Tottenham have turned to RB Leipzig's Xavi Simons as another candidate to fill the central creative hole in Thomas Frank's midfield as they hope to avoid a third transfer disaster of the summer window.
The Dane has begun life at Spurs in a positive fashion with his team scoring five goals and keeping two clean sheets in back-to-back Premier League victories against Burnley and Manchester City while only losing out in the UEFA Super Cup to PSG following a penalty shoot-out in Udine.
However, the attempts to improve the squad for Frank have brought more failures than successes and now with just a handful of days left of the transfer window, Tottenham are scrambling to try to provide the quality of players the new head coach needs to challenge on all four fronts this season.
In essence, Spurs have brought in two new faces to the squad that finished 17th last season in the Premier League while winning the Europa League in Mohammed Kudus for £55million from West Ham and Joao Palhinha on loan from Bayern Munich.
While both players have made an instant impact at the club, so Frank has also lost Son Heung-min to LAFC and James Maddison to an ACL injury for much of the season.
"Erm, you can say that's two players in, two players out, so probably pretty similar I would say," Frank admitted to football.london when asked if his squad was any stronger now than before the window opened. But also, as I said, I think in my first press conference, was that I think it's a good squad. I think there's some talented players. I think there's some quality players in there as well so probably the same level, but I think that's good.
"Then it's up to me together with the players and the staff to make sure we can compete, and then as I said, we do what we can to strengthen it."
Frank's first choice for the No.10 role was Morgan Gibbs-White but two weeks after a bid that Tottenham thought had landed the player that all ended in legal issues around a controversial release clause, a sudden new contract and an apologetic phone call from the Nottingham Forest midfielder to the Spurs boss.
Then weeks later came the Eberechi Eze saga as Tottenham believed they had tied up a move for the England international with Crystal Palace and the player, only for the club he wanted from the start, Arsenal, to emerge at the last moment and snatch him out of their north London rivals' grasp.
Now comes another potentially painful move for another attacking midfielder who previously looked to be off the table in 22-year-old Xavi Simons.
The Dutchman has looked all summer like he would be leaving RB Leipzig for Chelsea only for that transfer trail to grow somewhat cold.
On paper Simons ticks plenty of boxes for Frank and Spurs in that he can play as a No.10 and also on the left wing so in essence he's a replacement of sorts for both Maddison and Son, but Tottenham are aiming to bring in another player for those roles as well.
Simons also falls into the category of being experienced despite his age, having played 137 games of senior football, across spells at PSG, PSV Eindhoven and RB Leipzig after coming through Barcelona's academy. He has also turned out in 13 games in the Champions League, with four goal involvements. Spurs are back in that competition and await their league phase opponents on Thursday.
Simons racked up 11 goals and eight assists in 33 appearances last season for Leipzig despite missing two months in the middle of the season with an ankle injury. When he returned to the side, he registered 14 goal involvements in 18 games in the Bundesliga.
Tottenham have a good relationship with the German club, as would you if you took Timo Werner off their hands for 18 months. However, that's not the relationship they must be wary of when it comes to this potential transfer.
It's the relationship between Simons and Chelsea, for they appear to have been his preferred option all summer. There are some suggestions that the Blues must sell first before coming in for the Netherlands international, but Tottenham heard this all before with Arsenal and Eze and that ended in embarrassment.
The difference perhaps in the Blues' case is that they must comply with a UEFA punishment which states that they must end up with a positive transfer balance with last season's Conference League-winning squad to be able to register new signings for their coming Champions League involvement.
Leipzig have given permission for the skilful Simons to miss training "until further notice" and travel to London with his representatives to sort his future out one way or another.
Tottenham sense an opportunity and are believed have verbally offered a sum close to the €70million (£60.4million) that Leipzig are looking for and that has been done with the hope that a deal will get done amid those Chelsea fears.
There are also the wages with suggestions that the young Dutchman would be seeking more than £200,000 a week, which in Spurs' tight wage structure would place him up around the top of the tree as he was at Leipzig.
There's no doubting that Simons is a talented player and his energetic style should suit Frank's system. That he can play either centrally or on the left should ensure he starts most weeks for the north London side. Reports in Germany, rightly or wrongly, attempted in the summer to paint the player as having had some attitude issues during an underwhelming campaign for Leipzig.
Those within the game with knowledge of the player, told football.london that it was more the precocious nature of a gifted footballer who has been a star since his mid-teens. They also said that it would take Simons a little while to adapt to the physicality of the Premier League, although the transition from the Bundesliga is often a better one for players to similarities in the pace.
Leipzig had splashed out €50million (£43.2million) in January this year to turn his 18-month loan from PSG into a permanent one, albeit only with a contract until 2027. Their deal was set to be worth anywhere up to €80million (£69.1million) with the various add-ons included and also a sell-on clause for the French side reportedly inserted.
However, it's the nature of the deal as another opportunistic approach from Tottenham rather than a carefully planned out one that could concern Frank. The Dane has come from a club in Brentford that had everything planned out to the letter, with succession plans for players and staff in place.
Spurs instead turn in the transfer window like an oil tanker. It takes an age and everyone appears to see them coming from a mile away. They have had an entire summer, once Frank was appointed, to build a squad fit for chairman Daniel Levy's declarations that he wanted the club to compete in all four competitions rather than one or two and that Tottenham needed to win the Premier League and Champions League at some point.
Yet in the final days of the window, Spurs are scrabbling around like the window was only a week long. The three key positions Frank wanted new recruits in - the No.10, winger and centre-back roles - remain unfilled and those players the club want to move on like Bryan Gil and Yves Bissouma remain on the books while Manor Solomon's future is still unclear.
Simons feels like a classic Tottenham attempt - a young player who is an investment for now and the future and has suddenly come on to the market due to more powerful clubs stepping back. The key though will be whether Chelsea truly have stepped back or like Arsenal are just waiting to pounce when the price is right.
At Stamford Bridge Simons would not be the main man, with Cole Palmer playing in the central role he thrives in whereas at Tottenham he has the chance to become the team's talisman. Ultimately it could come down to where the young Dutchman thinks he has the biggest chance of succeeding and that is where Spurs have fallen short in the past. They cannot afford to do so again.
