Spurs Seek Firepower: Pedro Neto Target After Brentford Loss
Tottenham Hotspur are scrambling for firepower after a bruising start to the season – and eyes are drifting across London towards Chelsea’s Pedro Neto.
Roberto De Zerbi’s first Premier League game in charge ended in a 3-0 hammering at Brentford, a sobering reminder of how far Spurs still have to go if they want to live with the division’s heavyweights. The response has been aggressive: the club have already moved decisively in the market, and they are not done yet.
Spurs hunt goals after Brentford setback
Savinho and Omar Marmoush are both close to arriving from Manchester City as part of a reshaped frontline. De Zerbi, though, wants more. He wants another headline attacker.
Cody Gakpo has emerged as a major target, with Tottenham exploring the possibility of prising the Dutch international away from Liverpool. That negotiation is complicated. Liverpool’s stance, the fee, the timing – none of it is straightforward, and there is no clarity yet on whether an agreement can be struck.
So Spurs are working on alternatives. The pressure to react to that Brentford defeat is real, and the recruitment team have drawn up contingency options. High on that list, according to Sky Sports, sits Pedro Neto.
Chelsea’s £100m winger in the spotlight
Chelsea, reshaped under Xabi Alonso and flooded with new arrivals, have placed a £100m valuation on the 26-year-old. That figure underlines how highly they rate the Portuguese winger and where they see him in the current market for elite wide players.
Neto is not formally on the market. Chelsea have not put him in the shop window. But he is not ring-fenced either. Inside Stamford Bridge, the view is that he can be sold if a club is willing to meet the right price.
That stance has drawn attention from outside Europe as well. Al Hilal tested the waters, only to step back once the numbers became clear. As reported by Fabrizio Romano, the Saudi Pro League side regard Neto as too expensive and have now turned their focus towards Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli.
Would Chelsea really deal with Spurs?
The real flashpoint lies in London. Would Chelsea sanction a sale to a direct rival at this stage of the window?
The timing is awkward. Alonso is still piecing together his best XI, using Neto all over the pitch – at wing-back, out wide, and in advanced attacking roles. The Portuguese international has become a tactical Swiss army knife in a squad packed with options but still searching for balance.
Chelsea have also been benchmarking Neto’s price against other wide players sold this summer, determined not to undersell an asset they believe sits at the top end of the market. That makes a late, cut‑price deal for Spurs highly unlikely.
Then there is Neto himself. Would he push for a move across the capital? Would he trade a versatile, if uncertain, role at Chelsea for a potentially central place in De Zerbi’s rebuild at Spurs? Those questions remain unanswered.
Busy window, hard choices at Stamford Bridge
Around Neto, the rest of Chelsea’s attacking picture is shifting quickly.
A loan bid from Roma for Jamie Gittens has already been turned down. Mykhailo Mudryk, back on the pitch this summer after the resolution of his doping case, is expected to leave on loan, with Leeds United seeing an offer rejected as several clubs circle.
Alonso’s squad is bloated. Senior players, prospects, and expensive signings are all jostling for minutes. Chelsea’s priority in the final days of the window is clear: trim the numbers, lock in outgoings, and give Alonso a group he can actually manage through the first half of the season.
Whether that ruthless pruning ends up including Pedro Neto – and whether it could possibly mean strengthening Tottenham in the process – is the decision that now looms largest.
