The i Paper

Tottenham Hotspur have reached an agreement with Manchester City for Savinho in a deal which could rise to £85m.

Spurs will pay £75m plus £10m in add-ons – many of which are seen as achievable from the player’s side – taking the club’s summer spending past the £300m mark.

That shatters the previous record of £160m forked out in the summer of 2024 on players including Dominic Solanke, Archie Gray and Wilson Odobert.

The extraordinary outlay has raised eyebrows at other clubs – not least because Spurs finished 17th in each of the past two seasons and have missed out on Europe altogether this time around.

Omar Marmoush is now expected to follow Savinho’s route from City. The i Paper understands Marmoush is expected to sign a contract until 2031, and his fee will be closer to £55m. That would mean Manchester City would avoid having to pay Frankfurt a 15 per cent sell-on fee, which only applies if he is sold for more than the £63.4m they originally paid for him.

That will not necessarily be the end of Roberto De Zerbi’s overhaul – he demanded sweeping changes after taking over in March and keeping Spurs up on the final day – but it will signal that all Spurs’ priorities have been ticked off over the course of the summer.

A combined £185m was spent on Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes in midfield, £52m on centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke, and Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Martin Dubravka coming in on free transfers.

That is not quite the eye-watering amount of money it appears. Tottenham have raised over £100m organically through the sales of Cristian Romero, Djed Spence and Luka Vuskovic. All three wanted to go and while Spence could have gone for more had he stayed in England – there was some surprise Everton did not push harder given their need of a right-back – £25m was felt to be an acceptable fee for him to move to Serie A, which is not awash with the conspicuous consumption of the Premier League.

Tottenham are the ninth richest club in the world and have boosted the coffers with non-football events – from boxing and NFL to Beyonce, Guns N’ Roses, Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Gorillaz concerts.

Make no mistake – there would not have been such a drastic change in direction had they not come so close to the brink in May. But Daniel Levy’s departure has seen Vinai Venkatesham pivot to a more urgent approach, with the chief executive and Johan Lange still overseeing transfers despite reports of a restructure at the start of the summer. The search for a second sporting director to replace Fabio Paratici is ongoing.

Owners Enic recently injected a further £100m into the club and Spurs have also agreed an advance with Macquarie Bank on TV revenues from December 2026 to June 2027 – a practice which is becoming fairly standard across the Premier League. Last season alone it gave them a £90m boost and frees up even more funds to be spent on transfer fees and increasing wages, which has been another priority.

Despite reports there has been no confirmation of a new naming rights deal for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but there is the potential for a further fillip there down the road. It is estimated the front-of-shirt sponsorship value has dipped by as much as £20m because of Spurs’ form last season.

They are not dependent on that – they are nowhere near breaking the threshold for the Premier League’s new financial rules (known as squad cost ratio). That’s worked out as a percentage of income, and Tottenham have one of the largest incomes in the league – hence why they are able to outspend clubs like Newcastle and Aston Villa, even when they are underperforming.

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Opinion: Micky van de Ven’s new Tottenham contract is obscene

Analysis: I have two big fears about Tottenham’s £140m transfer plans

Squad cost ratio is calculated over a three-year period and fees like Tonali’s £80m which look staggering on paper can be amortised, or broken down, over several years of the contract.

Crucially, there is also expected to be further money coming in before the window shuts. Pape Matar Sarr is exploring the possibility of a move away and there has been interest in Richarlison – who would only be able to leave if Marmoush is signed as a replacement. Bids for Lucas Bergvall have been rejected but he is still being monitored by a number of Premier League clubs.

A decision will be made on a potential loan for Mikey Moore, who spent last season at Rangers, as any departure was dependent on Savinho’s arrival.

It is as if everyone at Tottenham Hotspur has suffered a collective bout of amnesia of late.

Some of it has been justified. When you have just watched two full Premier League campaigns of non-stop suffering and nearly been relegated, why wouldn’t fans be excited about making signings for £100m?

And supporters should be hopeful. They live to enjoy because they never know when they will have to live to merely endure again. That shouldn’t be the moxy with which the operators of a football club do their business, however.

On Monday evening, Tottenham announced they had tied Micky van de Ven to a new contract which will run until 2031. It was reported in his native Netherlands that he will earn €75m (£64m) across the length of that deal, roughly translating to £240,000 a week. This brings him in line with the club’s newest set of top earners, alongside Sandro Tonali, Conor Gallagher and Xavi Simons, all of whom were signed within the last 12 months.

