Tottenham Hotspur’s striker search includes RB Salzburg striker

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Spurs need a striker.

It’s a tale as old as time itself, or it seems that way at least. Way back in 2012 when I first joined this community, the running joke on the site was signing THE. “THE” being THE STRIKER. Well, then we found out that Harry Kane was there all along, so the problem went from “We need a striker” to “We need a backup striker.”

It’s now 2020 and we’re still saying this. Hopefully, Alisdair Gold’s tweet and article today gives us some hope that Tottenham Hotspur are on the hunt and have narrowed down some choices.

We have a lot to unwrap with this. Let’s start with Habib Diallo, since we recently covered the links there.

12 goals in his 26 appearances in Ligue 1 for an absolutely putrid finishing club, plus a few assists to boot. Gold mentions that Diallo has a strong character profile, is a big target over six feet tall, and did well in the campaign before last season. He’d be fine, but obviously signing a striker should be the sexy transfer if you get one.

That takes us to RB Salzburg’s Patson Daka:

Spurs are interested in RB Salzburg’s Patson Daka. The 21-year-old, who can also play out wide if required, scored 24 goals in 31 games in the Austrian top flight and laid on eight assists.

The 6ft tall Zambian also scored in the Champions League last season for Salzburg - the first player from his country to do so.

His pace and ability to run in behind defences will also lend itself to Tottenham’s counter-attacking tendencies, while his ability to also move out wide will give him more opportunities to get minutes alongside Kane as well as instead of him.

It took a little bit of hunting, but courtesy of Statsbomb, here’s his radar and I apologize for the lower resolution on this:

Statsbomb

Now that should get you excited. Needless to say, the CFC Masthead has fallen in love with him. We also know that prying him away from Salzburg is not going to be easy, but we want him badly.

Finally, there’s Arkadiusz Milik from Napoli, who recent reports states that his attempted move to Juventus has fallen through and is available once again:

Tottenham have also looked at Napoli’s 26-year-old striker Arkadiusz Milik, who has just one year left on his contract.

The Poland international scored 11 goals in 26 Serie A appearances last season and another three in the Champions League.

Interest from Serie A clubs Juventus and Roma and Spanish giant Atletico Madrid is yet to materialise in a move. The player’s wage demands are also thought to be high compared to other targets on Tottenham’s list.

With just a year left on his contract, Napoli risk losing him for nothing. The comment of note here is the wage demands. While they do say they’re high, they don’t say they’re unreasonable. He’d cost the most of the three, and probably by a pretty big margin. But, Milik is 26 and would be a solid choice to spell Kane when necessary.

The order of excitement for me is Daka, Milik, and then Diallo. I’m almost upset that Gold is stating there’s a real link to Daka because it will hurt that much more when Spurs don’t get him. Salzburg may not want to sell him unless they get a hefty fee, and I wouldn’t blame them one bit. I can easily get behind Milik as the choice to backup Kane, however. Diallo now seems like the consolation prize to the consolation with the other two players named.

Spurs start the season on Sunday, but with a ton of matches to play right out of the gate, they need to get a backup striker in or else Kane is going to run himself into the ground by November.