Tottenham's Ambitious Transfer Targets: Marmoush and Savinho
Tottenham are pushing hard on two fronts as the transfer window heads into its final stretch, with Omar Marmoush and Savinho at the centre of a late, high‑stakes play to arm Roberto De Zerbi for his first season in charge.
The north London club are working on a double move that could climb to, or even pass, the £140 million mark. Ambitious money, aimed at changing the feel of a squad that has already been reshaped once this summer and is now being bent further to De Zerbi’s demands.
City’s contrasting cases
Manchester City’s opening Premier League game against Bournemouth offered a glimpse of where both targets stand.
Marmoush was named among the substitutes, having come off the bench in the Community Shield against Arsenal the previous weekend. He remains firmly in the matchday picture, and his situation, Enzo Maresca stressed, is not the same as his team‑mate’s.
Savinho was nowhere to be seen. The winger, who had featured in all of City’s pre-season fixtures, missed the squad entirely after sitting out training three days earlier because he was “a little bit ill”, Maresca explained.
City’s new head coach laid out the state of play with both players in stark terms.
“Omar is still here, still with us, it's a different situation to Savio and we see,” Maresca said. “Savio, since day one, asked to leave, and Omar didn't ask to leave since day one, not yet.
“It's always complicated when someone leaves, and one has to arrive. We'll see if Omar stays or what happens.”
The Italian did not sugar-coat Savinho’s stance.
“It's quite clear that when players want to leave for any reason, it is complicated to convince them to stay and to change. It happened with Rodri, the same is happening with Savinho.
“Since day one, he has been clear that he wants to leave. Now we are waiting. It's complicated when players are clear they want a new challenge, or they want to go to Spain or play more minutes, it becomes complicated to convince them to stay.”
For Tottenham, that clarity is an opening. Savinho wants out, and Spurs are at the front of the queue.
De Zerbi waits, but doesn’t hide his intent
On the other side of this tug-of-war, De Zerbi is keeping his cards close in public, at least on names.
Asked directly about Savinho in his pre-match press conference, the Spurs head coach refused to cross the usual line.
“It's not right to speak about the players until they are official,” he said. “Just to say, I'm very happy. We have not finished yet in the transfer market.”
The message was obvious. Work is ongoing. More is coming.
After a bruising 3-0 defeat to Brentford, De Zerbi widened the lens, talking not just about individuals but about the scale of what Tottenham are trying to build under the Lewis family ownership.
“I am very happy and I think I can't speak about the other coaches [in the past],” he said. “I just can say, in my experience, they kept their word, they kept what they said before I came in March, the end of March, in the middle of March, and then very happy.
“But what we are doing is not for the coach. It’s for the club, for the fans, for the history of the club, for the pride of the club, and for the level of the club. I think this moment is crucial for this club, because after two seasons like we had, we have to change the mood, completely change it, give it a boost.
“Then, I think when we have finished in this transfer market, for a long time we don't need many things and we can work all together in the right condition, in the right direction, to build step by step something special, or to go to compete for the top of the table.”
That is the backdrop against which Spurs are chasing Marmoush and Savinho: a coach demanding a shift in mentality, an ownership group promising to match it, and a squad still short of the firepower and variety De Zerbi wants in the final third.
The window closes on 1 September. City are waiting on Savinho’s exit, Tottenham are waiting on City, and De Zerbi is waiting to see just how far this rebuild will really go.