It’s a clear pivot in strategy from Spurs to up their wage bill in order to beat rivals to key targets – Arsenal and Manchester City were keen on Tonali, Aston Villa thought they had Gallagher and Chelsea were interested in Simons.

But it doesn’t make as much sense to greatly reward Van de Ven for the three years he has had at Spurs so far, let alone off the back of his most self-destructive one.

Tottenham’s troubling results last season were largely down to the coaching of their ill-fated managers Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, though the players who didn’t fall victim to their injury crisis mustn’t escape blame either.

Van de Ven, once infamous for paper-thin hamstrings, started more games than any teammate with 45. He captained the team 18 times having been promoted into the first-team’s leadership group by Frank. Spurs finished 17th, again.

Even if you remove Tottenham’s final position from the equation, Van de Ven’s performances were inconsistent, particularly after his early-season scoring surge. Most notably, he got himself sent off in a 3-1 loss at home to Crystal Palace in March, which signalled to the world Spurs were serious relegation candidates.

With Cristian Romero – Tottenham’s most disgraceful captain since Sol Campbell – set to be sold, Van de Ven will become the best outright defender at the club. Still, that did not require Spurs to hand him a ludicrously lavish new contract, especially given his previous deal still had three years left to run.

If Van de Ven is your top centre-back on £240,000 a week, where are you going? Is this real ambition or simply trying to one-up the previous regime built on frugality? Who else was going to pay him anywhere near that salary?

Most of Tottenham’s summer business screams that they simply don’t want to be associated with the Daniel Levy era any longer.

Van de Ven is still a decent player with scope to improve quickly. Were he to have been shopped around, a fair few of Europe’s elite would have shown some level of interest. The hope with him is that, at 25, his best years are still ahead of him.

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Comment: I have two big fears about Tottenham’s £140m transfer plans

But he is hugely reliant on pace and there is little evidence he can be an above-average box defender. Those are uncertainties that should have put the frighteners on those in Spurs’ risk management department.

This is all just another sign that Tottenham are trying to draw a line under the 2025-26 season without acknowledging or attempting to understand why it happened in the first place.

It is not only spending which has been a problem for Spurs, but spending wisely. They are continuing to show they deserve the same level of trust in the transfer market as you would give to a five-year-old with a £50 note in a sweet shop.

The road back to the top will have to come via Damascus for Tottenham Hotspur.

After failing to maximise the Harry Kane era, they are now trying to atone for the sins that led them to two successive 17th-placed finishes in the Premier League.

The simplest reason as to why Spurs are in such a mess relates to recruitment. In the final years of Daniel Levy’s tenure, the club found themselves dropping further back down the table than an England team in a semi-final coached by Thomas Tuchel (too soon?).

And so here we are today, with Tottenham a tad fortunate to even still be a Premier League side. The manager who saved them, Roberto De Zerbi, has arguably earned the right to lead an expensive rebuild, but there are plenty of reasons to be cautious and pessimistic about the plan of action.

At the time of writing, Spurs have signed six new players during the summer window, all of whom played in the Premier League last season – Jan Paul van Hecke, Martin Dubravka, Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson, Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali. The last two names on that list saw Tottenham obliterate their transfer record with extreme overpays, with Fernandes costing a flat £85m and Tonali’s final price projected to reach £100m.

Spurs’ Catch-22

Spurs’ net spend stands at £164.7m, helped out by Dubravka, Senesi and Robertson arriving on Bosman transfers in deals more akin to the club’s previous modus operandi. The major difference comes down to the other financials.

This new Tottenham, powered by the Lewis family (a soft rebrand of Enic), are not afraid to stump up for their targets, nor to pay them an extravagant wage to blow their rivals out of the water. These were the two main factors which held the club back in the market under Levy’s regime.

Tottenham appear to have two top targets to strengthen in the final third: Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo and Manchester City’s Savinho. Both fine players, both would immediately improve Spurs, and yet both would feel like underwhelming signings – even though they could cost a combined £140m.

There has been little creativity or imagination to Spurs’ window. They are both playing it safe and taking huge risks at the same time, trying to raise the floor of their team with the enlightenment that they simply cannot cut costs in the window anymore.

Adding Premier League-proven players should keep them out of another relegation battle, though that shouldn’t even have to be in their thinking. Tottenham have to make expensive mistakes just to break even in righting the wrongs of the past.

