Tottenham's Transfer Riddle: The Search for a 'Bomba' Signing
Roberto De Zerbi lit the fuse with a single word.
“Bomba.”
One hint in a press conference, one promise that Tottenham are close to landing a “bomb” of a signing, and Spurs supporters have spent the week trying to solve a transfer riddle. Six signings and a club-record £237million outlay have not dulled the Italian’s appetite; by his own reckoning, only 60 per cent of the work is done. He wants more firepower. He wants it now.
The need has sharpened since Eli Junior Kroupi’s foot injury. Surgery and up to four months out have ended Spurs’ pursuit of the 20-year-old Bournemouth striker and forced a rethink at the top of the pitch. One target gone, a new shortlist drawn up. Five names, five very different ways to answer De Zerbi’s demand for goals and aggression.
Deniz Undav – the late bloomer with a ruthless edge
Deniz Undav has slipped out of the Premier League and straight into the Bundesliga’s elite. Since leaving Brighton for Stuttgart, the 30-year-old has turned into a goals machine: 19 league goals last season, rattled in at 0.76 per 90 minutes. Only a handful of strikers across Europe’s top five leagues could match that efficiency.
He always had flashes at Brighton – that deft lob at Arsenal in 2023 lingers in the memory – but Germany has brought out the predator in him. He carried that form into the World Cup, too, where he became Germany’s super-sub, with three goals and two assists in just 69 group-stage minutes.
Undav is not just a finisher. He drops off the line, links play, and lets wide forwards burst past him into space. It is exactly the kind of profile De Zerbi covets, a striker who can knit together intricate moves and still attack the box with conviction.
His age is the obvious question mark. At 30, he offers instant impact rather than long-term resale. Yet De Zerbi has made his preference clear: proven ability over raw promise. If Tottenham want a ready-made scorer who understands the demands of a high-tempo, possession-heavy side, Undav fits the bill.
Brian Brobbey – the battering ram who won’t stop running
If Undav is the craftsman, Brian Brobbey is the wrecking ball.
The Sunderland and Netherlands striker has just come off a superb debut season in the Premier League and an eye-catching World Cup. He led the Dutch line as they topped their group, scoring three times and combining brute strength with sharp movement in the penalty area.
Tottenham do not need a scouting report to understand the damage he can do. Brobbey bullied their defence at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in January, scoring in a 1-1 draw, and he dominated again in De Zerbi’s first match in charge of Spurs, a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light. Those two games offered the Italian a close-up view of Brobbey’s relentlessness.
He presses, he harries, he holds the ball up, then crashes into the box to finish moves. That intensity mirrors the aggressive pressing game De Zerbi is trying to impose in north London. Brobbey would not just lead the line; he would set the tone.
Omar Marmoush – a talent in need of rescuing
Omar Marmoush is a different type of puzzle. The Manchester City forward is already on Tottenham’s radar and offers a mix of versatility and unfulfilled promise.
The Egyptian arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt in January 2025 and started brightly in the Premier League, but his momentum stalled. Last season he managed only three league goals in his first full campaign at City and is now viewed as surplus to requirements.
Look past the headline numbers, though, and the appeal becomes clearer. Marmoush can drop deep, drift wide, or dart in behind. He has shown he can score in this league, even if confidence deserted him last term. At 27, he sits right in the age bracket De Zerbi wants: old enough to deliver immediately, young enough to sustain a peak.
This would be a reclamation project. De Zerbi would need to rebuild Marmoush’s belief in front of goal, but the tools are there. If Spurs back their head coach to unlock a player City no longer need, Marmoush could be the shrewd, flexible option that knits together an evolving front line.
Savinho – raw pace, rawer end product
Savinho has been on Tottenham’s radar for some time, and this summer his name has returned to the conversation. Not as the “bomba” itself, but as the supporting act.
The Brazilian winger brings exactly what De Zerbi craves out wide: pace, direct running, and a willingness to attack defenders one-on-one. He wants a move to north London, and stylistically, it makes sense.
The numbers, though, tell a story of a player still under construction. Just one league goal last season underlines the work needed on his final ball and composure in front of goal. Savinho finds the right spaces, stretches defences, and gets into promising positions, but the finish often lets him down.
For De Zerbi, that is a challenge rather than a deterrent. He would back himself to sharpen Savinho’s decision-making and execution in the final third. And if Spurs pulled off a double move for Savinho and Marmoush, the message would be unmistakable: a top-six finish would shift from ambition to expectation.
Bradley Barcola – the fantasy “bomba”
Then there is the dream scenario.
In trying to explain his “bomba” remark before facing Chelsea, De Zerbi defined it simply: a player with top-level ability. Few fit that description more cleanly than Bradley Barcola.
The Paris Saint-Germain winger, a two-time Champions League winner, wants out of the French capital in search of more minutes. In a squad packed with attacking stars, he risks becoming collateral, an elite talent squeezed by the sheer weight of competition. Liverpool have made him a key target this summer.
For Spurs, this would be a signing that rips up the script. There is no sign they are currently in a position to pull it off, no suggestion that a deal is close. But if they somehow did the unthinkable, the rest of the Premier League would have to sit up, and quickly.
Barcola would not just be a coup; he would be a statement that Tottenham are ready to move into a different tier of recruitment. The kind of arrival that turns a throwaway “bomba” line into a defining moment of an era.
For now, the identity of De Zerbi’s mystery man remains locked away. The shortlist is clear, the needs are obvious, and the clock is ticking. Whoever walks through the doors next at Hotspur Way will not just be another signing. He will tell the league exactly what kind of Tottenham De Zerbi is building.
