Tottenham are set to sell players in the coming weeks after spending big in the early stages of the summer transfer window.
Spurs continued their summer spending spree by signing Sandro Tonali for a club-record transfer fee from Newcastle.
An agreement between the two Premier League rivals for the signature of the midfielder was reached last week and a move finally announced on Monday morning, with Spurs paying an initial £92.5m and a further £7.5m in add-ons.
“I’m very happy to be here. When I arrived at the club today, it felt fantastic. People said about there being four or five clubs – there was only one,” Tonali told the official club website.
“I spoke to the head coach (Roberto De Zerbi) for close to two hours about the club, the fans, the stadium and our football. It was like magic because I knew immediately that I had to sign for Tottenham.
“I’ve played against Tottenham a few times and always found a great atmosphere made by great fans. I can’t wait to start the season.”
Tonali’s club-record signing follows the £85m deal for Mateus Fernandes announced on Thursday and Jan Paul van Hecke joining from Brighton for £52m earlier this summer, which takes Spurs’ spending to £237m.
Martin Dubravka, Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi have also signed as free agents, but Tonali was top of De Zerbi’s wish list and completes the club’s midfield revamp with the 26-year-old viewed as a statement addition.
De Zerbi, together with Tottenham chiefs, has agreed to sell some key players this summer to fund their signings and rebalance the squad, and a heavily in-demand man at N17 has now chosen his next club.
Exclusive: The four players Tottenham plan to sell to raise £150m this summer
Spurs want to back Roberto De Zerbi this summer while staying on the right side of PSR.
Tottenham starlet having medical at Preston North End
According to Alasdair Gold, Tottenham youngster Alfie Devine is having a medical to join Preston North End in the Championship in a permanent deal.
The 21 year-old had hordes of interest across English football, but has elected for Deepdale after spending last season on loan with the (other) Lilywhites, where he scored eight times in 45 league appearances.
Celtic were interested in taking the midfielder to the Scottish Premiership, a division in which they are the only team yet to make a signing this summer.
The Scottish champions’ board are facing increasing pressure from fan groups and this will do nothing to calm those waters, especially given reports it was manager Martin O’Neill personally backing the deal for the Spurs starlet.
For Tottenham, Devine has played just twice for the first-team, scoring once, so despite his talent seems unlikely to claim the attacking midfield role for his own in North London, especially with new signings arriving and James Maddison back from injury.
Tottenham planning more business after Tonali
After back-to-back 17th place finishes in the Premier League, Tottenham’s previously stringent financial model has been thrown out of the window this summer by majority owners the Lewis family.
Spurs have regularly boasted the lowest wages to revenue ratio compared to domestic rivals, with this figure at 45 per cent for the 2024-25 campaign.
However, with revenue streams regularly beyond the £500million mark, partly due to the amount of non-football events being hosted at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the north London club have relaxed their rigid wage structure and broken their transfer record twice this summer.
Tonali is not expected to be Spurs’ last arrival with attacking reinforcements the new key focus and there is interest in Bournemouth forward Junior Kroupi.
