Maddison will love him: £52m star now wants to join Spurs this summer

For Tottenham Hotspur‘s James Maddison it was a long and arduous season. Suffering a horrendous ACL injury, the England international missed much of the season due to that very problem.

The fact he couldn’t help his teammates fight off relegation hurt him enormously. Even when he did return, he could not start games due to the severity of the injury that had kept him out.

Maddison played just five minutes against Leeds, 21 mintues versus Chelsea and eight against Everton on the final day. Fortunately for him, Roberto De Zerbi’s men were able to secure Premier League safety.

You suspect that had De Zerbi and Maddison been around all season, they would not have been in this predicament.

Alas, it’s time to review the season and then, after that, quickly forget about it. It’s time to look towards brighter days next season with a host of transfers in the pipeline already.

Tottenham pressing ahead with summer transfer plans

De Zerbi and Co have wasted no time pressing ahead with their transfer plans in recent days with two deals already nearly confirmed.

Andy Robertson nearly signed for Spurs in the winter but with his final match at Liverpool now out the way, the path has cleared for him to move to the Lilywhites on a free transfer when his deal at Anfield expires this summer.

The Scot is not the only defender allegedly on the verge of moving to Tottenham. Fabrizio Romano revealed this week that Spurs have a “verbal agreement” with Marcos Senesi for the Bournemouth centre-back to join them this summer. Like Robertson, the Argentine is out of contract so will sign on a free.

It seems as though in a bid to improve the squad moving forward, Spurs are looking at the Premier League market. A move for Manchester City’s Savinho could also be back on the table.

Once again, that’s according to Fabrizio Romano. Taking to social media on Tuesday morning, the reporter wrote: “Understand Tottenham have now reactivated talks to sign Savinho this summer. Savio is open to the move.”

Spurs tried to sign the Brazilian a year ago but ultimately missed out on his signature despite submitting a couple of bids. His price tag has dropped since then to around the £52m mark according to reports.

How Savinho could fit into the Spurs attack

It’s safe to say that Savinho’s stock has fallen a great deal in the space of the last year. Following the conclusion of the 2024/25 season, the winger could have signed for Spurs off the back of a campaign in which he supplied 13 assists and scored three times.

Sure, those are not jaw-dropping numbers but he was one of the most creative wide players around.

In 2025/26, however, he has played second fiddle, largely to Antoine Semenyo in the back end of the season. Savinho started just seven league matches, scoring once and assisting twice. Across all competitions, the 22-year-old bagged four goals and registered three assists.

On that evidence, you may well think that this would be another poor signing to add to the collection at Tottenham.

However, at his age, there is a frightening amount of potential to extract from the City forward. It wasn’t long ago that some were suggesting he looked like the next Riyad Mahrez, cutting inside from the right onto his left foot with plenty of explosiveness.

He still has that ability inside of him, notably ranking among the finest 1% of wingers in Europe’s top five leagues for progressive carries per 90, making an enormous 9.81. Spurs fans may well wonder how he gets into the team over someone like Mohammed Kudus but given the volume of injuries they had in 2025/26, they need more depth. Savinho would add that but he’d also arrive as a potential starter.

The Brazil international could be game-changing for De Zerbi’s attack and notably the creative players. In short, he’d be a dream for the aforementioned Maddison.

They missed the Englishman’s creativity enormously this season. Last term, he produced 11 assists. Only the departing Heung-min Son registered more with 12 in all competitions.

So, a link up of Maddison and Savinho could be a match made in heaven. This term, the City star ranked among the best 1% of wingers in Europe for through balls received. That should be music to the ears of players like Xavi Simons, like Kudus, Like Maddison who all know how to pick out a runner.

While there were plenty of problems at the heart of this Spurs team as they narrowly avoided the drop, the attack was a massive issue. They didn’t pose nearly enough problems but with Maddison back and Savinho potentially arrived, there is hope that things will look a lot more vibrant when next season arrives.