According to The London Evening Standard Spurs are hesitant about recruiting another specialist striker to compete with Harry Kane after the hugely unsuccessful signings of Vincent Janssen and Fernando Llorente in the past two summers.
An article in the london paper says the club want to sell Janssen and Llorente but Mauricio Pochettino is wary of signing another out-and-out centre-forward to replace them adding that the Spurs boss has found it difficult to convince transfer targets to accept the challenge of being Kane’s understudy with the England striker missing just 337 minutes of Premier League football last season.
The article goes on to say that Pochettino is instead targeting a forward who can also play on the wing or at No10 and Manchester United’s French forward Anthony Martial is high on his list of targets.
We bid for Martial, who was left out of France’s World Cup squad last week, before he joined United for an initial £36million from Monaco in September 2015, but the article says the club have closely monitored his situation at Old Trafford and Spurs are hopeful that United, who are interested in Spurs’s centre-half Toby Alderweireld, will be prepared to do business this summer, while Martial’s £65,000-a-week wages should not pose a problem.
It adds how signing Martial or a similar player, means they would be able to compete for a place in the attacking trio behind Kane, as well as deputise for the 24-year-old up front.
Dutchman Janssen and Spaniard Llorente arrived at Spurs on the back of prolific seasons in front of goal but neither has been able to replicate that form and they will be told to find new clubs in the summer.
Janssen joined Spurs for £17m in 2016 after finishing as the top scorer in the Eredivisie with AZ Alkmaar but he managed just two Premier League goals in 2016-17, including one from the penalty spot and the 23-year-old was farmed out to Fenerbahce on loan last summer but he has similarly struggled to impress during an injury hit campaign in Turkey.
Llorente, a world and European champion with Spain, was supposed to be the answer, however the 33-year-old scored just once in the League this season against his former club Swansea after Spurs beat Chelsea to his signature for £14.5m on transfer deadline da and the article adds that he is open to a return to Spain.
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