Tottenham look to have hijacked Chelsea’s move for RB Leipzig attacker Xavi Simons, the PA news agency understands.
Spurs this week entered the race for Netherlands international Simons, who has been pursued all summer by Chelsea.
Chelsea’s failure to sell enough out-of-favour players opened the door for Tottenham and the north London club have moved swiftly to try to land a key target, with an agreement quickly reached overnight with RB Leipzig for a deal in the region of 60million euros (£51.8m), PA understands.
Spurs boss Thomas Frank has been on the hunt for a new number 10 since he was appointed in June, with a failed pursuit of Nottingham Forest captain Morgan Gibbs-White earlier this summer followed by Arsenal being able to hijack a move for Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze last week.
Tottenham were rocked in between by a serious knee injury for James Maddison, which will sideline the England international for the majority of this season.
Frank has repeatedly expressed confidence that Spurs would boost their squad and after talks with Manchester City over Savinho cooled this week, the club’s focus shifted to the versatile Simons.
A product of Barcelona’s La Masia academy, the 22-year-old moved to Paris St Germain in 2019 as a teenager before he made headlines during a productive loan spell at PSV in the 2022-23 campaign.
Simons would spend the next two seasons at Leipzig, scoring 22 goals in 78 appearances before his move was made permanent earlier this year.
However, with Leipzig willing to let the 22-year-old leave for a sizeable fee, Tottenham entered the race for his signature and after Simons was given permission to travel to London on Thursday to sort his future, it appears to have been resolved quickly with the forward on the verge of a big-money transfer to north London.
PA understands an undisclosed sell-on clause for Leipzig is expected to be included in the final package for Simons.
