Report: Tottenham looking at Lyon’s Moussa Dembele as Kane deputy

What started out looking like what would be a pretty quiet January transfer window has already developed into something a lot more bonkers. Late last night a rumor dropped that, in addition to Krzysztoff Piatek, Spurs are also taking another look at Lyon striker Moussa Dembele.

Run that through Google Translate and you get an early-days kind of report that suggests Spurs have made an approach for Dembele, but haven’t made an offer yet. Predictably, Lyon owner Jean-Michel Aulas is already saying that Dembele isn’t for sale.

Tottenham have a longstanding interest in Dembele, dating back to when we had the OTHER Mousa Dembele in the squad. Spurs had a chance to sign him way back in 2016 for between £4-6m but backed out of the deal for reasons that are quite frankly beyond me. Now, he’ll cost a LOT more than that — he’s had pretty solid stints at both Celtic and Lyon, scoring 51 goals in 106 total matches. He’s also still just 23 years old and has room to improve.

Dembele’s stats are down pretty significantly this season from last — Statsbomb has a recent article that suggests that some of his dip in production may be because at Lyon Moussa is no longer the beneficiary of sexy through balls from midfield from Tanguy Ndombele. In which case — hey, we’ve got a solution for that, Moussa!

I don’t think we can look at a report like this one and say anything more definitive than that Dembele is one option out of several at the moment. Based on recent traffic, Piatek still seems like the more likely to make a move (if a move is going to happen) in January. But “Twossa” would be a solid addition, if only because Tottenham Hotspur clearly needs a Mous(s)a Dembele in the squad if it is going to be good.