The hierarchy are still in place

That brings us to the elephant in the room. Well, the two elephants. The architects of last season’s mess, CEO Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange, are still in post.

Nobody upstairs has paid the price for nearly sending the ninth-richest club in world football down. Not in a physical sense, anyway. De Zerbi becoming the face of their transfer business is a clear shift in strategy, with the club backing a manager more than they ever have before.

The Italian himself has alluded to this. Speaking to gathered media on their pre-season tour of Oceania, he said of his involvement on transfers: “I don’t know why I love it, maybe because when you take the decision, you take the responsibility, but I think if the coach calls the player, you can build a special connection at the beginning with them.

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“The player knows you are the key for this transfer, and maybe this player feels they have to give you back something more than if, for example, Johan Lange calls the player.”

Spurs’ years of neglecting the playing squad and always playing catch-up in the market has led them to this purgatory between a rock and a hard place. Vinkatesham and Lange should absolutely not be leading the project, but is handing over the keys to the most fiery manager in the league the best strategy either?

At worst, Tottenham should be a competitive team this season. Then again, we all said that this time last year, didn’t we?

Tottenham Hotspur are still active in the final weeks of the transfer window, with at least three more outgoings planned.

Captain Cristian Romero continues to be monitored by Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid and it is expected he will have left the club when the new Premier League season kicks off on 21 August.

Despite acquiring minutes in pre-season under Roberto De Zerbi, Manor Solomon is also set to depart, with West Ham currently leading the race for the Israeli international.

The i Paper understands newly promoted Hull City are the other club interested in signing the 27-year-old, who Spurs value at around £20m but who could attract opening bids of between £10m-20m. A move is expected to gain momentum quickly and could be agreed over the coming days.

Since arriving from Fulham on a free transfer in 2023, Solomon has made five senior appearances for Spurs, going on loan to Leeds, Villarreal and most recently Fiorentina.

A year ago, he was offered brief hope of a revival under then-manager Thomas Frank as Spurs struggled to find a replacement in the market. Instead, another temporary spell away from the club followed.

De Zerbi has not included Solomon in his plans for the 2026-27 campaign and hopes to sign another wide-forward before the window closes. Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo has emerged as the most likely candidate but a deal is likely to depend on his current club being able to find a successor under new head coach Andoni Iraola. Manchester City’s Savinho is also a long-term target.

During the pre-season tour of New Zealand, De Zerbi hinted at another “bomba” – or major transfer – to top off a successful window in which Spurs have already signed Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Jan Paul van Hecke – Romero’s replacement – on big-money deals.

After finishing 17th last season and escaping relegation on the last day, there has been a major shift in approach, with Spurs smashing their previous wage structure to allow them to compete for major signings.

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Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka have also joined on free transfers.

Mikey Moore is set for another move away after impressing at Rangers last season, with Bundesliga side FC Köln vying with Championship clubs for a loan.

Guglielmo Vicario is the subject of interest from Italy, with Antonin Kinsky likely to start the season as No 1.

Despite plenty of interest from across Europe, Marcus Rashford is most likely to get the chance to resurrect his Manchester United career next season, as the most appealing exit options for the England forward have failed to materialise.

Rashford has two years left on his £325,000-a-week United contract. With Champions League football to contend with next season, there will be plenty of opportunities to play, should he be reintegrated.

There is no ill-will from Rashford’s side towards the club over his treatment when part of the so-called “bomb squad”. He is still a fan of his boyhood club and retains a good relationship with several team-mates. Rashford also, crucially, has an ally in manager Michael Carrick.

Another claimed that he would be “very surprised” if Rashford was playing anywhere other than Old Trafford next season.

Another loan the only route

Had it not been for Rashford’s wages, he would have likely secured an Old Trafford exit already. Even coming close to matching his salary rules out most of even the biggest clubs. The conduct of senior United executives has not helped the situation, insiders said.

They have been vocal about their desire to get his salary off their wage bill – a big part of Ineos’ manifesto after taking a minority stake in the club.

As a result of their palpable desperation, no club is going to be willing to pay anything like the £26m option Barcelona had to make last season’s Rashford stay permanent.

Sources believe suitors will return with further loan offers to test whether United feel they can challenge on multiple fronts without the academy graduate or not.

Man Utd against Spurs move for Rashford

A host of Premier League clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Chelsea, have been keeping tabs on the 28-year-old, with Spurs plotting a £40m move last month.

