Tottenham Hotspur have been the busiest Premier League club in the transfer market this summer. They have spent nearly £250million ($337m) on six players, breaking their transfer record twice in the process, and are showing no signs of slowing down.
Spurs are working hard on their pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand and head coach Roberto De Zerbi has teased supporters that something exciting is about to happen.
“But the transfer market, it’s not finished for sure,” the Italian told a group of reporters including The Athletic. “We have completed 60 per cent of our project in the transfer market. Now we have another ‘bomba’.”
The initial reaction to De Zerbi’s comments was that he was talking about Savinho. Spurs tried to sign the Brazilian winger from Manchester City last year and are confident they can finally complete a deal this summer.
However, the “bomba” signing De Zerbi referenced is actually expected to be a different attacking addition.
Last summer under then head coach Thomas Frank, Spurs missed out on Bryan Mbeumo, Eberechi Eze, Antoine Semenyo and Morgan Gibbs-White before signing Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons. Their window was defined by rejection, but everything around the club feels different now. Fans will be dreaming of who this mystery player could be and, crucially, will have genuine belief sporting director Johan Lange, director of football operations Raphael Moersen and chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham can pull the deal off.
The Athletic has considered the needs of the squad and crunched the numbers to draw up a shortlist of potential “bomba” signings. Due to a lack of quality and a long injury list which includes Dejan Kulusevski, Wilson Odobert, Simons and Kudus, we have looked at possible targets across the entire forward line.
Let’s start things off by quickly defining what a “bomba” signing actually is.
We will use Mateus Fernandes’ £85m move from West Ham United to Spurs at the beginning of July as an example. West Ham were relegated last season but Fernandes was one of their standout performers and, at 21, should have the best years of his career ahead of him. Manchester United were considered the frontrunners for his signature so there was an element of surprise when Spurs emerged victorious.
So to break it down, there needs to be a significant amount of money involved for a player already operating at a high level with the potential to become elite. And bonus points for any added drama around the deal.
An elite winger
Bradley Barcola would tick all of the above boxes.
The versatile winger has had to share game time with Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia at Paris Saint-Germain over the last couple of seasons, but has still demonstrated his quality on multiple occasions. The 23-year-old’s finishing needs to be refined but his lightning-quick speed would offer Spurs a threat on the counter.
Barcola has scored 39 times in 152 appearances for back-to-back Champions League winners PSG and popped up with three goals for France at the World Cup, too. He has only two years left on his contract at the Parc des Princes and has made it clear he will not sign a new deal. The Athletic reported earlier this week that Liverpool were preparing to make an opening offer for him and were looking to do a deal around £100m.
That would not deter Spurs as they fought off competition from Manchester United to sign Fernandes and spent a similar fee on Sandro Tonali.
Barcola predominantly plays off the left so the big question around this deal would be whether it is necessary to sign him and Savinho. It would also put Mathys Tel in a precarious position.
Abde Ezzalzouli should have been a breakout star at the World Cup but he suffered a knee injury in Morocco’s final warm-up game which ruled him out of the entire tournament. The 24-year-old is a mazy dribbler who can create space for his team-mates by drawing multiple players towards him or stretch opposition defences with runs in behind.
Brahim Diaz received a lot of plaudits for his performances at the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year, but Ezzalzouli played a crucial role in Morocco’s run to the final. Along with Ismael Saibari, the trio freely interchanged positions which would be fun to see replicated with Xavi and Kudus.
Ezzalzouli’s career has reignited at Real Betis after he spent a couple of years hardly playing for Barcelona. The biggest concern for Spurs would be his end product — he scored 10 goals in La Liga last season, but he has not always been consistent in the final third. Across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 campaigns, he only scored three times in 60 appearances.
He would be a cheaper alternative to some of the other names on this list. De Zerbi has spoken about the need to sign “maybe a couple more players” before the window closes, so Spurs need to be conscious of not spending it all on one target.
A new centre-forward?
Every summer Richarlison is linked with a move away from north London. The 29-year-old has entered the final 12 months of his contract so Spurs need to act quickly if they want to sell him for a decent price.
Richarlison’s international team-mate Endrick would be an exciting prospect. The 20-year-old spent the second half of last season on loan at Lyon from Real Madrid and scored eight goals. He did not cross paths with De Zerbi as the Italian left Marseille by mutual consent a couple of weeks before Endrick recorded two assists for Lyon in a 3-2 defeat at the Stade Velodrome.
