White Hart Lane is home to the loyal, yet constantly unsatisfied football supporter. High expectations fill up to the rafters before the disappointment which sets in come May. This has been the main story for recent seasons but what can break this seemingly endless and somewhat tedious cycle? The answer is perfectly simple – a second striker who can actually produce goals.
Tottenham Hotspur have been blessed with many top class, creative types in the middle of the park in recent seasons, none more so than in the 2009/10 season when they actually qualified for the Champions league. That season Gareth Bale and Luka Modric ran havoc and drove fear into the hearts of every centre-back that stood before them. It was also a time when Spurs had four firing strikers to put away chances in Jermain Defoe, Robbie Keane, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko. Those four goal scorers pushed each other to improve, and fight for a place in the starting eleven. Such firepower and a selection headache can only be given to managers aiming to win the title, where four or five top quality strikers are at their disposal.
These days clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United are pricing smaller clubs out of moves for promising, young foreign talent, leaving whoever is left. Spurs, with their tight wages, have since managed to secure the services of Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor, who between them have netted just the 20 league goals since the beginning of last season. Last season also saw only 55 goals scored from 439 chances created by the entire Spurs roster.
Luckily, Spurs have found a star in Harry Kane. This young, strong, quick thinker is quickly becoming the striker that Spurs have missed in recent seasons with 8 goals so far in Premier league action this season. He leads at the front by closing down the opposition and forcing errors which he did to an astonishing effect against Chelsea earlier this month, against a team that had thumped 7 goals past Spurs in their last two league meetings without reply.
Kane has quickly taken the pressure off from his misfiring colleagues, however chairman Daniel Levy needs to look to adding more competition within the striking ranks rather than look to sell, or could face a striker crisis if disaster occurs and Kane is forced to take some time off due to injury.
In November, Levy appointed Paul Mitchell, the former Southampton scout who was responsible for bringing in the talent from which current Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino benefited from during his time at the South-coast club. However, Spurs are yet to make any signings this transfer window and need to boost their forward options if they are to continue fighting on three fronts this term. It is therefore crucial, that Spurs’ next striker purchase settles in quickly, as the race for fourth heats up.
As always, there are plenty of names being linked with a January move to the Lane. One name that has caught the attention of Spurs fans is current Burnley forward Danny Ings, who is contributing heavily to the Lancashire club’s bid for Premier league survival, with 7 goals scored. The 22-year-old is no stranger to playing with Harry Kane having worked together for the England U21s. This partnership could truly represent a new era on the lily white side of N17.
Elsewhere, Tottenham are also in need of a defensive centre-midfielder. Etienne Capoue and Paulinho have been defective all season and continue to disappoint when given chances, with their performances in the 4-2 comeback victory at home to Burnley in the FA cup most probably the highlights of their season, and not because of their defensive work. The other centre-midfielders in Ryan Mason and Moussa Dembele are more attacking than defending options, whereas Nabil Bentaleb continues to perform well sitting in front of the centre-backs but is away on Nigeria duty.
Wherever Spurs fans may believe the team needs strengthening, one thing is for sure – Spurs need to splash the cash!
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