However, The i Paper has been told there is a reluctance among senior United figures to sell to another English top-flight club, given it could lead to humiliation should Rashford start scoring elsewhere.

Galatasaray and Fenerbahce both tried to sign Rashford this summer, sources said, but he was not interested. A top Champions League team remains his priority, the identity of which is becoming clearer.

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Dangerous domestic deal

There are plenty at Old Trafford who feel there is too much water under the bridge for Rashford’s return to be a success. There is little doubt for many, however, that the talent is still there. There was evidence of that ability, fleetingly, at the World Cup.

Tottenham were prepared to make a big play for Rashford this summer, and were even willing to pay a fee, rather than a loan. While shifting the England forward was preferred, the potential PR disaster if goals flowed elsewhere made such an option much less appealing.

If Rashford were to leave, United would need another wide forward, one that does not appear forthcoming. Another midfielder is priority, and with little generated from player sales, there is not the money to splurge on other big-money arrivals.

As it stands, Rashford will join up with his United teammates at their six-day training camp in Dublin, scheduled around their friendly clash with Leeds on 12 August.

Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City face disappointment in their chase for Eli Junior Kroupi with Bournemouth having told their star names there is “no way” they are leaving this summer.

Tottenham are among the clubs ready to break the bank for 20-year-old Kroupi, who is on the radar of Europe’s top sides after hitting 13 goals in a breakout Premier League season.

But sources have laughed off the idea of a £100m move in this transfer window, insisting he is going nowhere and that his asking price will be significantly more in 2027 – when the club will listen to offers for him.

The i Paper can reveal Bournemouth have in recent weeks informed Kroupi – along with other wanted stars Alex Scott, Brazil forward Rayan and defender Adrien Truffert – that they will not be allowed to leave this summer as the Cherries prepare for their first ever European campaign.

Those conversations have also taken place with the player’s representatives and family members so that “everyone is on the same page” heading into a new era under Marco Rose on the south coast.

The stance – which reflects Bournemouth’s ability to comply with Uefa and Premier League squad cost ratio (SCR) rules after high-profile recent sales – comes from the ownership down and sources insist it “will not change”, even if offers are made for the players.

Over the last two transfer windows Bournemouth have made substantial sales, allowing Dean Huijsen, Milos Kerkez, Antoine Semenyo, Ilya Zabarnyi and Dango Ouattara all to leave in the last 12 months. That “housekeeping”, along with none of the players having active release clauses in this window, has allowed them to dictate their stance.

It will come as a blow for a clutch of clubs eyeing Kroupi. Tottenham in particular have put him near the top of their list of targets as they look to continue their spending spree by securing a top class forward.

Arsenal and City have also put out the feelers out about the France under-21 in recent months but all of his suitors will have to wait 12 months to test Bournemouth’s resolve. At that point the club do expect to make sales.

Even then, though, there’s a feeling that the trajectory of the transfer market will enable them to recoup closer to £125m or even more for Kroupi if he continues to progress at his current rate. As revealed in May, there is no release clause in his contract.

This summer prices for midfield and attacking talent have shifted significantly upwards and that has created a new benchmark for Premier League executives. With Elliot Anderson moving for £116m and Morgan Rogers set to complete a £117m from Aston Villa to Chelsea, the £130m release clause for Rayan that becomes active in January now looks fairly skinny.

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Meanwhile, Manchester United – who signed Youri Tielemans last week – will also face frustration if they attempt to revive interest in Scott this summer.

The i Paper understands Bournemouth will look to revive contract talks with the England midfielder in September after negotiations suddenly broke down earlier in the summer.

It was felt that an agreement – possibly with a considerable release clause – was close a few weeks ago but with talk of the Red Devils and others keen on Scott, conversations on a new deal abruptly stopped. There’s an expectation that those negotiations will begin again when the transfer window closes.

But there isn’t a single player in La Albiceleste’s international ranks with such a paradoxical reputation at club level. Romero has never let Argentina down, best demonstrated by the four trophies he’s won with them in the last five years.

What is perceived as a reckless style in the Premier League is encouraged when he dons the famous blue-and-white stripes of his home country. His dastardly shithousing reached new heights in Wednesday’s semi-final win over England, goading familiar faces and being part of the squad that held up an offensive banner referencing the Falkland Islands (or ‘Malvinas’, in verbatim).

