Conor Gallagher: A Fresh Start with Tottenham
Conor Gallagher stands on the Accor Stadium touchline this week as a symbol of Tottenham’s reset. New country, new season, old rival. Chelsea again – but this time in Sydney, under southern-hemisphere floodlights and in a Spurs shirt that now feels like it truly belongs to him.
The 26-year-old midfielder faced the cameras on Friday ahead of the friendly against his former club, with around 80,000 fans expected inside the stadium. For a pre-season game, it carries an edge.
“It’s amazing. I didn’t quite realise how popular Spurs are in Australia,” Gallagher admitted. The players have felt it all week: packed training sessions, shirts everywhere, noise even for rondos. “The fans have been incredible. They’ve shown a lot of support since we’ve been here. Even today in training, it was great to have them watch training.”
For a squad that spent last season staring down the barrel, this tour has doubled as therapy. Sunshine, new faces, a different mood. Gallagher has sensed it.
“Everyone’s in a great mood and we’re really looking forward to a big game tomorrow,” he said. “It’s a fresh start, fresh players, faces, new way of playing and trying to get everyone on the same page to understand how we play and what the manager wants us to do.”
From doubt to driving force
It has not been a smooth ride in north London. When Gallagher arrived from Atletico Madrid in January, plenty of Tottenham supporters questioned the move. The early months were sticky; the rhythm he once had at Chelsea seemed to have drained away.
He knows it. The manager knew it too.
“I wasn’t playing very well, but he knew what I can do,” Gallagher said of Roberto De Zerbi. The Italian had faced him enough times in the Premier League to have a clear picture. “Obviously, when he was at Brighton and me at Chelsea, we played against each other a lot. He thought I was a good player, so he knew what I had to do to improve and to get that belief back. That’s the main thing that has helped me.”
Belief turned into performances. Gallagher grew into an integral part of De Zerbi’s midfield during the run-in, pressing high, snapping into tackles, and chipping in with a crucial goal at Aston Villa as Spurs clawed their way to safety. That late surge, he insists, has to be the launchpad.
“Massive,” he said when asked about carrying that form into the new campaign. “A big reason why I started to perform better was because of the gaffer coming in. It gave me a bit of confidence back and physically I was feeling stronger. Pre-season is really important for me. I want to push on from that and kick on and hopefully help the club to a good season.”
Confidence, he says, isn’t about how things ended at Chelsea. It’s simpler than that.
“Confidence can come and go in a game, but when you get a run at games and you’re playing well, you feel fit, you feel strong, you get confidence back and that’s the way it was.”
Simeone, De Zerbi and a midfielder reborn
Gallagher’s journey has already taken him through two of the most distinctive coaching minds in European football. Diego Simeone at Atletico. De Zerbi now at Spurs. Different leagues, different styles, same demand for intensity.
“Honestly, Diego is an amazing manager and what he’s done at Atletico is incredible,” Gallagher said. The Argentine left his mark, but it is De Zerbi who has rebuilt him in England. For the midfielder, the common thread is trust.
“In football, confidence is a massive thing and every player needs to have confidence if you’re going to perform well. That’s what the gaffer realised with me.”
The Italian has nudged Gallagher higher up the pitch. While Tottenham have invested heavily in two new number eights this summer, the England international has been used as a number 10, both at the end of last season and throughout this pre-season.
“To be honest, I’m happy to play anywhere the manager wants to play me,” he said. “The 10 or number eight in the double pivot, it’s fine. I enjoy playing anywhere in midfield. I’ve found myself in the 10 more often.
“It’s nice to run forward and I can do what I do best and press well and try and lead from the front. I don’t really mind.”
That blend of legs, aggression and willingness to hunt the ball high up the pitch suits De Zerbi’s plan. It also suits a squad that wants to erase the memory of last year’s struggle.
A new edge in midfield
Tottenham’s summer recruitment has focused heavily on the middle of the park. Quality, depth, character – words that have been repeated around the camp. Gallagher embraces all of it.
“Obviously we have made some great signings already, which is really good for the club,” he said. “Great lads too, not just good footballers, which I think is really important to have the right characters and people with us. It’s only going to make us stronger.”
He knows what comes with that. More competition. Fewer guarantees.
“When you play for a club like Tottenham, if there’s not competition for a starting XI spot then something is wrong,” he said. “Obviously that’s what comes in playing for such a top club. All the new signings are great lads, like I said. It’s been great so far.”
The atmosphere around the group, he insists, is unrecognisable from the tension of last spring.
“Yes, it’s a lot more enjoyable,” Gallagher said of training. “Not being in the situation we were last season, obviously like we spoke about, it’s a fresh start… So in pre-season, that’s what it’s all been about. It’s just understanding the way we want to play. So we’re ready for the season.”
Does it feel like a different team?
“Well, no, because there’s a lot of the same people, which is great. Like I said, it’s just like a fresh kind of start and everyone’s just very excited to make things better.”
Setting standards for the next wave
Gallagher is 26 now. No longer the academy prospect chasing minutes, but the player younger teammates watch. He sounds slightly surprised by that shift.
“It’s weird because it only feels like you have a day when I was 18, 19 and in the same position,” he said. That memory shapes how he handles the club’s emerging talent. “I completely understand where those boys are at and I try and do what I can to set the standards on and off the pitch and show how professional you’ve got to be. I try and help them as much as I can.”
On Saturday night in Sydney, those younger players will see him walk out against Chelsea in front of a sold-out crowd, in a derby being staged on the other side of the world. It is only pre-season on paper. On the pitch, it is a chance for Gallagher to show his old club the player De Zerbi believes he still is – and to show Spurs supporters that last season’s late surge was just the beginning.
