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"Wishing you all the best, Savinho," Manchester City posted. "Welcome to Tottenham, Savio," Spurs replied. Same player. New club. New name on the back of the shirt, except it isn't new at all.
Savio Moreira de Oliveira has joined Tottenham for an initial £75m, with up to £10m more in add-ons, and he has gone back to the name on his birth certificate. The No.17 shirt will read Savio.
The nickname was never really his idea. Back in 2024 he explained that Brazil had put Savinho on his shirt, and when he moved to City that year he asked them to keep it for luck. Two seasons and seven Premier League starts later, the luck argument has run out of road.
A deal Spurs have been chasing for a year
Tottenham bid for him last summer with Thomas Frank in charge and were turned down. He stayed at the Etihad and then barely played, which made this window a formality once City decided to sell.
"It's taken a while but I'm very happy to be here," Savio said. "As soon as I spoke to the head coach I knew I had to come. He told me he wants to help me reach the highest level, and I believe we can do that together, as a team."
Roberto De Zerbi was more specific about what he thinks he has bought. "Savio is a player who brings energy, imagination and quality in wide positions," he said. "He has the courage to attack defenders and the ability to change a game with his creativity."
Why the numbers still make sense
Last season is not the case for the fee. He played 821 Premier League minutes, scored once, assisted once, and featured in 31% of City's available minutes across all competitions. That figure was 54% the season before, and the drop-off tracks almost exactly to City signing Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth in January.
Go back one more year and it looks different. In 2024-25 he registered eight Premier League assists, every one from open play, in only 1,773 minutes. On a per-90 basis that put him third in the league for open-play assists. Only Mohamed Salah created more chances per 90 than his 2.2.
The carrying is the part that travels. Among players with 1,000 minutes or more that season, only Jeremy Doku averaged more progressive carries of at least 10 metres than Savio's 6.8 per 90. Nobody in the division ended a carry with a chance created more often. He completed 2.6 dribbles per 90 at a 51% success rate, and his habit is to drag two defenders towards him and then release someone else.
The best version of him is still the Girona loan in 2023-24: 2,989 La Liga minutes, 65% of them on the left, nine goals and eight assists. At City he spent more time on the right than the left, which is either versatility or a player never quite settled, depending on how charitable you feel.
£312m and counting
Savio is the fourth big fee Spurs have paid this summer, after Mateus Fernandes from West Ham, Sandro Tonali from Newcastle and Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton. That is £312m of spending, on top of free transfers for Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.
And they are not finished. Talks for Omar Marmoush are described as advanced, with sources putting a "good chance" on the Egypt forward also leaving City for north London before the window shuts on 1 September.
He is 22, has 13 Brazil caps, and did not make their World Cup squad. City paid Troyes £30.8m for him two years ago and are selling at more than double that after 84 appearances, seven goals and 16 assists.
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