Three realistic signings Tottenham could make to complement Sandro Tonali midfield revolution

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The summer window is now fully underway, and Tottenham seem intent on completely rebuilding the midfield for Roberto De Zerbi, starting with Sandro Tonali.

Tottenham Hotspur are for once, getting their transfer business done early. After securing free transfers for left-back Andy Robertson and centre-back Marcos Senesi and completing a £50 million move for Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke, it looks like midfield reinforcements are next on the priority list.

Spurs were recently credibly linked with serious interest in Newcastle superstar midfielder Sandro Tonali. Manager Roberto De Zerbi apparently views Tonali as his ideal midfielder and crucial transfer target, but also seems to have the blessing of the Tottenham hierarchy, who are reportedly ready to spend up to £85 million for the midfielder.

But, with a price tag that would surely place the move amongst the most expensive transfers in Premier League history, questions emerged whether Tonali would elevate Spurs enough to justify committing what is surely a sizeable portion of their summer transfer budget.

To understand why those questions emerged, whether they are justified, and what players should Spurs target alongside Tonali, we have to first talk about the fundamental gaps in Spurs’ squad from last season.

Tottenham, adversity, and their issues with control

Fans need not be reminded how dreadful their team has been for almost all of last season. Their awful form nearly ended in the worst way imaginable, relegation, which the team had to avoid on the final day.

One could spend days enumerating the countless factors that created the worst Tottenham season this century.

But, on the tactical side, the predictability of their attack, their lack of creativity and technicality, and how much trouble they had with progressing the ball up the pitch could certainly be counted amongst them.

Taking a look at their ball progression first, Spurs’ midfielders recorded some of the worst passing statistics in the league.

Spurs midfielders rank in the bottom percentiles in almost every meaningful progressive and forward passing metric, both in Europe’s top 5 leagues and in the Premier League, and also had one of the lowest volumes of passes completed (Spurs completed only 12,899 passes in the 2025/2026 season, the 18th least in the league)

One of Spurs’ biggest problems had also been consistently accessing attacking spaces, especially in the early phases of buildup. Despite one of the highest volumes of passes in the defensive third of the pitch, almost 35% of all of Tottenham’s passes there were unsuccessful, indicating a reliance on passing in the defensive third but an inability to complete those passes while resisting opposition pressure.

Their progression woes forced Tottenham to basically hinge their Premier League survival on their capacity to abuse set-piece tactics, scoring the most set-piece goals in the league alongside Arsenal.

Only one of the statistics highlighting how stiff and ineffective Tottenham’s passing game was, is multiple individual Premier League players completing more through passes (Bruno Fernandes, 51) last season than Tottenham have even attempted during their entire season (28).

Spurs had also had a clear problem with controlling games, not giving up leads when ahead, and coming back from deficits. They collected the 16th fewest points after falling behind(7), while also dropping the 7th most points from winning positions (19).

These statistics are almost completely antithetical to the way Roberto De Zerbi wants and needs his teams to play to execute his tactics. De Zerbi-ball requires his players to be highly technical and comfortable in possession, to draw in an opposition press and play through it with intricate passing to access the space in behind.

In this sense, the kind of skillset Spurs need to bring in to fill the gap in their squad really couldn’t be any more obvious. They are in desperate need of a player profile that would ease their struggles with progression from deep areas, help them with accessing the final third of the pitch, while also being capable of controlling the game’s tempo where necessary.

And the problem with Sandro Tonali is that he doesn’t really do any of that.

The profile Sandro Tonali would need to function at Spurs

Two truths can exist simultaneously about Sandro Tonali.

He is a fantastic player that would immediately become the best player in that position at Spurs.

His signing wouldn’t in any meaningful way solve the biggest underlying issues with the Tottenham squad, and his £100 million price tag could probably be better spent elsewhere.

We’ve already covered quite extensively the kind of player Tonali is and why he might be wanted by De Zerbi, as well as the biggest problems with his signing.

To recap, Tonali can be looked at as an incredibly talented generalist profile that excels in big spaces and dead-ball situations, works incredibly well out of posession and helps with the general cohesion of his team, while at the same time struggling to receive in deep spaces and progressing the ball with his passing, he isn’t necessarily press resistant and doesn’t like to receive on the turn, while still ranking well above Tottenham’s other squad options in all of these statistics.

Without a progressive passer alongside Tonali, who would allow the Italian to sit higher up the pitch, his effectiveness drops massively.

But, as we covered, Roberto De Zerbi is pushing Tonali as his ideal midfielder and wants the Tottenham board to make a statement with his signing.

So, who are the progressive passers Spurs could realistically sign to make sure Tonali can play with full effectiveness at Spurs?

One way we can approach filling the skill gap at Spurs is to look at players performing well in the progressive and forward passing metrics, press resistance, and their ability to receive the ball on the turn.

We highlight three players we think fit the mold and are realistic transfer targets for Spurs.

Nico Gonzales is Prem proven and could be a reduced deal for Tottenham

While Manchester City’s Nico Gonzales is less of an obvious outlier, with City looking to move him on to make space for Elliot Anderson, Tottenham could look to benefit from a reduced price deal.

Despite his less impressive numbers in terms of sheer passing and progressive passing volume (which would still be a massive upgrade on anything available to Tottenham right now), Gonzales definitely possesses the raw attributes that make him perfect to play the role of a deep-lying playmaker and tempo controller at Spurs.

Gonzales could arrive at Tottenham with a season and a half already played in the Premier League, and would likely benefit from the consistent minutes he’d be getting in North London, giving him a chance to step up a level.

With Spurs also hot in pursuit of another city player, Savinho, there could be an opportunity there to kill two birds with one stone.

Manuel Locatelli has been linked to Spurs, and his abundant experience could be crucial

Juventus’ Manuel Locatelli is the biggest outlier in passing statistics in Europe. He ranks in the 100th percentile (meaning there are no players better than him) in both forward and progressive pass completion.

Locatelli is outstanding in controlling games and dictating the tempo of play, and while he’s one of the less dynamic of the best European midfielders, the role that he would fill at Spurs would likely be less athletic and focused at taking the ball off the centre-backs and launching attacks.

At 28, he’s reached his peak as a player and would bring with him mountains of experience. But above all, he has already been linked to Spurs before, and is supposedly admired by Roberto De Zerbi. It would take some convincing to pry away Juventus’ captain from their team, but Roberto De Zerbi has shown that many players would jump at the first opportunity to work with him.

Angelo Stiller is ready for a move to a big club and Spurs could be his destination

Angelo Stiller’s progression has been almost metronomic, and the young player has consistently improved in Bundesliga’s Stuttgart. He’s already been attracting considerable attention from other Premier League clubs, notably from Manchester United.

Stiller’s game is practically fully developed, and he has all of the qualities necessary to thrive at the highest level of play. He’s comfortable under pressure, incredibly gifted technically, and his vision would, without a doubt, facilitate constructing counterattacks for Roberto De Zerbi. While the intensity of the Premier League has proven challenging for other players making the step up from the Bundesliga before, Stiller’s release clause, valued at £37.5 million, would make him a fairly comfortable purchase to make for Tottenham alongside a potential transfer for Sandro Tonali.

How do these players fare against Spurs’ midfielders?

Finally, here are how our potential transfer targets, as well as a few honourable mentions, look like on the progressive passing charts compared to our available players.

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