Spurs almost signed unreal PL Golden Boot winner

After ending in fifth place final season, there was a hope from followers that Tottenham Hotspur would have the ability to go kick on this 12 months, a hope that is still very a lot unrealised.

As a substitute of preventing for a Champions League place, Ange Postecoglou’s aspect sit within the backside half of the Premier League desk with extra losses than wins, and an enormous motive for that’s their unbelievable unhealthy luck with accidents.

The North Londoners have missed virtually their complete backline for a lot of the marketing campaign and are actually with out high scorer Brennan Johnson and record-signing Dominic Solanke.

The English ahead has been good for the Lilywhites this season, however curiously, he is being outscored by one other former Premier League celebrity who virtually signed for Tottenham over ten years in the past.

Spurs’ finest attackers in 2024/25

Whereas defence has undoubtedly been a serious downside for Spurs this season, largely due to accidents, the staff have nonetheless been a comparatively potent attacking drive for a lot of the marketing campaign, as demonstrated by their 48 league goals, a tally solely bettered by Arsenal and Liverpool.

Essentially the most prolific participant for Ange this 12 months has been Johnson, who, after a gradual begin to the marketing campaign that noticed him deactivate his Instagram account due to fan abuse, has racked up a stellar haul of 12 goals and three assists in 32 appearances, solely 22 of which have been begins.

Shut behind the Welshman is the club’s £65m man, Solanke, who, in his first marketing campaign for the North Londoners, has already scored 11 goals and provided six assists in simply 33 appearances, which comes out to a median of a objective involvement each 1.94 video games.

The one different participant within the squad to have reached double figures for targets this time period is Son Heung-min, who has discovered the again of the online on ten occasions and provided eight assists, for good measure, all in simply 33 video games.

The highest 5 is rounded out by Dejan Kulusevski, who has produced 19 goal involvements in 39 games, and James Maddison, who has managed to rack up nine goals and six assists in his 31 appearances up to now, of which solely 21 have been begins.

In all, regardless of their lacklustre kind this season, Spurs do have a number of extremely gifted attackers to select from when all match. Nevertheless, for all his exhausting work, Solanke is being outscored by a former Premier League star who virtually signed for the membership prior to now.

The free-scoring ahead Spurs virtually signed

As with virtually each main membership, there are all the time numerous examples of gamers they may have signed prior to now who go on to nice issues down the road.

Nevertheless, on this occasion, Spurs needed to watch Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang take the Premier League by storm and win an FA Cup with Arsenal years after they handed up on the possibility to deliver him to the white aspect of North London.

The “large” Gabonese worldwide, as dubbed by Arsene Wenger, was shown around the club in 2012 however was by no means contacted afterwards.

In accordance with former Spurs participant Ronny Rosenthal, who was working with the striker on the time, then-manager André Villas-Boas made the choice to not pursue him.

Within the decade and a bit since, the Laval-born celebrity has gone on to score 141 targets in 213 video games for Dortmund, 92 targets in 163 video games for the Gunners, the place he picked up a Premier League Golden Boot and FA Cup, 13 targets in 24 video games for Barcelona, three targets in 21 video games for Chelsea, 30 targets in 51 video games for Marseille and now 12 goals in 20 games for AL-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia.

Which means the “unreal” objective machine, as dubbed by journalist Jonas Adnan Giæver, is at the moment outscoring Solanke on the ripe outdated age of 35, and whereas it’s undoubtedly a decrease customary than in England, you solely want to have a look at his sensational tally in France final season to see that he may nonetheless get the job completed in a high 5 league.

Finally, Spurs will not be shedding any sleep over not signing Aubameyang again in 2012, particularly not when a sure Harry Kane would quickly emerge.

That stated, it is attention-grabbing to think about what it could have been prefer to see him within the white half of North London and never the pink.

Associated

Tel will love him: Levy looking at “incredible” Ange upgrade for Spurs

The gifted supervisor could be excellent for Spurs’ kids.