Tottenham Hotspur have prioritised youth in recent transfer windows, but sometimes it pays to deviate from a chosen path.
On Sunday, Tottenham announced the signing of Joao Palhinha on a season-long loan from Bayern Munich as the reshaping of Thomas Frank’s squad continues.
The 30-year-old is an atypical Spurs recruit. He is the club’s 23rd first-team signing since the summer of 2023 and the first over 30, having entered his fourth decade in July. Of the other 22, 17 were aged 24 or under when they joined.
The Portuguese is the first thirty-something recruit in three years, since Ivan Perisic and Fraser Forster arrived in the same summer when Antonio Conte was manager.
Spurs possess an abundance of exciting, young talent, including in midfield, where they have Pape Matar Sarr (22), Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray (both 19). Perhaps they wanted more experience in that area as a reference point for their prodigies.
Or perhaps Palhinha was just the best profile fit for the type of defensive midfielder Frank wanted.
Frank’s Brentford were renowned for being aggressive out of possession, and no player embodied their relentless approach more than Christian Norgaard, who signed for Arsenal this summer.
In Brentford’s first Premier League season (2021-22), Norgaard made more combined tackles and interceptions (173) than anyone else in the division. He ranked seventh in that metric in 2023-24 and 11th in 2024-25.
The Dane endured an injury-hit 2022-23, but even if he had been more readily available, he would have had his work cut out retaining top spot in the ball-winning charts given Palhinha’s emergence that year.
Palhinha joined Fulham from Sporting Lisbon in 2022 and quickly made his presence felt, snapping into challenges and snapping opponents’ shinpads.
Across two years in west London, Palhinha racked up 392 combined tackles and interceptions, over 100 more than any other player in the competition, with Moises Caicedo a distant second on 284.
Palhinha’s 152 successful tackles in 2023-24 are the second-most across the last 10 Premier League campaigns, only bettered by the superhuman N’Golo Kante (with 175) set in Leicester City’s improbable 2015-16 title win.
Further evidence of Palhinha’s tackling tendencies can be found in his card count. He was cautioned 27 times in 68 league games for Fulham – a yellow every two and a half matches – though never sent off. He has a PhD in tactical fouling.
In an interview on Tottenham’s Instagram account, Palhinha described himself as a “warrior” when asked to sum himself up in one word and admitted that Gladiator II is the film he has most recently watched, which almost feels too on the nose. Nobody can deny his appetite for battle.
Spurs wouldn’t have gone for a midfield destroyer of Palhinha’s ilk without Frank’s approval. A loan agreement gives Tottenham flexibility, but it is an expensive deal nevertheless, with the club paying Bayern a £4.3m loan fee and covering Palhinha’s hefty wages in full.
“The coach is probably the main thing which had more of an impact on my decision,” Palhinha said. “When you feel that someone wants you, it means a lot, and you are closer to making an easy decision.”
Clearly, Frank believed that Spurs would benefit from having a player with Palhinha’s specific skillset, and it is easy to see why.
A major issue during his predecessor Ange Postecoglou’s spell was how easily teams could play through the midfield. Despite possessing standout individuals in defence, Tottenham conceded a staggering 126 goals in 76 Premier League matches under the Australian.
Postecoglou frequently rotated his midfield without ever really finding the right balance or getting any level of consistency from players in the No 6 role (the position in front of the back four).
For Postecoglou, the No 6 needed to be a technician as much as a disruptor. Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Sarr, Bergvall and Gray were all trialled as deep-lying playmakers, with limited success. With the possible exception of Gray, they are better at marauding from box to box than holding the fort.
Would Postecoglou have wanted Palhinha, given his age and specifications? Probably not, considering the eldest player signed for him was Timo Werner at 28, and his tactical preference is to have a progressive passer in the midfield base.
Palhinha has obvious strengths, but expansive passing is not one of them. He is a win-it-and-give-it type, rather than an incisive linebreaker.
The holy grail for Tottenham and any club is to source a defensive midfielder who can combine TV drama grit with spectacular Hollywood passes. The problem is that they are prohibitively expensive and extremely rare.
Spurs are sure to be on the lookout for one as their youth recruitment drive continues apace, but for another season at least, Palhinha could be a useful stopgap.
The team has had a soft underbelly in midfield. Reinforcing it with some Portuguese steel could be precisely what is needed to move on from the Angeball era and kickstart the Frank revolution.
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