Tottenham Eyes Double Transfer Deal for Marmoush and Savinho
Tottenham are pushing hard on two fronts as the transfer window ticks towards its 1 September deadline – and both roads lead to Manchester City.
Roberto De Zerbi wants attacking reinforcements, and Spurs have locked on to Omar Marmoush and Savinho in what could become a double swoop worth up to, or even beyond, £140 million.
City’s contrasting situations
The weekend team sheets underlined how delicate the situation has become at City.
Savinho was nowhere to be seen in Enzo Maresca’s squad for the Premier League opener against Bournemouth. He had featured in every pre-season game, then suddenly missed training three days before the match because he was “a little bit ill”. From ever-present to absent in the space of a week – and with a transfer saga swirling around him.
Marmoush, by contrast, stayed in the picture. The forward was on the bench, just as he had been in the Community Shield against Arsenal, where he came on as a substitute. Maresca continues to use him, and his status feels far less clear-cut.
The Italian head coach did not hide the difference between the two cases.
“Omar is still here, still with us, it’s a different situation to Savio and we see,” Maresca said. “Savio, since day one, asked to leave, and Omar didn’t ask to leave since day one, not yet.
“It’s always complicated when someone leaves, and one has to arrive. We’ll see if Omar stays or what happens.”
The message was blunt. One player has pushed for the exit from the start. The other has not.
Maresca went further, linking Savinho’s stance to previous high-profile departures.
“It’s quite clear that when players want to leave for any reason, it is complicated to convince them to stay and to change. It happened with Rodri, the same is happening with Savinho.
“Since day one, he has been clear that he wants to leave. Now we are waiting. It’s complicated when players are clear they want a new challenge, or they want to go to Spain or play more minutes, it becomes complicated to convince them to stay.”
City know the script. A player decides. The club reacts. Tottenham are trying to be the ones who capitalise.
De Zerbi keeps his cards close
On the other side of the deal, De Zerbi is choosing his words carefully.
Asked directly about Savinho in his pre-match press conference, the Spurs head coach refused to cross the line into anything that could be read as premature confirmation.
“It’s not right to speak about the players until they are official,” he said. “Just to say, I’m very happy. We have not finished yet in the transfer market.”
The smile is there between the lines, but the paperwork is not. Not yet.
Then came a jolt back to reality. A 3-0 defeat to Brentford, and with it a reminder of why Tottenham are ready to spend heavily before the window closes.
After that loss, De Zerbi spoke less about individual targets and more about the people above him – and the scale of what Spurs are trying to build under the Lewis family ownership.
“I am very happy and I think I can’t speak about the other coaches [in the past],” he said. “I just can say, in my experience, they kept their word, they kept what they said before I came in March, the end of March, in the middle of March, and then very happy.
“But what we are doing is not for the coach. It’s for the club, for the fans, for the history of the club, for the pride of the club, and for the level of the club. I think this moment is crucial for this club, because after two seasons like we had, we have to change the mood, completely change it, give it a boost.
“Then, I think when we have finished in this transfer market, for a long time we don’t need many things and we can work all together in the right condition, in the right direction, to build step by step something special, or to go to compete for the top of the table.”
That is the backdrop to the Marmoush–Savinho chase. Not just two signings, but a statement about where Tottenham intend to sit in the Premier League hierarchy.
The clock is running. City are waiting on a resolution. Savinho has made his intentions clear. Marmoush’s future hangs in the balance.
Tottenham now have a choice: turn interest into a defining double deal, or watch two of the summer’s most intriguing attacking options slip away as the window slams shut.
