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TRANSFER TALK


Speculation of a change of system can perhaps finally be put to bed, as I hinted at in the last article, The Three We Want To Buy.

Our top three striker targets in order look to be:

  • Alvaro Morata (Juventus) - situation to be resolved by 15 July
  • Michy Batshuayi (Marseille) - situation to be resolved by 30 June
  • Vincent Janssen (AZ Alkmaar) - waiting on results of Batshuayi negotiations

That looks to be the clear situation on the information available and looking at the situation logically. Below that we have a raft of options and which order they are in goodness knows. Are we looking at some strikers as a third satriker option to develop a player?

What seems certain give Janssen's comments that he would be happy to fight with Harry Kane for a starting berth, knowing he will get plenty of game time given the four competitions Spurs are involved in, suggests we will continue to play with one up front. We spent a day discussing how we saw his future developing at Tottenham so he will have come away with a clear idea of how we would be playing next season.

Given that, are we going to go into the season with two main strikers and a third youngster, perhaps a teenager that we can develop. That seems sensible yto me, we need to be developing a replacement should one of the two main strikers leave.

Possible candidates include:

  • Saido Berahino (WBA) - English 22-year-old (23 in August)
  • Wilfried Kanga (PGG) - French 18-year-old (19 next February) - out of contract
  • Moussa Dembele (Fulham) - French 19-year-old (20 in July) - out of contract 1 July
  • M'Baye Niang (AC Milan) - French 21-year-old (22 in December)
  • Mattia Destro (Bologna) - Italian 25-year-old (26 next March) - unsettled former target
  • Manolo Gabbiadini (Napoli) - Italian 24-year-old (25 in November)
  • Adalberto Peñaranda - (Granada/Watford) - Venezuelan 19-year-old (20 next May)
  • Breel Embolo - (Basel) - Swiss 19-year-old (20 next February)


In addition - Islam Slimani is 28 today and is talked about in silly money terms, he is in a second tier league with Sporting Lisbon. Also mentioned in passing is 24-year-old (25 next February) Callum Wilson at Bournemouth and 27-year-old (28 later this month) Troy Deeney at Watford, neither of whom I believe we are seriously interested in.

Breel Embolo looks too expensive and reportedly wants game time, Wilfried kanga has been offered a contract and Moussa Dembele is out of contract at the end of the month. We came very close to signing him in January, only for Fulham to pull the plug at the last minute. It has been very quiet surrounding him and it may be that we are waiting until his contract finishes before he quietly joins us, we'll have to wait and see.

The others have all been scouted and we have spoken to agents but nothing concrete, just exploratory talks.


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