Savio and Omar Marmoush are already in the door, but will Cody Gakpo be joining the pair at Tottenham Hotspur before the deadline?
The impending arrival of Bradley Barcola at Liverpool may well prove a factor in the Dutchman’s future at the club, with Gakpo believed to be open to a change of scenery after almost four years on Merseyside.
He’s split opinion at Anfield, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s difficult to view the 27-year-old as anything other than an upgrade on Roberto De Zerbi‘s current options, the Lilywhites having started with Mathys Tel and Mikey Moore on the flanks against Brentford.
Yes, there may well be great excitement surrounding Savio and Marmoush, with their level in the Premier League still to be realised, but it is Gakpo who might be the safer pair of hands.
Why Gakpo is less of a risk than Marmoush and Savio
Savio, signed for an eye-watering £85m fee, is already up and running in a Tottenham shirt, producing a dazzling cameo against Charlton Athletic in midweek.
With one goal and one assist under his belt already, albeit against Championship opposition, the Brazilian is making up for lost time considering this move has been a year in the making.
That said, no one will be counting their chickens just yet, with this a player who scored and assisted just two goals in the Premier League last term, having firmly slipped down the pecking order under Pep Guardiola.
It was a similar story for Marmoush too, the fleet-footed Egyptian only scoring three and assisting three in the top flight, falling by the wayside despite an initially strong first six months in Manchester.
Let’s face it, Spurs have gambled on what the 27-year-old showed at Eintracht Frankfurt previously, while in Savio’s case, his stunning form for Girona is a large reason behind the bumper price tag, having scored and assisted 19 LaLiga goals in 2023/24.
In terms of proven Premier League quality, Gakpo is certainly a step above, perhaps even more so than the likes of Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Jan Paul van Hecke.
He’s a Premier League winner, after all, having scored seven or more goals in the top flight in each of the last three and a half seasons at Liverpool.
|
Gakpo League Record |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Season |
Goals |
Assists |
|
26/27 |
1 |
0 |
|
25/26 |
7 |
5 |
|
24/25 |
10 |
4 |
|
23/24 |
8 |
5 |
|
23/23* |
7 |
2 |
|
22/23 |
9 |
12 |
|
21/22 |
12 |
13 |
|
20/21 |
7 |
3 |
|
19/20 |
7 |
6 |
|
18/19 |
1 |
5 |
|
17/18 |
0 |
0 |
|
*joined Liverpool in January |
||
There’s a sense of consistency and reliability there that Savio and Marmoush just haven’t shown in English football, and while Gakpo may not get bums off seats, he certainly knows where the back of the net is.
That’s true of other Tottenham targets too.
The £68m Gakpo alternative who Spurs could sign
The expectation is that Savio will operate off the left, with Marmoush through the middle, yet there is a fluidity to these new arrivals, leaving De Zerbi with real flexibility for the season ahead.
The same is also true of £70m man Gakpo, the former PSV Eindhoven star also a potential option through the middle, albeit while at his best off the left.
If Spurs do want someone who is versatile enough to feature all across the forward line, then Villarreal’s Georges Mikautadze is another name to mention, ahead of the looming deadline.
Indeed, as per journalist Ben Jacobs – speaking to the Last Word on Spurs – the Lilywhites have already lodged an “enquiry” regarding a potential move for the Georgian sensation.
“Yeah, he is one of the alternatives [to Gakpo], and they actually made an enquiry on the player side probably a month ago.
“Price I was always told was one kind of aspect here, but look at the prices that Tottenham have paid during their Premier League business, and it wouldn’t be a patch on the Tonali fee or anything like that, but I’m not so sure now that it’s as active as it was 2 3 weeks ago.”
The 25-year-old, who is said to be valued at around £68m, would certainly be worth considering if Spurs decide to ramp up their interest, with the former Lyon man having been such a threat across a number of seasons now.
His major breakthrough, following a prior stint on loan in Belgium, came during the 2022/23 season for Metz, scoring 23 goals in France’s second tier to seal a move to Ajax.
He lasted only six months in Amsterdam, before returning to Metz on loan, yet still managed to score 13 times in Ligue 1 in the final stretch of 2023/24, alongside notching four assists.
A subsequent move to Lyon that summer yielded 11 goals and six assists in the league, before he was again on his way to Spain in the summer of 2025, having ended his first year at Villarreal with 13 goals and six assists in LaLiga.
While he may have been operating through the middle, that record across the past three years, in particular, certainly makes for strong reading, having comfortably outperformed Gakpo in that time.
Looking at the Dutchman’s three full seasons at Liverpool, he scored eight and assisted five in 2023/24, scored ten and assisted four in 2024/25, while most recently contributing seven goals and five assists last time out.
In each of those campaigns, he was bettered by Mikautadze in terms of league goal involvements, with the Georgian even bettering Gakpo in terms of successful dribbles made per game last season (1.0 vs 0.9).
Much like Marmoush, Mikautadze isn’t a traditional number nine, more in the mould of someone who can drift out wide or even drop into a number ten berth, so elegant to watch when he’s in full flow.
Of course, bringing in the 25-year-old from abroad does pose a greater risk than signing Gakpo, yet considering the form he’s showcased across his time in France and Spain, this feels like a gamble worth taking.