Dominic Solanke should be Spurs’ first-choice striker if he can avoid the injury problems which prevented him from playing consistently last season. Endrick is a youthful alternative who could be developed to replace Solanke long-term. It would be a challenging deal to pull off, though, as Endrick is expected to stay with Real Madrid to provide back-up to Kylian Mbappe with Gonzalo Garcia heading towards Fulham.
With a number of quick, high-volume dribblers linked on the wings, Spurs could be in the market for a back-up No 9 who can hold up the ball and feed runners beyond him, much like Solanke can at full flow.
Using The Athletic’s player style pizza wheels, we have filtered for strikers who rank highly in goal threat and box presence, but also those who are strong at attacking crosses in the air and retaining the ball under pressure with their back to goal.
Alongside the unrealistic options of Erling Haaland, Benjamin Sesko and the recently transferred Goncalo Ramos (who has moved from PSG to Milan), Bayer Leverkusen’s Christian Kofane leaps off the page. Still just 20, the Cameroonian has already grown into a sturdy 1.89m (6ft 2in) frame that allows him to battle with defenders and protect the ball well.
In addition, Kofane is quick and mobile, happy to run the channels and press from the front, while the variety of finishes on show from his first season in the Bundesliga shows that there is an eye for goal and ball-striking technique to hone.
International team-mate Etta Eyong, of Levante, also passes the stats test — another bustling striker with great upper-body strength and flashes of two-footed finishing and neat hold-up play. But both would need time to adapt to the pace of the Premier League, even if they are promising prospects for the future.
De Zerbi could be in the market for more tried-and-tested players, in which case reuniting with Amine Gouiri would make plenty of sense.
In his prime years at 26, the Algerian forward scored 14 league goals in just over 18 full games under the Italian at Marseille, hitting double figures in his last six top-flight seasons in France.
Gouiri would offer versatility and technical quality, a player happy to drop into deeper positions and dribble his way out of pressure. He played more as a left winger at former club Rennes, but still managed to time his movements into the box where his one-touch finishing helped convert crosses and cut-backs from the opposite side.
He thrives when the game opens up, able to turn away from pressure and glide forward with the ball; the kind of player who can exploit the spaces that De Zerbi’s highly-structured build-up looks to create.
World Cup winner Ferran Torres is another player who ranks highly under our link-up filter. The Barcelona forward is a different option to Solanke with his ability in tight spaces and desire to stretch the defensive line with darting runs in-behind.
As we can see from SkillCorner’s off-ball run profile below, Torres frequently attacks the space behind the opposition defence, a valuable profile against tired legs or in tandem with wingers who can get to the byline and cross. He would also bring an underrated eye for goal, racking up 16 La Liga goals last season with a series of intelligent runs and finishes.
Out of contract next summer, and with Barcelona looking for cash, Spurs could do worse than to test the waters and unite Torres with his international team-mate Pedro Porro.
A No 10 with some punch?
Spurs boast a number of tidy, technical players in the front line but this summer’s spending spree feels an opportunity to add some punch to the No 10 position.
Using our scouting tool once more, we are looking for attacking midfielders with a high creative threat, but also comfortable linking play and shooting from distance.
A familiar name rises to the top in last summer’s target Nico Paz. The 20-year-old has developed rapidly at Italian side Como, a dependable source of attacking inspiration on the way to qualifying for the Champions League for the first time. He takes great responsibility when it comes to demanding the ball and driving his team up the pitch with surging runs, and is not shy around the penalty area, with only Mbappe, Haaland and Deniz Undav taking more non-penalty shots last season.
As we can see from his goal contribution map below, he can pop up with a moment of magic from range, and likes to float into spaces and sweep passes across the attacking third.
However, Como announced Paz was staying in Italy last month and that former club Real Madrid “retains the right” to re-sign him in the future. A deal looks complicated and unlikely for Spurs, which is exactly why it would qualify as a “bomba” if they managed it.
Our data search throws up an exciting alternative in Can Uzun.
Also just 20, the Eintracht Frankfurt winger can play across the front line, possesses a similarly devastating strike from distance, and is difficult to barge off the ball in tight spaces.
His player-profile dashboard below illustrates his creative ability from outside the box, maintaining a strong goal threat while moving the ball forward with his passing.
While De Zerbi can rely on James Maddison next season in the absence of Xavi, a deal for an expansive, ambitious attacking midfielder like Uzun would provide excellent cover and allow Spurs to get ahead of the market while he develops at the club.
Whatever happens with this mystery potential signing, it is becoming increasingly clear that Spurs are building their strongest squad in a long time under De Zerbi.