Tottenham: Thomas Frank confirms Xavi Simons 'close' to joining Spurs as transfer deadline looms

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Evening Standard

·29 August 2025

Tottenham: Thomas Frank confirms Xavi Simons 'close' to joining Spurs as transfer deadline looms

Spurs are still in the market for new recruits as transfer deadline looms

Almost done: Xavi Simons

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Thomas Frank confirmed Tottenham are “close” to signing Xavi Simons from RB Leipzig.

An official announcement of the 22-year-old’s move to Spurs for just over £51million is likely to come later on Friday.

Simons has agreed a five-year deal with the option to extend by a further two years.

The Dutchman has completed his medical and the final touches have been put on the transfer, but Frank stopped short of declaring that Simons was now a Spurs player.

“I think that we are close to signing someone, but let’s see,” Frank said.

“As I say, just as a go-to and to make it so much easier, I speak about our players and [am] very happy to do that.

“At Brentford and I’ve kept it consistently. I will be very boring in that and just say I want to just speak about the players in-house and anyone else outside of our team I will not speak about unless it is [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo. The good thing is they are soon both retiring."

The arrival of Simons is a much-needed boost for Spurs as they look to add some creativity to the squad in the absence of the injured James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski.

Frank’s press conference was delayed by an hour but no confirmation of Simons’ transfer came before he addressed the media ahead of Spurs’ match at home to Bournemouth on Saturday.

Asked if fans could expect a positive announcement later in the day, Frank responded: “I hope they get good news later today for various reasons because we are trying to sign players and that we will try to do until the end of the transfer window.

“I have said many times in these press conferences that we are out there in the market and we will try to see if we can improve the squad but only if we can improve the squad.

“If not, I'm happy with the players and they are working hard."