Most of the time transfer rumors are fun, and cool. Sometimes they’re a bit of a drag, or they just make no damn sense. Like this one — according to the Telegraph, Tottenham Hotspur are working on signing 30-year old Bayern Munich defensive midfielder Joao Palhinha on a permanent transfer.
Spurs are working on a move to sign João Palhinha from Bayern Munich. My understanding is that Arsenal also showed strong interest in Palhinha & explored a possible deal earlier this summer, before going for Christian Norgaard. #AFC #THFC
www.telegraph.co.uk/football/202…
Look, I’m not going to hide my feelings about this rumor or sugarcoat it — this is dumb and a bad idea, and I would feel pretty disheartened about Tottenham’s entire recruitment structure if this turns out to be true. Yes, Palhinha is a true defensive midfielder destroyer, a desperate need in the squad last season under Ange Postecoglou, and one of the roles that everyone has been clamoring for in this offseason. Yes, he was pretty good when he played at Fulham a couple of seasons ago. If we were interested in signing the 27-year-old Palhinha that played at Fulham, that might change the calculus for me.
But Palhinha is 30, just moved to Bayern last season for £42m, and they are now apparently desperate to get rid of him after just one year in Munich, mostly because he’s been pretty much crocked since the moment he set foot in Germany. Palhinha played less than 1000 minutes and had just six league starts for Bayern last season in all competitions while dealing with numerous injuries, and he’s only getting older. Signing Palhinha would also likely mean one or both of Yves Bissouma or Rodrigo Bentancur are out of the club, and while I agree both of them should probably be sold trading in one or two 27-year-old midfielders for a crocked 30-year-old midfielder doesn’t feel like a particularly smart move.
Even he’s on form, Palhinha is a limited player — a good tackler, but he doesn’t do much beyond that, and he’s already heading into his declining years as a midfielder. A loan would be one thing, but Joao Palhinha is not Luka Modric — signing him to a multi-year permanent contract would not only be a dramatic shift from Spurs’ past transfer dealings but likely a fairly expensive one unless Bayern are so desperate to get him out that they’re willing to eat a lot of shit on his transfer fee with three years left on his contract. Palhinho is said to be on wages of about £170k/wk, instantly making him one of Tottenham’s top earners.
I hate this rumor and I hope it’s just Palhinha’s agent trying to drum up a market for him.