Tottenham Hotspur were seemingly a slam dunk to sign Crystal Palace star Eberechi Eze, but they completely flubbed their most important August transfer with less than two weeks left in the window. Instead of signing the English attacking midfielder to a 68 million pound deal per his release clause, Spurs waited to get him for a few million cheaper than that.
Instead, they ended up with nothing, as Eze joined North London rivals Arsenal, who stayed quietly lying in wait for Spurs to botch this one. And as with one of Thomas Frank's star pupils at Brentford, Christian Norgaard, Arsenal submitted a more competitive offer, watched Spurs do nothing to stop them, and signed a player whom the Tottenham manager was hoping to have at his disposal.
Tottenham have been doing this time and time again in their history, but this summer transfer window has been particularly disappointing with how badly they botched deals for Bryan Mbeumo, Morgan Gibbs-White, James McAtee, Rayan Cherki, Norgaard, and Eze. All six were achievable upgrades for Tottenham, but Spurs simply didn't show the urgency their rival clubs did,
Now, Tottenham seem to be on the verge of disappointing their fanbase again for a player who has now trumped Eze as the most important signing of the summer to make in Manchester City winger Savinho, who is even more of a "must" in the aftermath of the lost Eze battle.
Tottenham are being cheap again
But per a report from Gary Jacobs of The Times, the issue with Savinho and the reason why Tottenham haven't come remotely close to signing him this summer is simply because Spurs don't want to match Man City's asking price of 67 million pounds.
Manchester City are, contrary to what some Spurs informants want you to think, willing to sell Savinho. That much is clear. But they want 67 million pounds for him. They believe the 21-year-old, who was once a La Liga Player of the Season candidate, is worth a fair sum of money as an ascending and explosive player who is legitimately one of the world's best in that position.
Tottenham are ridiculously cheap and only like signing players at some arbitrary price they define as fair, not caring that consistently missing out on top targets who are valued by elite clubs is what is holding them back from being a Premier League title contender themselves.
If Tottenham screw up the Savinho deal by being too cheap, which seems likely based on this latest report, then they will hear endless fury throughout the 2025/26 season from the Tottenham supporters. Thomas Frank deserves better than this.