A big summer for Tottenham Hotspur has not just seen them go unbeaten in pre-season but blow their transfer record out of the water on two occasions to welcome a pair of the Premier League‘s best midfielders to north London.
Mateus Fernandes was the first across the line in an £85m deal only for that to be trumped by Italian maestro Sandro Tonali who became one of the most expensive players in the division’s history, signing for £100m.
They are extraordinarily good signings for a side that finished 17th in the league last term and they have already made immediate impacts for the Lilywhites.
Fernandes scored an incredible volley on his debut against MK Dons while Tonali found the net during a 2-1 win over Chelsea.
Despite their additions, another midfielder could be on the way for Spurs.
Does De Zerbi need to sign a third midfielder?
The priority for Tottenham in the closing weeks of the transfer window will be to bolster their forward line.
The likes of Cody Gakpo and Savinho are edging closer towards a switch to London with personal terms already sewn up for the pair of them.
Yet, there could well be a surprise midfield signing in the works. Do they need that? Well, you could argue they do.
Yves Bissouma has already departed Spurs on a free transfer and there could still be exits for the likes of Lucas Bergvall, who has been touted with a switch to Nottingham Forest and for Pape Matar Sarr.
If those two left then De Zerbi’s options would stand as Tonali, Fernandes, Rodrigo Bentancur and Conor Gallagher. It’s a tidy crop of players but there would be room for one more you sense.
After all, Manchester United have already signed two midfielders this summer and are on the verge of adding a third in the shape of Carlos Baleba. Together with Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo, Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans, they will have five options of genuine quality. They cover all bases.
Look at Arsenal, too. They have Declan Rice, Bruno Guimaraes, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and Myles Lewis-Skelly at their disposal.
In comparison, Spurs are missing something. The point we are making here is that they also need a fifth midfielder. So, who could that be?
Spurs’ third midfield signing could be their new Modric
Throughout the course of the summer window, the Lilywhites have cast their net in the direction of plenty of midfielders, perhaps most notably Baleba, Adam Wharton and Alex Scott.
All three have looked unlikely. Baleba is now heading to United while Wharton and Scott have been priced in the region of £80m. Those are not going to happen when you consider they still need to spend big on their forward line.
So, how about Stanislav Lobotka? He is not a household name on English shores but he is of interest to Spurs with reports in Italy, via Sport Witness, suggesting that the £34m-rated midfielder has been the subject of an offer from Tottenham.
The Napoli star is out of contract in the summer of 2027 but currently has desires on signing a new deal and staying in Naples. Still, De Zerbi is trying to entice him to London where greater riches will no doubt lie.
Aged 31, Lobotka would bring experience to the midfield but he’s more than just that. While it may well have been four years ago now, European football expert and writer Kaustubh Pandey noted that the Slovakian had been “the best midfielder in Serie A and one of the best players in the Champions League” in 2022/23.
Such form saw him draw interest from Real Madrid where Carlo Ancelotti was reportedly looking at the midfielder to replace Toni Kroos and Luka Modric.
In the last few years, Lobotka’s impressive performances have continued but what makes him stand out? Well, like Modric, he’s one of the best controllers of possession in Europe.
Indeed, he’s right up there with some of the very best in the land for controlling possession. To help quantify this, we’ve used numbers from DataMB last season who showcased in October 2025 that Lobotka was among the very best midfielders for possession + / -.
What this works out is how many times a player wins or loses the ball for every 100 ball possessions. It combines metrics such as tackles, interceptions and duels won with inaccurate passes and unsuccessful duels. For that very stat, the Spurs-linked midfielder is phenomenal.
For years, Modric has dominated from the middle of the park. He is widely regarded as one of the best tempo-setters and best controllers of a ball the game has ever seen.
The Croatian’s average pass completion rate across his entire career is around 89% while Lobotka’s is even higher at an average of a whopping 92%.
The Slovak will not bring the duel winning ability of someone like Gallagher or Fernandes. He ranked among the worst 37% of midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues last term for tackles and interceptions. He won’t score you many goals either. He has bagged just twice in the last four years.
Yet, what he will do is bring elite control to the centre of the pitch. Sure, he’s not a clone of Modric. Who is? He’s a former Ballon d’Or winner.
However, combine his tactical intelligence, press resistance and passing ability with the more aggressive nature of Tonali and Fernandes and De Zerbi could be on to a winner.
