Spurs in talks to seal £40m signing ASAP alongside Tonali

It’s been a rampant start to the transfer window for Tottenham Hotspur, although there will be those wary of facing a repeat of last summer, as the Lilywhites were beaten to the punch for a string of marquee targets.

From Morgan Gibbs-White to Eberechi Eze, and from Antoine Semenyo to Bryan Mbeumo, it was almost a luckless window for then-boss Thomas Frank, pegged back time and again on the recruitment front.

Will it be a similar story amid Roberto De Zerbi‘s pursuit of Sandro Tonali? The word is that even while chasing a deal for England star Elliot Anderson, rivals Manchester City could also be ready to pounce for the Italian as well.

City may well sanction two £100m-plus deals for that midfield pair, boasting a financial might that few other clubs across Europe can keep pace with.

Tonali may well end up at the Etihad, but Spurs won’t be losing hope just yet, with the north London side also keeping tabs on further targets too regardless.

Spurs open talks to sign £40m sensation this summer

Quite what City’s interest means in this Tonali tussle remains to be seen, with reports earlier this week having suggested that Spurs had actually agreed personal terms with the 26-year-old.

The north Londoners appear intent on pursuing Premier League-proven options, like Tonali, with work still underway to land Brazilian winger, Savinho, from the Manchester side.

Additions on the flanks do seem to be a priority following a season of churn in that department, with far too many of the club’s attacking options having come up short amid a dismal top-flight campaign.

That has led the ENIC regime to also consider options abroad too, with TEAMtalk reporting that Spurs have opened talks ahead of a potential move for Koln starlet, Said El Mala.

The report suggests that the Lilywhites are hoping to beat Newcastle United to his signature by agreeing to sign the 19-year-old’s older brother, Malek – the 21-year-old is also on the books at the Bundesliga side as well.

There is said to be ‘positivity’ that a deal for the teenager – who is likely to fetch around £40m – can be struck ‘in the coming weeks’, with El Mala seemingly open to making a move to the Premier League.

Why El Mala could be another Son in the making at Spurs

There wasn’t one key source of blame at N17 last season, with issues arising all across the park to plunge the club toward the brink of relegation.

One area that particularly underwhelmed was the attacking unit, however, with Richarlison surprisingly leading the way for goals, and total goal involvements, one of the few to at least record a creditable haul in the top-flight.

Quality and consistency on the flanks was particularly slim, with Spurs yet to truly find a successor to Heung-min Son on the left wing, the South Korean, even in his advancing years, having scored and assisted 16 league goals in 2024/25.

Plucked from Bayer Leverkusen a decade earlier, the relatively unknown talent emerged into a superstar in north London, taking on talismanic status in the wake of Harry Kane’s exit in 2023.

The hope will be that El Mala, also currently a rising star in German football, can enjoy a similar rise should a deal be agreed, with the teenager having been in sparkling form last season.

Like Son, the young German is a left-winger by trade yet can also be deployed through the middle, seemingly proving devastatingly effective wherever he lines up.

Indeed, across 2025/26, the £40m-rated starlet scored 13 goals and contributed four assists in the Bundesliga, a remarkable tally considering he actually only started 20 games.

Such a record isn’t too dissimilar to what Son achieved in his Leverkusen days, the fleet-footed speedster scoring 11 and assisting one Bundesliga goal in 2014/15, having contributed 14 goals and assists in 2013/14.

Prior to last season too, El Mala had been operating in the third tier of German football, scoring 12 goals in 2024/25, with it having proven a real breakout year across the last 12 months or so.

He did miss 17 ‘big chances’, yet created eight himself, all while netting at an impressive rate of one goal every 151 minutes, having boasted a 17% goal conversion rate.

He comfortably outperformed every Spurs player with regard to goals and total goal involvements, with a £40m fee seemingly something of a bargain for a player of such remarkable potential.

Just like Son before him, El Mala feels like a talent waiting to explode over the coming years, with north London perhaps the perfect platform for his stock to truly soar.