The great Lionel Messi often heralds Romero as the best defender in the world, though that’s almost certainly because he’s blissfully ignorant to what goes on at Tottenham Hotspur.

Last summer, Romero was appointed Spurs club captain, succeeding the legendary Son Heung-min. It was a choice that made sense in the moment, with the centre-back stepping up to claim Player of the Match for his performance in the Europa League final against Manchester United while he was also part of Ange Postecoglou’s leadership group before the Australian was sacked.

It is not a decision that has aged particularly well. The appointment of Thomas Frank as head coach, coupled with the arrival of Vinai Venkatesham as CEO, was meant to signal a cultural reset. Romero taking on the captain’s armband went directly against that ethos.

Club sources claim that Spurs’ most recent superstars – Son, Harry Kane and Hugo Lloris – set the standards at Hotspur Way. They were self-aware, very receptive to the idea they were leaders as much as players and carried themselves accordingly. Everyone fell in line, and maybe more importantly, nobody wanted to let them down.

Romero, to this point, has shown no such qualities as captain. His punctuality has been a persistent issue, no more so than when it emerged he was late to training one day after Spurs were battered 4-1 by north London rivals Arsenal last November.

Instead of leading in the dressing room and on the pitch, most of Romero’s talking has come on social media, uploading a number of Instagram posts calling out the club’s board for their injury crises and lack of transfer market movement over the last couple of years.

Plenty of disgruntled Tottenham supporters backed Romero when he last took aim at the club hierarchy in January, but the sentiment has radically swung in the opposite direction since.

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Daniel Storey:

Daniel Storey:

It was often speculated Romero cared more about playing for Argentina than Spurs. He has always dismissed this notion out of hand, but actions speak louder than words. When he fled England to train with boyhood side Belgrano on the week Tottenham’s Premier League relegation could have been confirmed, choosing to focus on rebuilding fitness for the World Cup after injury, he was effectively cyber-bullied by fans into returning to London.

It is now a fairly open secret that Tottenham simply want out of the Romero business. They would rather take the chance he pieces everything together elsewhere than be the fall guys for his shenanigans for another year. Should he indeed leave this summer, he will go down as one of Spurs’ worst-ever captains.

And despite everything, Romero stands on the brink of greatness. He is a god among Argentinians, yet viewed in the country where he plays his club football as a villain so cartoonish it now borders on parody. There have rarely been more Jekyll & Hyde players than Romero in history. That, in itself, is a fitting legacy.

NEW YORK – Mask-clad, marauding down the left, Djed Spence was an unlikely hero to emerge from England’s World Cup summer.

Rarely has there been so late a scramble for plane tickets as when Thomas Tuchel announced his 26-man squad in May, Spence’s family quickly following him to the United States. Jordan Henderson aside, his was the least predictable name on the list.

In the absence of sufficient forward-thinking down the middle and the lack of the edge in the wide areas, debates over Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Adam Wharton will rage on. After the briefest of glitches in the set-to with DR Congo, it is telling that nobody is any longer hankering for Myles Lewis-Skelly or Lewis Hall. On the other side, there is little Spence could do that would ever wholly justify Trent Alexander-Arnold’s surprise exclusion.

Tuchel’s thinking, so impenetrable to a nation learning to trust him, was this. In the very early days at youth level in Peckham, south London, Spence started life as a winger. A right-back by trade, he has been forced onto the opposite flank more often than not at Spurs this season, through an injury crisis that wiped out Ben Davies, Destiny Udogie and an unfamiliar left-back in Souza, who played just four times.

The fluidity of the Tottenham Hotspur full-back is such that it makes him the ideal candidate for Norway, a quarter-final by the end of which you would be hard-pushed to explain who was playing where.

In the summer of 2025, before Thomas Frank’s project quickly disintegrated, Spence was even used in a front three. That flexibility is a double-edged sword, the typical criticism being that he is too right-footed to play on the left. Against Mexico it allowed him to slot into a back five when it was backs-to-the-wall time.

Certainly there is an argument that if Spence has been a late developer, he has been as much a victim of circumstance as anything else.

Released by Fulham just shy of his 18th birthday, an alternative path might have kept him at Middlesbrough for another year, had the relationship with Neil Warnock not broken down.

He was sent on loan to Nottingham Forest, almost immediately finding himself under another change of manager. On the bridge over the Trent outside the City Ground, a graffiti tag still reads: “Djed Spence, we miss you.” That should give a feeling of where Steve Cooper took him to.

