Xavi Simons to Tottenham transfer reality clear amid Chelsea fear
Tottenham have made a move for the RB Leipzig starlet in the latest twist in a summer transfer window that has brought more pain than it has pleasure.
Tottenham have turned to RB Leipzig's Xavi Simons as another candidate to fill the central creative hole in Thomas Frank's midfield as they hope to avoid a third transfer disaster of the summer window.
The Dane has begun life at Spurs in a positive fashion with his team scoring five goals and keeping two clean sheets in back-to-back Premier League victories against Burnley and Manchester City while only losing out in the UEFA Super Cup to PSG following a penalty shoot-out in Udine.
However, the attempts to improve the squad for Frank have brought more failures than successes and now with just a handful of days left of the transfer window, Tottenham are scrambling to try to provide the quality of players the new head coach needs to challenge on all four fronts this season.
"Then it's up to me together with the players and the staff to make sure we can compete, and then as I said, we do what we can to strengthen it."
Frank's first choice for the No.10 role was Morgan Gibbs-White but two weeks after a bid that Tottenham thought had landed the player that all ended in legal issues around a controversial release clause, a sudden new contract and an apologetic phone call from the Nottingham Forest midfielder to the Spurs boss.
Then weeks later came the Eberechi Eze saga as Tottenham believed they had tied up a move for the England international with Crystal Palace and the player, only for the club he wanted from the start, Arsenal, to emerge at the last moment and snatch him out of their north London rivals' grasp.
Now comes another potentially painful move for another attacking midfielder who previously looked to be off the table in 22-year-old Xavi Simons.
The Dutchman has looked all summer like he would be leaving RB Leipzig for Chelsea only for that transfer trail to grow somewhat cold.
On paper Simons ticks plenty of boxes for Frank and Spurs in that he can play as a No.10 and also on the left wing so in essence he's a replacement of sorts for both Maddison and Son, but Tottenham are aiming to bring in another player for those roles as well.
Simons also falls into the category of being experienced despite his age, having played 137 games of senior football, across spells at PSG, PSV Eindhoven and RB Leipzig after coming through Barcelona's academy. He has also turned out in 13 games in the Champions League, with four goal involvements. Spurs are back in that competition and await their league phase opponents on Thursday.
Simons racked up 11 goals and eight assists in 33 appearances last season for Leipzig despite missing two months in the middle of the season with an ankle injury. When he returned to the side, he registered 14 goal involvements in 18 games in the Bundesliga.
Tottenham have a good relationship with the German club, as would you if you took Timo Werner off their hands for 18 months. However, that's not the relationship they must be wary of when it comes to this potential transfer.
It's the relationship between Simons and Chelsea, for they appear to have been his preferred option all summer. There are some suggestions that the Blues must sell first before coming in for the Netherlands international, but Tottenham heard this all before with Arsenal and Eze and that ended in embarrassment.
The difference perhaps in the Blues' case is that they must comply with a UEFA punishment which states that they must end up with a positive transfer balance with last season's Conference League-winning squad to be able to register new signings for their coming Champions League involvement.
Leipzig have given permission for the skilful Simons to miss training "until further notice" and travel to London with his representatives to sort his future out one way or another.
Tottenham sense an opportunity and are believed have verbally offered a sum close to the €70million (£60.4million) that Leipzig are looking for and that has been done with the hope that a deal will get done amid those Chelsea fears.
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