Although Tottenham Hotspur were at one point seen as one of the favorites to land Antoine Semenyo, it became abundantly clear over the past week that Spurs were no longer one of the teams in serious contention for the Bournemouth breakout superstar as Liverpool, Manchester City, and, once again, even Manchester United had lapped them in the competition.
Tottenham and Manchester United have been going to battle a lot lately. Even after Spurs beat Man United in the Europa League Final in Bilbao, Spain, the cachet of the Red Devils proved to be too strong, as they beat Spurs all ends up for one of the summer 2025 transfer window's marquee signings in right winger Bryan Mbeumo. Even the Thomas Frank connection could not help Spurs touch this one.
Even though Man United have also seemingly lost out on Semenyo, who is closing in on a big transfer to Manchester City, there is still yet a third high profile winger target that could link these two Big Six Premier League powers back together on the transfer market - and that would be RB Leipzig breakout prospect gem Yan Diomande.
Tottenham have a little more time
According to a new report from talkSPORT's Alex Crook, Manchester United are indeed eyeing Diomande as a possible transfer alternative to Antoine Semenyo. Since Man United have seemingly lost out on Semenyo to Man City, that would then give Tottenham Hotspur a big reason to worry about signing the Ivorian Bundesliga standout, right?
Well, Crook also reports that Manchester United "would not pursue" this interest in Diomande in the January transfer window and are instead more interested in signing the Leipzig man in the summer 2026 transfer window.
While Diomande's expected price tag of nine figures and Leipzig's likely unwillingness to sell a very important player (with six goals from the wing, no less) in the middle of the season means that this probably isn't such a huge boost, it is a boost for Totteham nonetheless.
That's because it opens the door for Diomande to be a bigger possibility in the winter if Manchester United are less inclined to make the move, and it also, at least, buys time for Spurs to pursue him in the summer when they maybe have more bargaining power or can even get Leipzig to reduce their transfer demands a little bit. Savinho is the clear top target for Tottenham right now, but as Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall can attest, everyone knows how much Spurs loves their teenage prospects.