In Antonio Conte, he found no such ally. Days after joining Tottenham, his manager used a press conference to dismiss him as a “club signing” rather than a player he wanted. In reply, Spence said the revelation “shattered his confidence”. Conte awarded him a total of 43 minutes. Over his next full season at Spurs after loans at Rennes, Leeds and Genoa, he played an hour of football between August and mid-December 2024. He studied French and Italian but never fully settled.

In Yorkshire, it was a knee ligament injury that sent him packing after seven appearances; in Italy, the Serie A side’s refusal to stump up £8m to make the deal permanent. Daniel Farke would complain of his lateness to Leeds’ training sessions. It meant little prospect of a north London renaissance, where it would take him two-and-a-half years to start a game. Four years on, he has played under five Spurs managers.

Under Roberto De Zerbi he is still not guaranteed to start, with Udogie and Pedro Porro ahead of him on the left and right respectively. Andy Robertson has arrived too, while Micky van de Ven can yet play at full-back. The make-up of the squad is closer now to Spence’s age bracket, and he has forged friendships; still, his future is uncertain with Everton waiting in the wings.

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The other contradiction lies in Tuchel himself, so often berating him from the sidelines in both the warm-ups and the group stages. Tuchel’s England reign will stand or fall on divisive decisions like Spence’s ticket to the US – so far they have been proven right. England are in the semi-finals for just the fourth time ever.

For now, the defender retains the role of cult figure, strapping holding together a broken jaw, unfortunate not to win a penalty against Norway. The refusal to shake hands with Thomas Partey against Ghana. He is the first Muslim to play for England at a World Cup and raises his hands in Du’a on the pitch – those close to him say his faith is central to his career.

England are being dragged towards history by the most obvious heroes in Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane. None have come from the peripheries quite like Spence to become quite so important.

My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. This week, we speak to Jermain Defoe, one of English football’s most prolific strikers, about feeling invincible at Tottenham Hotspur, how Simply Red connects him to his departed loved ones, and the move to Juventus that never was.

It’s so hard to say when I was happiest

I made my debut at West Ham when I was 17, and I finished at 39. I played nearly 800 games.

There were so many periods I thought I was playing my best football and years later you think “hmm, I enjoyed this other period a lot more”.

My favourite season

The 2009-10 season at Tottenham. We qualified for the Champions League that year, and I went to the World Cup. I was playing some of the best football of my career, in terms of goals and how I felt physically. I scored five goals against Wigan Athletic.

As players and athletes, you know when you’re in the zone, when you feel invincible, like it doesn’t matter who you play against, you always fancy yourself and back yourself. I was in that mode.

Making my debut a year out of school, at 17, was a massive achievement

I was only a kid. The League Cup with Tottenham was also a big achievement. We should have won a lot more. At Rangers, winning the league title, arguably the biggest league title in such a big club’s history. But I think playing for England was the biggest of all. Because when the World Cup is on, the world is at a standstill.

Ian Wright was my sporting idol

The goals that he scored, him being a centre-forward, his movement – just everything about him, really, the celebrations – I felt like I could relate to Wrighty, even though he’s south London, I’m east London.

That West Indian background, how tough it was to come from humble beginnings and become something with hard work.

I cry when I listen to Simply Red

When I listen to certain music, it reminds me of my nan or my dad. My mum had me at 18 when she was still at home with her parents, my nan and granddad, so it was like it was like I had two mums, and I was really close to my dad.

So sometimes if I listen to certain music, I feel myself getting emotional just thinking about all the good memories that I have with my nanny. Simply Red – “Holding back the Years.” That tune. It’s such a good tune. Growing up, West Indian culture, music was such a big part of my life. Proper music. That song – I’ve always loved it.

It’s nice when you have those moments. With my nan, when I have moments like that, it’s comforting, because I feel like I still can feel her presence. I’ve got my nan tattooed on my arm. I love those moments where she can just come into my head, when songs come into my head, it’s nice.

Grief has helped shape me in a positive way

It’s well documented, the stuff that I’ve been through, with my nan, my brother, my dad, my cousin, obviously Bradley Lowery, of course.

Sometimes in life I just believe that things happen for a reason, it does make you stronger, it actually makes you appreciate life more. It makes you appreciate people around you.

The people around you that you love, it’s important to actually show them that you love them with your actions and the things you say, and how you carry yourself, not just family members.

