Tottenham's Bold Double Deal: Savinho and Marmoush
Tottenham are on the brink of one of the boldest double moves of the window, closing in on Manchester City pair Savinho and Omar Marmoush as their summer spending surges past the £200m mark.
£85m Savinho deal set to smash City record
Spurs have agreed an £85m package for Savinho. The structure is aggressive: £75m up front for the Brazil international, with a further £10m in add-ons. Around £5m of those bonuses are regarded as virtually guaranteed, meaning City stand to bank at least £80m.
The 22-year-old is due in north London for a medical on Friday afternoon, a key step in a move that would become a club-record sale for Manchester City. It would eclipse Julian Alvarez’s £82m switch to Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2024.
Savinho has never fully broken through at the Etihad. Since joining City in 2024, he has largely been a supporting act, starting only seven of his 24 Premier League games last season. One goal, two assists, flashes of talent – but never a nailed-on starter in a squad crammed with attacking options.
For Spurs, he is anything but a bit-part signing.
Marmoush talks advanced as Spurs push for double swoop
Alongside Savinho, Tottenham are also deep in talks for City forward Omar Marmoush. Negotiations are described as advanced and moving in the right direction, with the Egypt international understood to be keen on the switch to north London.
If completed, the deal would further underline Spurs’ new, aggressive transfer stance: taking players from the Premier League champions to fast-track a rebuild, rather than circling around the edges of the market.
Both Savinho and Marmoush have been viewed as expendable at City this summer, but they are far from fringe-level names for a club trying to crash the elite party.
A £200m summer and a new Spurs strategy
This is not a scattergun splurge. It is a statement.
Tottenham have already committed more than £200m on six first-team signings before Savinho and Marmoush are even counted. Two big-money midfielders led the charge: Sandro Tonali and Matheus Fernandes arrived from Newcastle and West Ham respectively for a combined £185m, reshaping the heart of the team in one window.
At the back, Jan Paul van Hecke joined from Brighton for £52m, effectively stepping in for Cristian Romero. Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka all came through the door on free transfers, adding experience and depth without further denting the budget.
The numbers are huge. The logic, inside the club, is clear.
Tottenham’s financial power has quietly grown over the last decade. The club has qualified for European competition in 18 of the last 20 seasons, and the stadium has become a money-making machine – boxing, concerts, NFL games, the lot. Those events have turned matchdays into year-round revenue streams.
The Deloitte Money League now lists Spurs as the ninth richest club in the world, with annual revenues of £549.2m, ahead of Chelsea. On top of that, the Premier League’s shift from PSR to a squad cost ratio model has benefited them, loosening some of the constraints that previously shaped spending.
The bigger change, though, is at the top. Daniel Levy’s departure at the start of last season marked the end of an era of caution. The new leadership and ownership promised supporters, after the club survived relegation on the final day, that first-team investment would match the club’s financial strength.
This summer, they are making good on that promise.
Maresca: Savinho wanted out “from day one”
On the other side of the deal, there is no sense of City being ambushed. New manager Enzo Maresca, preparing for his first season in charge after Pep Guardiola’s departure, has been blunt about Savinho’s stance.
“Since day one, he has asked me that he wants to leave,” Maresca admitted, explaining that once a player’s mind is set on a new challenge, persuasion becomes “complicated”.
The Italian has already seen Ballon d'Or and World Cup-winning midfielder Rodri agree a move to Barcelona, another seismic exit in a summer of change at the Etihad. In both cases, Maresca framed it the same way: when a player is thinking about more minutes, a different league, or simply a fresh start, holding them back rarely works.
Savinho’s desire to go, combined with Tottenham’s willingness to pay, has pushed this deal to the brink.
City face late-window questions
Inside City, there is acceptance that both Savinho and Marmoush are effectively surplus to requirements. Maresca has been clear that they are free to stay and fight for their place, but the reality is simple: if a player wants regular first-team football and a serious offer arrives, City will not stand in the way.
That stance creates a new problem. With less than a fortnight left in the window, City now stare at the prospect of replacing one – and possibly two – attacking options at short notice. These are not minor squad roles to casually plug with academy graduates. They are positions that need depth, quality and, in a title-chasing side, instant impact.
The champions would “definitely” need to replace at least one of them and would aim to bring in two, but time is running out.
Tottenham, by contrast, are moving with the urgency of a club that has decided its place is at the top end of the table, not clinging on at the bottom. If Savinho passes his medical and Marmoush’s deal is pushed over the line, the question will not be whether Spurs have spent enough.
It will be whether this new, fearless version of the club can turn all that money into a team nobody wants to face.
