Tottenham working on deal for Savinho and Omar Marmoush of Manchester City

Tottenham Hotspur are working on a deal to sign Savinho and Omar Marmoush from Manchester City.

Nothing is finalised but Tottenham’s talks with City are advancing.

The Athletic reported on Tuesday that Spurs were progressing in a deal for Savinho, while Marmoush has also been among those considered likely to leave City this summer.

Savinho, the 22-year-old winger, was not part of Enzo Maresca’s 21-player squad for City’s 3-0 Community Shield final defeat by Arsenal on Sunday. Marmoush, 27, came on as a second-half substitute for Erling Haaland.

The potential deals for Savinho and Marmoush would add to an already busy summer for Tottenham, who have spent a combined £229.5million on Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Jan Paul van Hecke.

Tottenham pursued a move for Savinho last summer, with The Athletic reporting in August 2025 that they had discussed a package worth in the region of €50million (£43.3m, $58.2m) with City.

City, though, did not want to sell the Brazilian, who signed a new deal until 2031 in early October after the close of the transfer window.

Savinho, however, continued to play a bit-part role for City, starting just seven Premier League games last season as Pep Guardiola’s side finished second and won a domestic cup double.

The Brazil international joined City in a €40m deal from French side Troyes, after spending the 2023-24 season on loan at La Liga team Girona, where he recorded 11 goals and 10 assists, helping the club to a top-four finish and the club’s first-ever Champions League berth. Both Troyes and Girona are owned by the City Football Group (CFG).

Marmoush started eight times in the Premier League last term, finishing the campaign with eight goals in 36 appearances. The forward then played five times for Egypt at the World Cup as they reached the last 16. He joined City from Eintracht Frankfurt in January 2025 after scoring 37 times in 67 appearances.

Alongside the signings of Tonali, Fernandes and Van Hecke, Spurs have recruited defenders Marcos Senesi and Andy Robertson and goalkeeper Martin Dubravka on free transfers.

Spurs delivering De Zerbi’s ‘bomba’ promise

Analysis by Tottenham correspondent Jay Harris

A couple of weeks ago, Roberto De Zerbi revealed that Spurs were lining up a surprise “bomba” signing. Supporters have become restless since then but this audacious double swoop has been well worth the wait.

Spurs’ interest in Savinho can be traced back to last summer following Thomas Frank’s appointment. Savinho has failed to live up to expectations during his time in Manchester but is still viewed as a quality, versatile option for the squad even though De Zerbi is now in charge. Savinho would also be reunited with Xavi Simons, who he played with during the 2022-23 season at PSV Eindhoven. This move has dragged on for the entire summer but Spurs appear to be finally closing in on one of their top targets.

Tonali cost Spurs an initial £92.5m, with £7.5m due in potential add-ons (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Savinho’s arrival would not be enough to plug the gaps upfront, which is why their pursuit of Omar Marmoush is so exciting. Spurs desperately need another centre-forward because Richarlison only has a year left on his contract and Dominic Solanke has struggled with injuries over the last 18 months. Marmoush has the flexibility to play through the middle on his own and alongside Solanke or Richarlison.

Marmoush’s star has waned slightly over the last 12 months because he is in the awkward position of playing second fiddle to Haaland at City and Mohamed Salah with Egypt. Before Marmoush joined City midway through the 2024-25 season, he scored 15 goals in 17 games for Eintracht. With the promise of more regular game time, Spurs will be hoping Marmoush can replicate that form if he makes the move to north London.

Spurs have already remodelled their midfield and defence this summer. Signing Savinho and Marmoush would secure their status as legitimate top-four contenders and cap off a remarkable transfer window which, on paper, will go down as one of the best in Premier League history.

How can Spurs afford this spending?

Analysis by football finance writer Chris Weatherspoon

Even by the standards of modern English football, Tottenham’s outlay is eyebrow-raising. Inside the first three weeks of the summer window, they committed a £230m on three signings. Add unreported agent fees and the Premier League’s transfer levy of four per cent on every incoming transfer, and their splurge tops a quarter of a billion pounds. The club’s single-season record is £272.2m (in 2023-24).

Or it was.

Following the signing of Van Hecke from Brighton before the end of the 2025-26 accounting year, The Athletic projects Spurs’ spending on new players landed just shy of £300m last season. On a net basis, we reckon around £240m was spent, comfortably higher than the club’s previous record of £180.1m (again set in 2023-24).

Champions League money will have helped pay the bills last season, but the greater factor has been a shift in strategy at the top of the club. After two decades of parsimony, ENIC, the firm that holds a majority ownership stake in Spurs, is now pumping funds in.

Fans of other clubs might also wonder how Spurs can afford this activity while remaining within football’s financial rules. Yet a relative lack of liquidity (at least prior to ENIC’s funding) bears little relevance to compliance, with football’s regulations previously focused on keeping losses low and, now, trained on how much clubs spend on their squads.

The losses at Tottenham have rocketed in recent seasons, though much of that owes to a huge depreciation charge on the stadium — an expense which is deducted from loss-based calculations. They have dipped into underlying deficits too, but those are not so large that they’ll have trouble with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), which, in any case, will cease to operate once clubs are assessed on the 2025-26 season.

Moreover, much to their supporters’ chagrin, Spurs have routinely operated one of the lowest wages-to-revenue figures in both English and European football.

In 2024-25, a season where they were without Champions League football, just 45 per cent of revenue went on total wages. The amount spent on players, relevant for SCR purposes, is even lower. Clubs don’t release player wage details but, per a UEFA report in 2022-23, Tottenham’s player wages were just 32 per cent of turnover.

Even with growing amortisation costs on transfer fees, total wages and amortisation as a proportion of revenue in 2024-25 was just 70 per cent. That also doesn’t include the averaged player profits that are added into the SCR calculation. In other words, they have had plenty of headroom.

Player sales are also taking on added importance. Spurs’ shoddy transfer business of recent years has made that infertile ground.

But recouping £35m on Brennan Johnson when he went to Crystal Palace in January was seen internally as decent business, while the deal agreed to sell Luka Vuskovic to Brighton is better still. Vuskovic, who joined in summer 2025 for £12m but was without a Spurs first-team appearance to his name, having spent last season out on loan, headed to the south coast for a guaranteed £46m, or only £6m less than went the opposite way for Van Hecke.

Cristian Romero has joined Atletico Madrid for £34.1m, while Guglielmo Vicario has left for Juventus on loan with an €8m option to buy and Radu Dragusin has signed for Fiorentina on loan with a conditional obligation.

What to read next

Ahead of the new Premier League season, which begins later this week, we asked Tim Spiers and Phil Hay to rank the division’s top 50 footballers. Three Tottenham players made the list, including two summer signings, but none of their attackers featured, perhaps explaining why Roberto De Zerbi has been so vocal about the need to strengthen the club’s front line. Click here to discover who made the top 50 — and who missed out — and be sure to join the discussion.