Tottenham Hotspur have reportedly told Manchester City they want a final answer on Savinho before the weekend or they will walk away from a potential £60million deal and pursue other targets instead.
It’s claimed that Spurs have informed City they do not want negotiations dragging into August and have set a clear deadline for the Premier League champions to make their decision.
Savinho has been Tottenham‘s priority left-wing target for the best part of a year, with the club failing to replace legendary former skipper Son Heung-min last summer.
Our friends over at TEAMtalk claim that Spurs actually agreed personal terms with the Brazil international ‘as far back as January’, when they came close to signing him before the move ultimately failed to materialise.
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A fresh report from the same source claims that while Tottenham spent much of the summer ‘assessing a range of attacking options’, they ‘always intended to return for Savinho’ and ‘did exactly that earlier this month’.
While Spurs actually made significant progress on a deal worth around £60m, negotiations have since stalled.
For their part, Man City initially made it clear they wanted to secure a replacement before sanctioning Savinho’s departure, while there have also been internal discussions over whether the 22-year-old should command a fee higher than Tottenham’s proposed package.
The TEAMtalk report has revealed how that delay has frustrated Tottenham, who have now set an ‘August 1 deadline to get the Savinho deal done and dusted’.
The report adds that the north London club have now ‘made it clear to both City and Savinho’s representatives that they want the transfer completed before August 1’, otherwise they will ‘switch their focus elsewhere’.
Savinho, meanwhile, is certainly his part to secure the switch, with a fresh report on Tuesday claiming that he has informed City that he wants out.
While Tottenham ‘remain optimistic that an agreement can still be reached’, club sources are said to stressed that their ‘deadline is genuine rather than a negotiating tactic’.
Tottenham also considering Savinho alternatives
While Spurs are determined not to allow one deal to hold up the rest of their summer business, they have identified alternative targets should City fail to give the green light to the Savinho deal.
Indeed, the likes of Antonio Nusa, Cody Gakpo, Rafael Leao and Jadon Sancho have all been assessed by transfer chiefs in north London.
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While confidence remains that Savinho will eventually become a Tottenham player, the coming days are now expected to prove decisive in what’s been a long-running transfer saga.
But unless City provide the clarity Spurs are demanding before the weekend, the north London club are prepared to end their pursuit and accelerate moves for other attacking options instead.