Last night, a Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumor bombshell dropped with numerous highly reliable sources reporting that Spurs and Manchester City are in talks over the signing of 20-year-old Brazilian winger Savinho. This morning, new details are starting to trickle in.
Previous reporting from yesterday had suggested Spurs had made an initial inquiry of around €40m, but Tom Allnut at the Times now writes that City are demanding a fee of around £50m to make sure the transfer goes through.
…Okay?
Look, my initial feelings about Savinho was that, despite being signed for just over £30m just last summer, it would probably take over twice that to get him out of City. I guess I wasn’t too far off, but honestly I’d have been just fine spending £65m or so for a 20-year-old dribbly winger who has a proven assist record and who underperformed his xG by 4 goals last season in limited minutes.
£50m for a player like Savinho feels like a no-brainer, and since yesterday’s bombshell there has been subsequent reporting that Savinho is keen to leave City and is very willing to move to Spurs. Savinho is currently making just £40k/wk at City, so Tottenham would easily be able to give him a significant bump in pay. Since the initial reports, David Ornstein has also posted that Tottenham’s interest in Savinho is very, very real and that things are progressing. Getting Savinho in plus an (eventual) backup 10 like Bilal El Khannouss from Leicester City, and baby you got a stew going.
It still begs the question why City are willing to let Savinho leave just 12 months after signing him, but I think we know the answer to that now.
Well, there we go. Spurs were of course somewhat spuriously (see what I did there?) linked with Rodrygo earlier in the window until reports came out that the player had no intention of leaving Real Madrid for Tottenham. But City selling a player or two to fund a £100m bid for Rodrygo would explain why they might be willing to let Savinho go.
This is a story that is continually developing, so I have no doubt there will be some important update as soon as I hit “publish” on this story, but at this point it does really feel like more of a matter of time before we get confirmation that an agreement has been reached. Y’all, the vibes around Spurs have been pretty rancid lately, but there’s nothing a new signing can’t cure, and I fervently hope that this is one that happens sooner rather than later.