Daniel Levy is contributing to reshape the roster at Hotspur Way in the ongoing summer transfer window as the 63-year-old club chairman looks to hand the incoming head coach Thomas Frank qualitative players at his disposal.
And as the North Londoners have already brought in a marquee forward in Mohammed Kudus, one of the emerging debates around the white side of North London has been about the future of Rodrigo Bentancur (and whether the club should cash in on the Uruguayan) or keep him put at N17.
The Lilywhites have been looking at making a move for Bayern Munich midfielder João Palhinha, and while he has been lined up for a return to the Premier League, you’d think whether Tottenham should be selling Bentancur to make way for Palhinha?
One of the facts supporting this debate has been the contract situation of the 28-year-old at Hotspur Way as he enters into the final year of his contract for the Lilywhites. And compound that with the fact that his performances at N17 have been stagnating since his return from that big injury (which also adds to the fact that you have to keep track of his minutes to avoid losing him along the season), and this is a cactus question.
So I will try to pursue a possible detailed understanding of whether Tottenham should show Bentancur the door this summer and swap his place in the roster at Hotspur Way with a new defensive anchor, or can he still have a role to play in this new era that Tottenham are stepping into with Thomas Frank at the helm?
Let’s look at Bentancur and what he brings to the table
When we are talking about the Uruguayan at his peak abilities (without injuries), the 28-year-old was possibly one of the most well-rounded midfielders in the roster at Hotspur Way, given how he was quite elegant with his ball carrying and he had that positional intelligence to operate in tight zones. Rodrigo was also quite sharp when he had to pass in that final third, and (again, still speaking about his peak) his link-up play with Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski in the 2022/23 season showed that he does have that ability to influence and how he has the capacity to be deployed in a more advanced role.
And let’s be honest, injuries have not been kind to him given how he tore his ACL back in Feb 2023, and he had those muscle injuries and a concussion as he was getting back from the long-term spell on the sidelines. And since then, the 28-year-old has struggled for rhythm or consistency, and then, given how under Ange Postecoglou we saw how the Australian was forced to deploy him deeper in a holding role, taking away a lot of his impact on the game.
And as he built his fitness up, Bentancur was caught in off-field controversies, including disciplinary issues with Uruguay, which ended up only compounding the doubts around his future.
And now with less than a year left on his contract at Tottenham and no extension in sight at the moment, the Lilywhites may end up looking at the ongoing summer window as the final opportunity to extract value from an ageing midfielder.
Is Joao Palhinha the right fit?
The Portuguese midfielder brings this no-nonsense ball-winning capacity, and we saw how defensively capable he is during his time at Fulham, where he was not only tackling his way through opponent sequences but also had that aerial dominance about him and was elite when it came to duels.
But then since he moved to the German champions, Palhinha has failed to cement a place in the starting lineup under Vincent Kompany, and that is despite the fact that he was among the marquee arrivals at Munich last summer. Palhinha started only nine games last season, and Bayern are already looking to offload him.
The timing of this comes quite ideally for Tottenham, who are looking to add some steel in the midfield this summer.
But there are a few red lines that Daniel Levy should think about before making a move for him. To start with, the former Fulham man turned 30 this month, and he already has a high-salary contract at Bayern. His injury record also seems to be growing, and his technical range is not even close to Bentancur’s.
Palhinha would bring grit and structure, but can he offer the composure and tempo-setting ability that Frank will want from him in the second phase?
Who suits Thomas Frank’s system more? – Palhinha or Bentancur
If you think about the midfield that Thomas Frank deployed at Brentford; it thrived on balance, where he had one deep-lying destroyer (Christian Nørgaard), alongside mobile ball progressors and runners.
And ideally, from what I have seen of him at Fulham, Palhinha would be a perfect Nørgaard-style anchor, where he is dominating without the ball by shielding the backline and then starting transitions.
Coming to Bentancur, at his best, he gives you that verticality and guile when operating in tight spaces, but then he lacks the pure defensive robustness that Palhinha brings to the table.
So from here it depends on how Frank wants to prioritise the remake of his midfield. Does he want a hybrid midfielder who is technically tidy, or whether he needs a specialist enforcer because Palhinha ticks more boxes for the latter while Bentancur does for the former?
Who do you think Frank will prefer in his roster, Bentancur or Palhinha? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
