Opinion: How I would spend Man City’s £100m bid for Harry Kane

Back in 2013, Spurs sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for £85m, using that money to buy seven players to bolster the squad.

Of the players we bought, only Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Nacer Chadli could be considered a success, with the other four players (Paulinho, Vlad Chiriches, Ettienne Capoue and Roberto Soldado) being heralded as flops at White Hart Lane.

With Manchester City seemingly intent on signing Harry Kane this summer, having just put in a £100m bid for the England captain, it seems that Daniel Levy is once again going to have to invest in the squad, something the chairman has struggled to do over the last few seasons.

Using market valuations provided by TransferMarkt, I have identified players that I think we should look to bring in this summer with the £100m that the sale of Harry Kane could bring.

Please note that some of the players I mention haven’t necessarily been linked with Spurs, they are just players that I think would add something to our squad. I also appreciate that Kane would likely go for more than £100m, but we’ll use that figure for now.

If we are to sell Harry this summer, then the first port of call in the window needs to be for a capable replacement. So who could we go for?

Carlos Vinicius spent the last season on loan with us playing second fiddle to Harry Kane, and although he found his appearances expectedly limited, I feel like the Brazilian showed glimpses of quality during his tenure with us, scoring 10 goals in 22 appearances, including a goal in his first Premier League start against Aston Villa.

The problem with Carlos is his relative inexperience, given the fact that he is still very young and far from being a proven striker at Premier League level.

That coupled with the fact that we would probably have to agree to pay the rumoured £45m that we agreed to sign him for if we chose to make his deal permanent, makes him an unfeasible choice for me.

So if we are looking for a proven goalscorer, who are our options? Danny Ings is a player we have been linked with before.

The Englishman has enjoyed two full seasons at Southampton, arguably keeping the Saints in the Premier League with the help of James Ward-Prowse (we’ll come back to him!)

In his two seasons at the Saints, he has scored 34 goals in 67 Premier League appearances at St. Mary’s, a figure more impressive when compared to Harry Kane’s 41 goals in 64 appearances over the last two Premier League campaigns.

Arguably, with better players feeding him chances, Ings could almost match Kane’s record for us in the Premier League based on the stats, and when valued at just £19.8m (TransferMarkt), could be a deal worth making. 

The next most important position to strengthen is undoubtedly at centre-back. Of the five centre-halves we regularly use, only Joe Rodon, Japhet Tanganga and Toby Alderweireld are anywhere near good enough in my opinion, and each of those come with their own problems.

Rodon and Tanganga, although showing great potential, are both arguably a season away from being nailed on Premier League starters, and Toby Alderweireld on the other hand is arguably a couple of seasons past his best.

This makes our need for at least one quality centre-back this summer an absolute must, regardless of Harry Kane staying or leaving.

Recent weeks have seen us linked with Liverpool-loanee Ozan Kabak, a player that although having shown glimpses of quality at Liverpool, failed to ever look 100% assured at Anfield, and for me, would be a tricky player to rely on, especially when we could spend his rumoured £22.5m valuation on better quality players.

Other options for me include Ezri Konsa (£22.5m), the Aston Villa centre-half who has had a brilliant season at centre-back, Jan Bednarek (£22.5m) from Southampton, and Ben White (£25.2m) from Brighton, who has found himself linked with both us and Arsenal since his England call-up.

But if we could go after whoever we wanted, I would narrow it down to two choices; Joachim Andersen from Lyon, and Wesley Fofana from Leicester.

Andersen has enjoyed a brilliant season on loan at Fulham and has found himself touted with a permanent move from Lyon, linked with Spurs since early May. And with a market value of £19.8m, it could be an absolute steal for Spurs if we manage to gain the Dane’s signature.

On the other hand, Wesley Fofana looks to be a star of the future, and one that in my opinion, we should try our utmost to sign this summer.

Although the youngster is unlikely to leave Leicester for Spurs, surely it would be worth an attempt, considering his current market value of £36m (TransferMarkt) is likely to rocket again next season.

So with Ings and Fofana into the club, that leaves us with £44.2m left to spend. Next on our list of positions to strengthen should be at right-back.

Now depending on who comes in as manager, depends on what we need from a right back. If rumours are true and Nuno Espirito Santo is one of our top targets, then I am all for giving Matt Doherty another chance, with the Portuguese likely to adopt a back-three, similar to what he did successfully at Wolves for seasons. 

But regardless of this, I think that Tariq Lamptey at £16.2m is a brilliant investment, and although being linked with Spurs already, he has also been linked with Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich in the not so distant past.

So with £28m left to spend, we should look for a versatile, ball-playing midfielder. With Hojbjerg, Ndombele, Lo Celso and Skipp seemingly all in the running for the holding midfield positions next season, we should arguably be looking for an attacking midfielder.

But I would instead look for a box-to-box midfielder than is as comfortable in defence as he is going forward. I think that Tanguy Ndombele is criminally under-rated by many Spurs fans, and provides something in the Number 10 role that Lo Celso doesn’t, so I would play him there.

I would then invest the remaining money in Donny Van de Beek.

Donny Van de Beek has endured a difficult season at Man United,  appearing 36 times for the Red Devils, mainly off the bench, and is seemingly not happy at United.

His market value has decreased to £27m, making him a steal when compared to his £38m value the season before. A midfield of Hojbjerg and Van de Beek with Ndombele in a more advanced role would certainly be something I’d be interested in seeing.

So with the sale of Kane, we would manage to remarkably improve the spine of the team, bringing in players with the right amount of experience and potential, whilst not overpaying for any of them.

When compared to Levy’s previous tactic of buying young players to grow and sell on, surely this tactic would work better, and hopefully put us back into the conversation for top four places next season.

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