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Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has said Savinho has wanted to leave the club “since day one” of his time in charge, with Tottenham showing interest in the winger.

Spurs have agreed a deal worth £85m for the Brazil international, and Maresca admitted it becomes very hard to persuade a player to stay once he has made up his mind that he wants a fresh challenge.

“It’s quite clear that when players want to leave, for any reason, it’s complicated to convince them to stay, to change themselves,” Maresca said.

“It happened with Rodri, the same thing is happening with Savinho. Since day one, he is asking me to leave, so now we are waiting.

“It’s complicated when the players are thinking they want a new challenge or want to change. They want to go back to Spain or to play more minutes.

“It’s complicated for them to stay.”

Maresca also indicated that a lack of regular game time has played a part in several players wanting to move on from City.

Omar Marmoush is another Tottenham target, while Nico Gonzalez is attracting interest from Newcastle.

“Apart from Rodri, they all have one thing in common, that they didn’t play a lot,” he said.

“They all work every day because they want to play and when they don’t play, probably they prefer to leave.

“The ones you mention, apart from Rodri, the rest are all players for different reasons that didn’t play a lot.”

Maresca, however, insisted Marmoush’s case is different from Savinho’s, with the City boss saying the Egypt international has not asked to leave so far.

“Omar is still here, he’s still with us, it’s a different situation than Savinho, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

“It’s always complicated when players leave and a player has to arrive. But we’ll see if Omar stays or what happens.

“For sure, we’re going to have more options if players leave. If they go out, some have to arrive.

“Savinho asked since day one to leave and Omar didn’t ask to leave since day one.

Asked whether Marmoush had now requested to leave, he added: “Not yet.”