We’re used to transfer rumors. They’re our bread and butter here at Carty Free Towers, and what would be the point of the summer transfer window if we didn’t get to obsess over the smallest tidbits of news from dodgy media sources and ITK? But what I’m NOT used to is transfer rumors coming directly from the high profile manager of one of the ten richest clubs in world football.
That’s exactly what we got from Roberto De Zerbi this morning.
“In the transfer market when I want one player I become like a shark, No chance to say no! The transfer market, it’s not finished for sure, but we completed 60 per cent of our project in the transfer market. Now we have another bomba!”
De Zerbi went on to say that the player in question is an attacker, is separate from the transfer to bring in Savinho from Manchester City, and isn’t yet finalized. “I hope,” he said later in the interview, “but it’s not finished for sure.”
OK, so first of all I had something of a visceral reaction to De Zerbi using the word “bomba” due to the word’s overuse on social media (particularly Bluesky) when talking about transfer rumors becoming reality. But maybe I shouldn’t have? After all, RDZ is Italian, and so is the word “bomba.” If an English manager had used the word “bombshell,” a direct translation of “bomba,” would any of us find that weird? Probably not. My point is: social media boils your brain, do better than me and go out and touch grass on occasion.
But anyway, it is unusual to have a manager basically tell a journalist about the existence of a mystery transfer that hasn’t hit the rumor mill yet. The speculation has now turned entirely to trying to piece together who exactly De Zerbi is referring to. Spurs have been linked with virtually every available attacker in the market this summer, precisely because they’ve already demonstrated the ability and willingness to spend obscene amounts of money to refresh the squad, and since the injury to Eli Junior Kroupi, Tottenham’s top target, now the field is wide open. Some speculation has centered around Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford, and Spurs have also been (very) tenuously linked with players such as Cody Gakpo, Victor Osimhen, Kenan Yildiz, and Omar Marmoush.
Assuming De Zerbi’s confidence manifests itself in the next week or so, we will find out who the mystery player is, but at present not even the reliable Spurs journos like Gold or Dan Kilpatrick have discovered that player’s identity.
I guess brace yourselves? Because an attacking player is coming to Tottenham Hotspur.