I could have signed for Juventus

I got a call from an agent in, I think it was 2008, when I went back to Tottenham about Juventus. But because I already told Harry Redknapp and Daniel Levy I was going back to Tottenham, I was just waiting for the deal to get done.

I think it was just principle, really. If you shake hands with someone, say, “Okay, then I’m coming back to Tottenham”, then you should.

I know players do it, but to change my mind at the last minute and say “OK, I’m going to Juventus,” I just don’t think I could have done it at the time.

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I don’t regret anything about my career

My life could have been a lot different. Of course, there’s moments I’d change, like for example that first half against Germany at the World Cup, where Frank Lampard scored, and if there was VAR – but really, I wouldn’t change anything.

Growing up in the East End, when I was at school, if someone would have said to me I would go on and do what I have done, I’ve been like, “wow, really?”

What football has done for me and my family, I think you just have to be grateful.

At this point Aston Villa and Newcastle United supporters are shouting at the clouds, knowing complaints about a broken system laughing in their face are futile.

The Magpies specifically are being pickpocketed in plain sight, a club with the richest owners in world football selling to a team who have finished 17th in back-to-back seasons.

“Cry more” is the Big Six response, for it is easy to laugh from this position. As in The Sims, the ladder has been removed from the swimming pool, and the powers above are watching those below them tread water.

It is now five years since the Saudi Arabia-backed takeover and Newcastle remain far behind Tottenham Hotspur in the pecking order because the restraints in place may never allow them to get ahead.

At this rate, Newcastle are even going backwards. Sandro Tonali joining Tottenham after Anthony Gordon departed for Barcelona means £169m to reinvest, but it will be be difficult to attract players who view joining them as anything but a stepping stone to bigger things – or even Tottenham.

That Tonali was desperate to join the north London club, as The i Paper reported, is a damning indictment on the Newcastle project, which has stalled on the pitch and is struggling off it.

A horrendous summer transfer window last year did not help, but going into a new season fishing for Gordon and Tonali replacements is a sorry starting point for a club with ambitions of winning the Premier League by 2030.

And while Spurs take their summer spend north of £230m – having also signed Mateus Fernandes for £85m from West Ham and Jan Paul van Hecke for £52m from Brighton – recent rule changes and fines suggest both Newcastle and Villa cannot spend anywhere near as freely.

Uefa fined Newcastle £5.2m for breaching its financial rules, while Villa were fined £19.4m, with £12.9m of that amount suspended provided they decrease their squad cost ratio (SCR) going forward.

SCR is the new three-letter acronym for Newcastle and Villa fans to roll their eyes at in the Premier League, as it is replacing profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

It also explains Spurs’ ability to dig deep into their pockets. “They’ll be outspending, you’d imagine, every team from at least eighth down,” football finance expert Rob Wilson, professor of applied sport finance at the University Campus of Football Business, told The i Paper this week.

Wilson also said in May that Villa are not as desperate to sell as they have been in recent years, but there is no chance, like Spurs, of them spending £100m on one player – let alone £177m on two.

All this despite, in the last three seasons, Villa picking up 199 league points, the fourth-most while Newcastle are sixth with 175 and Tottenham are down in 13th with 145.

Flip that around for net spend since 2023-24, where Spurs top the lot, their £528m ahead of the other Big Six clubs while Newcastle are 11th (£110m) and Villa, remarkably, are down in 21st (£14m).

Villa have therefore won 54 more points and spent £415m less on incomings than Tottenham in the last three years.

In that time West Ham, Brighton and Nottingham Forest are also among the clubs to have spent more on players than Villa, who continue to fight in the face of these restraints thanks to head coach Unai Emery.

Read more

Kat Lucas: How Tottenham afforded £177m Tonali and Fernandes – and their transfer plans now

Mark Douglas: Newcastle will reinvest £100m Tonali cash – with one deal agreed and two targets

Another Champions League campaign awaits, too, but the sense they have reached their ceiling under the Spaniard – especially after finally ending their trophy drought in Istanbul – is difficult to shake given they have been flying close to the sun for three-and-a-half seasons.

A drastic drop-off would be a surprise, but sustaining this level is difficult. In Emery they trust, but losing Morgan Rogers – whom they want £130m for this summer – would put them in a similar situation to Newcastle.

And whether it is this summer, next summer, or the summers to follow, the Big Six will only continue to poach from those below them even if they are above them. That is just how it works now. Newcastle and Villa know their place, and are at pains to fight it.