Tottenham will embark on a major policy shift by getting transfer business done early and seeking to go toe-to-toe with Champions League clubs for “big ticket” deals.
Spurs have already signed Jan Paul van Hecke for £52m, determined to get that move over the line despite the defender only having had 12 months remaining on his Brighton contract.
Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Martin Dubravka have also arrived on free transfers from Liverpool, Bournemouth and Burnley respectively.
Four Tottenham targets
It is the other big-money moves that have piqued curiosity, however, with Spurs having had one £80m bid for Sandro Tonali turned down and preparing another. Newcastle initially slapped a £100m+ price tag on the midfielder but suitors are hopeful that will come down because of his desire to leave St James’ Park.
Other pursuits are less concrete. Marcus Rashford is a player on their list, particularly as he is seen as a player who would solve the headaches on the left and at No 9 all at once. Rashford is valued at around £40m by Manchester United after a successful loan spell at Barcelona.
Savinho is an alternative still being monitored with the winger expected to leave Manchester City and Mateus Fernandes is still on Spurs’ radar despite West Ham holding out for up to £80m.
How can they afford it?
One option is amortising the Tonali deal, so that for Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) Spurs could split the £85m over five years, should that improved fee be agreed and thus avoid making a loss. It helps that Tonali’s Italy did not qualify for the World Cup, meaning talks are continuing where other transfers have been interrupted.
It is no coincidence that Spurs are rejigging their pay structure while also prioritising high-profile “leaders” like Robertson, Senesi and Dubravka on free transfers, allowing wages to go up.
The club is also benefiting from its commercial revenue – the concerts, the NFL, boxing and go-karting. Much-maligned as those activities are by some fans, in 2025 Spurs’ commercial revenue was £277m – bigger than 40 per cent of the revenue budget for other clubs in the Premier League.
That will allow them to withstand missing out on Champions League football, which has cost them £80m.
“They’ve never been in any way, shape or form close to the PSR threshold,” says Rob Wilson, football finance expert at the University Campus of Football Business.
“So they’ve got all of that in the bank. We’ve got this interesting point this year where PSR is changing to squad cost ratio (SCR). The squad cost ratio will work out as a percentage of their income, and their income is significant in the contex of the Premier League – so that’s why they’ll b outspending, you’d imagine, every team from at least eighth down.
“They’re talking about buying lots of players – and it’ll be interesting to see if they execute it because they certainly can’t afford to buy all the player that the headlines say they’re being linked with. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if they spent £200-250m as a gross spend – and then you’ve got players they might sell to bring the overall outgoing budget down.”
Both PSR and SCR will be calculate over a three-year period, further allowing Spurs to spend.
They do not tend to make losses, which means in theory, Wilson says they could “almost throw the kitchen sink at it in one summer, knowing that they would then be in almost a breach position, you can then recover that over that three-year period assuming your sporting performance is really good”.
Who could leave?
Guglielmo Vicario has moved a step closer to the exit with a return to Serie A the most likely destination. Dubravka’s arrival means there is now another back-up goalkeeper ready, with Roberto De Zerbi impressed enough by Antonin Kinsky that he considers him capable of being No 1.
Yves Bissouma has already been released and there are talks ongoing over the futures of Radu Dragusin. Manor Solomon is likely to leave after spending the season on loan at Fiorentina, despite being offered brief hope of a long-term future last summer.
Lucas Bergvall is understood to have expressed a desire to leave after just 11 league starts in 2025-26. Brighton are expected to come in for Luka Vuskovic again, with De Zerbi unable to promise him a starting place, with the Seagulls’ initial £35m bid knocked back.
A call will also be made on Richarlison as he enters the final year of his deal, with a new contract still possible. Richarlison and Dominic Solanke’s fitness issues, together with Randal Kolo Muani’s loan coming to an end, leaves them light for striker options.
Making Joao Palhinha’s loan permanent is also seen as crucial by De Zerbi.
One more transfer headache
One area Spurs do need to tread carefully over is homegrown players. Premier League clubs require eight of a club’s 25-man squad list to be homegrown with a maximum of 17 non-homegrown allowed. They have eight currently, including Ben Davies (who does not qualify in Europe because he is Welsh) and Kevin Danso, an Austria international but who grew up in England.
Andy Robertson (Scottish) does not count because he did not grow up in England or Wales and none of their major targets would count towards the quota either.
Who is calling the shots?
De Zerbi has a large say in transfers, but Spurs are still searching for a second sporting director after the move for Sebastian Kehl, formerly of Borussia Dortmund, fell through. Johan Lange remains in place for now.
In the hierarchy there is an understanding that a summer of stagnation could not be allowed to happen, lest it appear that the threat of how close Spurs came to relegation had not been taken seriously enough. The £100m extra investment from Enic a year ago gives further wiggle room.
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While both Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven have attracted interest there is a huge note of caution attached to selling both at the same time even after Van Hecke’s arrival.
“Spurs are fairly unique in that they could get away with not selling big,” Wilson adds.
“They might sell a couple of fringe players just to top up cash flow, but they could get away with waiting through the summer and seeing if they get the right bid for some of those players.
“But unquestionably, when you have a squad like they’ve assembled over the last few years that has delivered the on-field performance that they’ve delivered over those last couple of years, they will be looking at reshaping that squad without question. They’ve got some fairly decent saleable assets.”
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