It is shaping up to be a potentially exciting winter transfer window for Tottenham Hotspur, and although they brought in a couple of quality players between Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel in January last year, it's a rare sight for Spurs to be active buyers in the colder months of the year.
That's because Tottenham are usually a pretty inactive team on the transfer market, particularly in comparison to other similarly powerful clubs financially. But after signing Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons last summer and now with Daniel Levy out the door, Tottenham are trying to sell a narrative to the fans that they are going to be more competitive and more willing spenders going forward.
Their first test will be the transfer pursuit of Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo, who has a 65 million pound release clause active this January and has been ready to make the jump to an elite club. Tottenham have been interested for months but haven't bitten on the Ghanaian superstar yet, though now every elite club in England wants him after a start to the 2025/26 season in which he has been the league's genuine second best player after global superstar Erling Haaland.
Tottenham among three favorites
According to top Premier League transfer insider David Ornstein in an appearance on The Athletic FC podcast, Tottenham are among three clubs "genuinely in the frame" to sign Antoine Semenyo this coming winter transfer period:
“It sounds like Liverpool have a firm interest… but we don’t know because there will be others contending as well. Man City are credited with an interest. Tottenham [too]. For the time being, from the many conversations I’ve had, those seem to be the three teams genuinely in the frame… the industry is telling us so far that if there is to be a move it’s sounding more like a Liverpool, Man City, Tottenham direction of travel, subject to change.”
Liverpool, as the defending Premier League champions with expansive pocketbooks, appear to be the early favorites to sign him, and while Ornstein didn't explicitly mention them, Manchester United are also heavily rumored despite similarly spending big on star forwards this past summer. Arsenal are Semenyo's childhood team, too.
So with the knowledge that Arsenal and Man United are also heavily linked, it's pretty huge, then, that Ornstein, who is the most reliable Premier League transfer insider on this entire planet, has named Tottenham as one of the three clubs well placed to sign Semenyo.