Tottenham's Transfer Surge: De Zerbi Targets Gakpo, Savinho, and Balogun

Tottenham’s summer has drifted along quietly, but that calm looks like the pause before a storm. With the new season a week away, the club is braced to rip up its forward line, and Roberto De Zerbi has made his choices clear: Cody Gakpo, Savinho and, if ENIC get their way, Folarin Balogun.

This is not tinkering. It’s a reset.

De Zerbi’s wide plan: Savinho and Gakpo

Savinho has been on Spurs’ radar for months and, crucially, he wants N17. The Manchester City winger, 22 and left-footed, is viewed inside the club as the live-wire option to jolt a depleted set of wide players back into life.

Randal Kolo Muani’s miserable loan is over. Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert are both staring at extended spells out. De Zerbi needs pace, unpredictability, goals. Savinho offers at least the first two.

In the short term, he is expected to plug the gap on the right, effectively stepping into the role Mohammed Kudus should have occupied. The Ghanaian hasn’t featured in pre-season and only recently returned to training, so the right flank needs a starter now, not in a month.

Longer term, the picture shifts. Savinho has been praised by analyst and Como scout Ben Mattinson for those Gareth Bale-style, driven finishes from the left, cutting in and hammering at goal. De Zerbi will like that. It gives him the option of flipping the Brazilian to the opposite side once the squad is healthier.

That’s where Gakpo comes in – and where the puzzle gets interesting.

At Liverpool, the Dutchman has mostly worked from the left, but he’s not a traditional winger. He doesn’t burn past full-backs or dazzle with the ball at his feet. His game revolves around timing, finishing and movement in and around the box.

Which is why there’s a growing belief he could be used as a false nine at Spurs.

The numbers back it up without screaming “superstar”. According to Transfermarkt, Gakpo has scored 18 goals in 66 games when used as a striker or false nine at Liverpool. Not electric, not poor – solid. In a more structured, possession-heavy De Zerbi system, that profile has a clear use.

Yet that same profile also hints at something else: this rebuild probably needs a proper number nine.

Richarlison and Solanke on the brink

Tottenham’s current centre-forward options feel temporary. Both Richarlison and Dominic Solanke could be moved on before the window shuts, and that uncertainty is shaping the club’s next move.

Richarlison is the more likely departure. He has just a year left on his deal, and De Zerbi has already admitted the 29-year-old is weighing up his future. Earlier this summer, Football FanCast reported that Spurs were preparing to sell him. Nothing since has suggested a change of course.

Solanke’s situation is different but no less fragile. Nottingham Forest have shown interest, and while an exit is described as less likely, his return of 12 league goals across two seasons has not exactly nailed him down as the long-term answer.

If one of them goes, the plan is clear.

TEAMtalk report that ENIC are ready to accelerate their pursuit of Folarin Balogun once a striker leaves, with Spurs emerging as frontrunners for the Monaco forward. The fee is expected to sit around £51m, and crucially, the former Arsenal man is said to be keen on a Premier League return and open to joining Tottenham.

Talks are still at an early stage. Nothing is close. But the shape of the window is obvious: Savinho wide, Gakpo as a flexible forward, and Balogun as the statement signing through the middle.

Balogun: the real statement signing?

On pure form, Balogun looks like the sharpest bet of the three.

Gakpo has divided opinion at Anfield and has yet to break double figures in a Premier League season since arriving from PSV Eindhoven. Savinho, for all his promise, finished the 2025/26 league campaign with just one goal and one assist, still searching for rhythm at the top level.

Balogun, by contrast, has been producing.

For Monaco last season, the United States international hit 13 goals and four assists in Ligue 1. Gakpo, by comparison, managed seven goals and five assists in the Premier League. Balogun also carried that threat onto the biggest stages: three goals in four World Cup appearances, a constant menace at the spearhead of Mauricio Pochettino’s attack.

In Europe, he stayed hot. Five goals in ten Champions League outings last term, the latest reminder of the player who tore Ligue 1 apart on loan at Reims in 2022/23, when he scored 21 league goals.

Injuries have interrupted that rise, but the talent is obvious. At £51m, Spurs would not just be buying a striker – they’d be buying a narrative.

This is an Arsenal academy product, a Hale End graduate who left north London to make his name elsewhere. If he returns to the city in Lilywhite and flourishes, Arsenal will be forced to watch a homegrown forward thrive for their fiercest rivals. Tottenham have lived that story before with Harry Kane. They know exactly how powerful that can be.

That alone gives Balogun the potential to eclipse Gakpo and Savinho as the true “statement” arrival of the summer.

Tottenham are poised to rip up their attack. If Balogun walks through the door behind Savinho and Gakpo, Richarlison and Solanke won’t just be looking over their shoulders – they might already be out of the picture.