Listen to an audio version of this article on Spotify here.
Roberto De Zerbi deserves great credit for being able to steady the ship at the most crucial moment of the 2025/26 campaign, though Palhinha's loan signing was certainly one of the very few success stories of the season.
Biggest goal in Spurs' recent history
The 30-year-old Portuguese midfielder's work rate and combative presence in Spurs' midfield shone like a beacon in some games where his colleagues often looked like they wanted to be anywhere other than on the pitch.
That goal against the Toffees will be worth millions to the club, but it's what else he brought to the team that could be regarded as more important.
It's that which makes the news that the player is set to turn the North Londoners down in their attempts to tie him to a permanent deal more difficult to bear.
Reports from Portugal suggest that the player is hoping to engineer a return to his boyhood club, Sporting, for family reasons, and only a complete reversal of his mindset would allow Tottenham to re-enter the equation. That's despite him initially seeming keen to stay in North London.
Deal agreed with Bayern
Tottenham had agreed a €30m option with Palhinha's parent club, Bayern Munich, to make the deal permanent at the conclusion of the loan period; however, the nuance with this particular deal is that Palhinha himself was always going to be allowed to have the final say.
Now it appears he has made his decision, and it's one that will leave the Tottenham hierarchy and their supporters none too happy.
In total, the Portuguese made 47 appearances in all competitions for Spurs, scoring seven goals and providing two assists.
Despite being a defensive midfielder, that output was only second to Richarlison (12 goals, five assists) across the whole Tottenham squad.
Great all-round numbers
The Brazilian striker was also the only player to have contested more duels than Palhinha, his 413 slightly more than the Portuguese's 406, with both being the only players to have attempted more than 400.
Of those one-on-ones, however, Palhinha was much more purposeful, having posted a 60.84% success rate compared to Richarlison's 44.07%.
122 ball recoveries also saw the midfielder in the top bracket in terms of Spurs player output in this regard.
Although aerial duels wouldn't necessarily be considered as Palhinha's forte, his winning of 48 of them placed him behind only Kevin Danso (108) and Richarlison (92).
His 57.55% tackle success rate wasn't the best in the squad either, and indeed, was one of only four to not breach 60% in this regard.
This particular metric is a little misleading, however, given that with 139 tackles attempted, Palhinha was the only player to make more than a century of tackles, with Pedro Porro's 96 attempted the next best showing.
Porro (47) and Rodrigo Bentancur (45) were the only two players to have made more interceptions than the midfielder's 40 over the course of the season, too.
With 1,459 passes made, Palhinha was behind only Porro, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero in terms of his output, and an 83.62% completion rate underscores his all-round excellence.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going
Perhaps what was most notable about his game is that no balls were a lost cause for the midfielder, and every last drop of effort was given in every game he was selected for.
In many respects, he was the exemplar in that Tottenham team, and a player who produced the type of physical and combative performances that all of his colleagues could learn from.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and that's a saying that's perfectly applicable here.
In all likelihood, De Zerbi is not going to be able to call upon that excellence from 2026/27 onwards, and unless they can secure a high-level replacement quickly, that could be a real problem for Spurs.
Whilst the Italian loves to play his particular brand of passing football, which has always been pleasing on the eye, he still needs a midfield enforcer or two to ensure that the silkier exponents in the squad can go about their work with relative ease.
Whether his powers of persuasion can stretch to ensuring Palhinha at least has some food for thought is anyone's guess, but assuming the status quo remains the same, Tottenham's first piece of transfer business this summer would have to be plugging the huge gap that the Portuguese will leave behind.
