Tottenham Hotspur have two games left to save their Premier League status, but for three players in particular, Chelsea away and Everton at home could be the last matches they ever play in a Spurs shirt; and we have now identified what is at stake for each of them.
The 1-1 draw with Leeds United bought some breathing room, but not much. Spurs are still in the thick of a relegation battle that nobody at this club wants to think about, and with just Chelsea away and Everton at home left to play, the margin for error is gone. Every player on the pitch has a reason to give everything they have left.
For most of the squad, that’s straightforward enough. Points, survival, the league table. But for Richarlison, João Palhinha, and Rodrigo Bentancur, these final two games carry an extra weight that has nothing to do with the table.
Their futures at Tottenham are genuinely uncertain, and what they do in the next 180 minutes will shape what happens next.
According to TransferMarkt and the option-to-buy Spurs have in Palhinha’s loan, the trio are worth around £65m in total heading into the summer.
Richarlison rumoured to have an exit agreement with Tottenham, but he can still finish on his own terms
This one is not easy to write, and anyone who watched Richarlison against Leeds knows why. He was physical, combative, constantly pressing, constantly making life miserable for the centre-backs.
That is the Richarlison Spurs thought they were getting when they paid £50m for him in 2022. On nights like Monday, you see exactly why the fee felt justifiable.
Of course, the reality of his time at Tottenham has been more complicated than one good performance. Injuries have derailed him repeatedly, and De Zerbi has made clear he wants a different profile up front going forward.
Reports from ESPN Brazil have also confirmed that a verbal agreement is already in place for Richarlison to leave at the end of this season for around £21.8m. Flamengo remain interested. Turkey has emerged as the likelier destination. Everton, the club where he became a cult figure, continue to monitor the situation.
What makes this harder is that Richarlison has been Tottenham’s top scorer across all competitions this season; ten goals in what has been a genuinely desperate campaign. He kept showing up even when the club was falling apart around him, even when he was in and out of the team, even when it was clear to everyone that his time here was running out.
These two games are his farewell tour. If he gives everything at Stamford Bridge and at Goodison Road, which his recent performances suggest he will, then Spurs fans can send him off with the gratitude he has earned. He deserves that much from this club.
Joao Palhinha needs to convince himself as much as anyone else
Of the three players here, João Palhinha‘s situation is the most complex, but it is also the one with the clearest path to a good outcome for Spurs.
Tottenham hold an option to sign Palhinha permanently from Bayern Munich for £22m at the end of his loan spell. Roberto De Zerbi has said publicly that he wants him to stay.
Since De Zerbi arrived, Palhinha has looked like a completely different player: authoritative, dominant in defensive midfield, the kind of presence this squad has been crying out for. His partnership with Rodrigo Bentancur against Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers offered something we have not seen consistently from this midfield in years.
It is not as simple as just activating the option, though. Palhinha settled in Munich. He liked his life in Germany. Personal reasons could genuinely influence his decision here, and Bayern still hold him under contract through 2028. The reports suggesting a return to Germany has not been fully ruled out are not just noise.
What De Zerbi needs from Palhinha in these final two games is not just solidity. He needs a statement performance: the kind that makes it impossible for Palhinha to imagine himself anywhere else.
A commanding display at Stamford Bridge, where Spurs will need every ounce of defensive structure they can find, could be the moment that tips the decision his way. The club wants him. De Zerbi wants him. The ball is in Palhinha’s court.
Rodrigo Bentancur’s quiet excellence means Spurs cannot afford to lose him
Of the three stories here, Rodrigo Bentancur‘s is the quietest, and that is precisely what makes it the most significant. Bentancur signed a contract extension back in October, which offered some reassurance. But several senior Spurs players have relegation clauses in their deals, and Bentancur is understood to be among them.
AC Milan, who have tracked him for over a year now, are ready to move if Tottenham go down. Former Spurs director Fabio Paratici, who knows Bentancur from their time together at Juventus, is involved with the Milan project. That is not a connection to dismiss lightly.
What makes this situation so frustrating is that Bentancur has been one of the most consistent performers at this club since De Zerbi arrived. The disciplined positioning, the reading of the game, the way he gives structure to everyone around him without ever demanding the spotlight: that is exactly what this system needs. When Bentancur is at his best, Spurs look like a functioning midfield. When he is absent, the gaps are obvious.
He extended his previous deal because he believed in the direction this club was heading under Thomas Frank. That commitment, at a time when Spurs were in genuine difficulty, was not nothing. The question now is whether De Zerbi makes it unmistakably clear, in public and in private, that Bentancur is central to what he is building here. Two games to show it on both sides.
Can Spurs make the right decisions after the final whistle?
Three different situations, three different possible outcomes. Richarlison almost certainly leaving, Palhinha at a crossroads that a performance or two could settle, Bentancur somewhere in between; valued, wanted, but with real alternatives and real uncertainty clouding things.
It remains to be seen how the club handles all three cases in the summer. Spurs have a habit of letting these decisions drift, of not communicating clearly enough, of allowing good players to leave for nothing or near-nothing when a bit of decisive action might have changed the picture. We have seen that pattern too many times to ignore it going into another transfer window.
What we do know is that these next two games will define more than just league status. They will shape futures. And in football, how a player performs when everything is on the line tells you more about who they are than anything that came before.