. Bentancur’s suspension forced Fernandes into his best position, and the pair with Tonali has kept two clean sheets since. Nobody planned it that way. The same could happen again if Maddison picks up another knock or Simons needs longer than hoped, and a squad that sold its spare midfielder in January would have nothing to fall back on.
Should Tottenham sell Conor Gallagher? Our verdict
Not in January, unless the player coming in the other direction is a genuine upgrade. Simons has not played since April, Kulusevski is still being eased back and Maddison’s fitness has been up and down, so “we have his position covered” is a lot of ifs on paper.
If Spurs could land a midfielder of Morgan Gibbs-White’s quality, we would accept Gallagher being the one who makes way. Selling him just to get money back and hoping the injured players stay fit would be a risk this squad doesn’t need to take while it is winning.
The better test comes in May. If Gallagher is the fifth-choice midfielder and the fifth-choice No 10 by then, the conversation changes. Until then, he is the player De Zerbi turns to when a game needs closing out, and that job is worth keeping.
Saturday at Leeds is a good example. Daniel Farke’s side are physical, the ball will spend plenty of time in the air, and Gallagher is already on three Premier League bookings. As our Leeds predicted lineup vs Tottenham shows, Farke has selection problems of his own, so a fourth straight league win is there for Spurs. If they need someone to see it out in the last 20 minutes, we know who we would send on.