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Tottenham would need to get at least one central midfielder out of the door before pushing through any interest in signing Bayern Munich's Joao Palhinha, football.london understands.
Spurs are looking to improve Thomas Frank's squad this summer for a season that brings with it a return to the Champions League. After last summer brought a flood of teenage signings alongside one senior transfer in Dominic Solanke, Tottenham are targeting more ready-made players this time around to ensure the new head coach can get off to a faster start across all competitions.
They have already brought in Premier League experience in the shape of £55million arrival Mohammed Kudus from West Ham as well as making Mathys Tel's loan move permanent for around £30million after the Bayern man experienced English football in the first half of 2025 on loan at the north London club.
Kevin Danso's loan move from Lens also automatically became permanent this summer in a £21million deal after his half-season with Tottenham. New £5million man Kota Takai is the only summer signing who is yet to play in the Premier League.
Spurs have also been trying to sign Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White only for legal complications to currently surround that potential £60million transfer.
Another player with Premier League experience that Tottenham have an interest in is former Fulham man Palhinha, who moved to Bayern a year ago. The 30-year-old's £46million switch to Germany has not been a successful one though so far with just six Bundesliga starts and only nine across all competitions for the Bavarian giants.
Palhinha was not helped in November last year when he suffered a torn muscle fibre in his right adductor while training with the Portugal national team. That kept him out of action for two-and-a-half months and was followed by an illness and a red card against Bochum with a subsequent one-game suspension and he struggled for minutes after that as Bayern won the Bundesliga.
At this month's Club World Cup in the USA, the Portuguese played just 45 minutes in the dead rubber final group stage defeat against Benfica.
Spurs' interest in Palhinha goes back to his Fulham days when he impressed across 79 appearances for the Cottagers, having almost joined Bayern in 2023 only for the London side to fail to find a replacement before that summer window shut.
football.london understands that while there is that interest in the experienced Bayern man and he is one of a number of candidates Spurs are looking at as a new defensive midfielder for the squad, there would first need to be at least one departure from an area of the squad that currently contains Yves Bissouma, Rodrigo Bentancur, Lucas Bergvall, Pape Matar Sarr and Archie Gray, while James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski can also play in deeper roles as can potential signing Gibbs-White.
Bissouma and Bentancur are both approaching the final 11 months of their contracts, although it was notable that Frank mentioned wanting to fit the Uruguayan into his team this season in his first club interview. There has been plenty of talk of a new deal for Bentancur while Bissouma looks to be the odd man out after struggling to find consistency since arriving from Brighton in 2022.
Tottenham are also governed by club-trained homegrown issues which currently mean that with their bloated squad they have to attempt to squeeze 31 senior players into 21 spots in their Champions League squad and that's not including Gibbs-White.
There is also the price tag when it comes to Palhinha. Reports in Germany suggest a fee anywhere up to €30million (£26million) would be reuired, as Bayern look to recoup as much of what they paid Fulham as possible. That is a fee that would appear to go against Tottenham's policy of only spending bigger sums on younger players.
With the Portuguese now in his 30s and having played so little football last season, a loan with an option to buy will be a more appealing scenario for Spurs unless that price tag drops. Tottenham had some interest in Frank's former Brentford captain Christian Norgaard, but the 31-year-old moved to Arsenal in a deal worth only an initial £10million. The Dane had two years left on his contract compared to Palhinha's three but he had more Premier League experience than the former Fulham man.
Frank was asked in his first Tottenham press conference whether the club would look at more signings with English top flight experience.
"I think it’s a plus to have Premier League experience, I don’t think it’s the most important [thing]. For me when I look at a player, I think, is it a good player? The ability is most important. If it is a very good player I don’t think he has a problem playing in the Premier League," he said.
"I know it is very intense, very physical but I don’t think any problems for any player to play here. Of course, different times in careers, things like that, but not the only thing we’re looking into."
Frank has also made it clear that while he wants a strong squad, he needs to make decisions over which players need to leave in the weeks ahead.
"No doubt if you want to compete in all tournaments you need a competitive squad, a robust squad. There’s a lot of competitive players in the squad. It’s an exciting squad. There’s no doubt the club is in the market and looking. I would like to speak when a player comes in and not about the market," he said.
"It’s always a balance, the squad size, how big, how small should it be to compete. I know Tottenham. I know the players, I’ve seen a lot but I need to know them one to one, need to train them and getting input every single day about them to give me more knowledge. But if you want to compete you need to use the squad well."
One position Frank appeared to rule out for the mean time in the transfer market is another forward.
"I think the front three, four, depending on if we play with a 10 and a front three, with Dominic up there, I think Richarlison is a good striker, I know he’s been struggling with injuries, I think he was having a strong end to the season and was very important for the team to win the Europa League trophy," he said.
"Brennan, Kulusevski, I know he’s out for a little bit of a while but he’s still there, Maddison, Odobert, Mathys Tel and now Kudus. I think that’s a strong, creative frontline and I’m 100 per cent sure we will score a lot of goals."
The Morgan Gibbs-White mess, a departure from the club and Thomas Frank's first set of matches as Spurs boss - click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham! Or click here to watch on YouTube!
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