Savinho to Spurs has real waft of Antony; do they even need him?

Roberto De Zerbi pulled into the White Hart Lane car park a few months ago, barrel in tow. He rolled it through the corridors, into the meeting room, and casually proceeded to bend several Spurs board members over his large wooden drum.

When he left the building later that day, waving a contract that stated he was the new Tottenham manager and quite possibly soon to be the highest-paid person in the history of the Championship, it was pretty clear he had been given everything he ever wanted.

It also became really clear, really quickly, exactly what he demanded from the board during the barrel-bending assembly: new signings. Lots of them. No matter the price. And soon.

Now, historically, or certainly under Daniel Levy, Spurs weren’t known for moving quickly in the transfer market. Instead of striking while the iron is hot, Daniel would usually take the iron and leave it on the windowsill to cool, forget about it overnight, and then p**s on the iron.

But not this summer. Spurs had already signed half a new team long before Gianni Infantino’s bald face was flashing on screen every time some football got in the way of a Powerade drinks break.

Tottenham had money to spend, and they certainly spent it, but since then, it’s gone a bit quiet. Of course, Fabrizio Romano was screaming at his zombies on a daily basis that ‘Spurs are serious about Savinho’ and ‘Savinho wants Tottenham real bad’. But there was more than a whiff of mixed messages.

Spurs still had money to spend back in June, and they’ve since sold a whole raft of players. So the lack of a forward signing isn’t down to a scarcity of funds.

Considering how quickly Spurs did their other business to keep De Zerbi happy, Savinho would surely have joined around World Cup kick-off time if the Italian was super-keen. And something tells me we probably would have heard about it by now if De Zerbi was getting agitated.

It could also be that the fee was stalling the deal. Paying anywhere near £85m (they settled on £75m plus add-ons in the end) for a lad who has done nothing to suggest he’s worth even half of that is a risk. It is a deal that has a real waft of the Antony about it; but what makes this potential deal even worse is the fact that Spurs have some kids ready to step up, right now, in Savinho’s position.

Mikey Moore’s loan to Koln, although pleasing to say, has been put on hold. He scored twice against Hoffenheim on Saturday. Both goals were brilliantly set up by a rapidly maturing Mathys Tel. De Zerbi is said to like Richarlison a lot too, so is he happy with those options? He certainly seemed happy enough to wait it out for Savinho for what feels like forever.

And with James Maddison still recovering, Luca Williams-Barnett has been earning rave reviews for well over a month. There’s the obvious massive caveat of this being pre-season, and every summer there’s a 16 or 17-year-old who rinses an Atletico or Dortmund full-back for 90 minutes in Atlanta or Auckland, and fans online get real giddy. Then three years later, that kid – now a young adult – is on loan at Bromley. From Sheffield United.

But there’s something strange about how relaxed things are in north London about Spurs signing a new forward. Maybe it has something to do with Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons, Dominic Solanke and Wilson Odobert all on various paths to recovery from injury.

Or maybe, for the first time in living memory, the kids lighting up pre-season are finally going to get a chance to play. An XI at Brentford that reads Kinsky, Gray, Senesi, van Hecke, Robertson, Tonali, Gallagher, Fernandes, Williams-Barnett, Tel and Moore, would certainly be a surprise, but then again, the lack of urgency in the transfer market suggests that this might be De Zerbi’s plan?

Even if the Savinho saga ends soon (a saga so dull by the way, that this is the first time it’s been called such), he will not start against Brentford on Saturday evening.

After two 17th-place finishes, perhaps it’s time to try something new. And letting a couple of kids shine in the first team is wonderfully dreamy Football Manager bullsh*t for sure, but for once, it might actually become a reality.

Nobody knows what to expect from Spurs this season. They are a club with irons stinking of old p**s and they’ve been drifting aimlessly for the last 12 months, but they just bought a lot of new players, and the new guy in charge is a maverick/genius/lunatic (delete as appropriate) who is going to do things his way. Bring on tonight.

Richard Mullan – follow him on Instagram.