Savinho Missing from Man City Training as Spurs Near £70m Transfer
Tottenham’s long pursuit of Savinho is edging towards a decisive week – and the Brazil winger has now added his own weight to the story.
The 22-year-old was missing from Manchester City’s open training session on Thursday, with the club stating he was out through illness. On its own, that might have passed as a footnote. It didn’t stay that way for long.
Transfer reporter Fabrizio Romano revealed on X that Savinho has again told City this week he wants to leave and join Tottenham. It’s not the first time he has made that clear, but the timing – on the day he’s absent from training – sharpens the sense that this saga is finally moving.
Spurs have chased the Brazilian for more than a year. They tried and failed to bring him to north London last summer. This time, under Roberto De Zerbi, the push has a different edge. The new head coach has signed off on the move and wants at least two new attackers through the door before the 1 September deadline. Savinho is high on that list.
City’s stance is straightforward: they are open to a sale, but only once they secure a replacement. That condition mirrors the situation with another Tottenham target, Cody Gakpo, who remains tied to Liverpool’s own transfer plans.
Even so, momentum is building. A well-placed Tottenham source on X has claimed in the last 24 hours that a deal for Savinho is expected to be wrapped up within the next week, with the fee projected to land around the £70m mark.
Big backing for De Zerbi – but at a big price
Tottenham’s owners have already shown they are prepared to spend heavily to fuel De Zerbi’s rebuild after back-to-back 17th-place finishes. They blew past rivals to sign Mateus Fernandes from West Ham United and Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United for a combined £185m, a statement that Spurs intend to climb quickly back up the Premier League.
Savinho, though, sits in a different bracket of debate.
City signed him from Girona for £30m two years ago. Since then he has made 84 appearances for the eight-time Premier League champions, but he never truly nailed down a regular starting role under Pep Guardiola. New manager Enzo Maresca appears ready to let him go, which tells its own story about where City believe he is in his development.
The raw talent is obvious – you do not last at City without a serious level of quality – yet the numbers have not exploded in the way you would expect of a £70m winger. That is where the question bites hardest for Tottenham: are they paying for what Savinho is, or what they hope he can become?
A calculated gamble
From Spurs’ perspective, this is a bet on potential and context. De Zerbi wants him. The player wants the move. Regular minutes in a system built around his strengths could unlock a level he never consistently showed in Manchester.
Right now, though, stripped of optimism and viewed purely through the market lens, £70m looks like a premium price for a player City were willing to cash in on after two seasons and 84 outings.
If Tottenham do get this over the line in the coming days, the question will stop being whether they overpaid. It will switch to something far more brutal: can Savinho play well enough, quickly enough, to make that figure feel irrelevant?
