Tottenham’s Bomba Hunt: De Zerbi's Search for a Forward
Roberto De Zerbi has lit the fuse. One word was enough.
“Bomba.”
The Tottenham head coach dropped it almost casually this week, hinting that Spurs are close to landing a blockbuster signing, and sent supporters into a frenzy trying to work out who is about to walk through the doors at Hotspur Way.
What De Zerbi did make clear is that Tottenham are nowhere near done. By his own calculation, only around 60 per cent of their transfer work is complete. That is despite a club‑record outlay of £237million and six new faces already added this summer.
He wants more firepower. He wants it now.
Kroupi blow forces a rethink
The plan had included Eli Junior Kroupi. The 20-year-old Bournemouth striker was a serious target until a foot injury, requiring surgery and expected to sideline him for up to four months, abruptly ended Spurs’ pursuit.
Losing Kroupi has not slowed the ambition, only redirected it. Tottenham still intend to bring in two or three more players, with a forward very much on the agenda. The shortlist is evolving, but several names fit both the profile and the urgency of De Zerbi’s demands.
Deniz Undav: goals, craft, and a question of age
Start with Deniz Undav.
He left Brighton with little fanfare. He has since turned into one of Europe’s most efficient finishers.
Back in Germany with Stuttgart, Undav tore through the Bundesliga last season, scoring 19 league goals at a blistering rate of 0.76 per 90 minutes. Among strikers in Europe’s top five leagues, that return put him seventh for total goals and sixth for goals per 90. Elite company, elite output.
He backed that up on the biggest stage. Used as Germany’s super-sub at the World Cup, Undav still found time to register three goals and two assists in just 69 group-stage minutes. Impact distilled.
De Zerbi’s system demands a striker who can drop off the front, link play and allow wingers to explode into the spaces behind. Technically sharp and happy to operate between the lines, Undav ticks those boxes.
The snag? He is 30. Tottenham’s recruitment team have not always warmed to that profile, but De Zerbi has shown a clear leaning towards proven quality over distant promise. If the brief is “instant goals”, Undav is difficult to ignore.
Brian Brobbey: the battering ram who already bruised Spurs
If Undav offers guile and economy, Brian Brobbey brings something far more direct: chaos.
The Sunderland and Netherlands striker is coming off a superb first season in the Premier League and carried that form into the World Cup, where he led the Dutch line with authority. Three goals as the Netherlands topped their group underlined his threat in the box, but it was his all-round centre-forward play that really stood out — strong back to goal, relentless in his runs, always alive to second balls.
Tottenham have already felt the full weight of his game. Brobbey scored in a 1-1 draw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in January, bullying defenders and giving Spurs’ back line a long, uncomfortable afternoon.
De Zerbi’s introduction to English management only reinforced the point. In his first game in charge, a 1-0 defeat away to Sunderland, he watched Brobbey manhandle experienced defenders and set the tone for Sunderland’s aggression from the front.
That relentlessness is exactly what De Zerbi wants at the top of his press. Brobbey does not just finish moves; he initiates the chaos that creates them.
Omar Marmoush: a City outcast who still fits the brief
Omar Marmoush is a different case. Tottenham’s interest in the Manchester City forward is already understood to be real.
The Egyptian arrived at City from Eintracht Frankfurt in January 2025 and made a rapid start to life in the Premier League. Sustaining that level has proved harder. Last season, his first full campaign at the Etihad, he finished with just three league goals and now finds himself considered surplus to requirements.
Strip away the recent dip and the profile still appeals. Marmoush is versatile, comfortable dropping deep or darting in behind, and his movement gives managers tactical flexibility across the front line. De Zerbi, who prizes forwards that can both combine and stretch teams, would see plenty to work with.
At 27, Marmoush sits right in the window De Zerbi has targeted for immediate impact. After two seasons spent fighting at the wrong end of the table, Tottenham are not shopping for long-term projects. They want players who can walk into a Premier League game next weekend and look at home.
If De Zerbi believes he can restore Marmoush’s confidence in front of goal, this is a reclamation job that makes sense.
Savinho: raw pace, unfinished product
Savinho has been on Tottenham’s radar for some time. He is unlikely to be the “bomba” himself, more the explosive winger to complement whoever De Zerbi installs through the middle.
The Brazilian brings what every modern wide forward must: pace, direct running, and a willingness to attack full-backs one-on-one. Those traits align neatly with De Zerbi’s demand for wide players who constantly threaten the defensive line.
The numbers, though, tell their own story. Just one league goal last season highlights a glaring need to sharpen his end product. Savinho gets into dangerous positions regularly; the final touch, pass or decision often lets him down.
For a coach like De Zerbi, that is not a deterrent, it is an invitation. The raw materials are there, the structure of his game already suits the system. The challenge is to refine the final third. He will back himself to do exactly that.
If Spurs were to land both Savinho and Marmoush, the message would be unmistakable: this is a squad being built to break back into the Premier League’s top six, not hover on its fringes.
Bradley Barcola: the fantasy ‘bomba’
Then there is the dream.
Bradley Barcola.
De Zerbi tried to explain what he meant by a “bomba” signing in his pre-Chelsea press conference: a player with top-level ability, someone who changes the conversation. Few in Europe fit that description more cleanly than the Paris Saint-Germain winger.
Barcola wants out of Paris in search of regular minutes. On paper, that should open the door to ambitious clubs across the continent. In reality, a move to Spurs would be extraordinary.
This is a two-time Champions League winner, a player heavily courted by Liverpool this summer and operating in a PSG squad overflowing with attacking talent. He risks becoming collateral damage in that congestion, but that does not diminish his quality.
There is, at this stage, no indication that Tottenham are in position to pull off such a coup. If they somehow did, the reaction would be seismic. It would be the kind of statement signing that forces the rest of the league to recalibrate where Spurs sit in the hierarchy.
For now, the mystery remains unsolved. De Zerbi’s “bomba” could be a ruthless finisher like Undav, a battering ram such as Brobbey, a reclamation project in Marmoush, a raw livewire like Savinho, or someone yet to emerge from the shadows.
What is clear is this: Tottenham are not easing themselves into the De Zerbi era. They are loading up for a fight at the top end of the table — and the next name through the door will tell everyone just how serious they are.
