Tottenham Hotspur could succeed superstar Harry Kane by moving for Chelsea forward Romelu Lukaku as some news comes out of Italy this week.
Who will Spurs replace Kane with?
Kane has finally sealed his move to Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich after what seemed like a summer-long transfer saga, with the 30-year-old putting pen to paper last night.
The Spurs legend’s departure, just one day before the new season begins, will come as an almighty blow and real headache for new manager Ange Postecoglou.
Postecoglou has been in full preparation trying to implement his new-look attacking style ahead of Brentford on Sunday, but must now start planning for life without Kane.
The free-scoring forward will be truly hard to replace but Postecoglou appears to have been prepared for his exit, as Tottenham’s manager had seen it coming for quite a while.
I had a conversation with Harry the first day he arrived and he was up front and honest, and I was the same,” the Australian said on Friday.
“You get an indication there that he kind of made up his mind: that if the clubs agreed he would go, particularly if it was before the first game. That was my preference as well.
“There’s nothing along the way that’s sort of made me feel there’s anything other than this outcome. None of these things happen in isolation, everyone is pretty clued into to what’s going on, so from my perspective I hadn’t received anything from Harry, the club or anyone else to suggest to me anything had changed about his stance.”
There have been many links to a new striker signing in the build up to Kane’s departure, including the likes of exciting Gent forward Gift Orban and Montpellier’s Elye Wahi.
Now, as per Italian newspaper La Gazetta dello Sport and their correspondent Davide Chinellato, Spurs have begun drawing up a transfer shortlist of strikers to succeed Kane.
In their thinking is Lukaku, with Tottenham now “considering” a late move for the 30-year-old who has found life difficult since swapping Inter Milan for Chelsea in 2021.
However, there are a few issues with his possible transfer, namely that Lukaku is eager to leave England and doesn’t exactly fit into Postecoglou’s system.
However, he is seen as a “low cost” solution, with Chelsea valuing the Belgian at around £43 million.
His most recent campaign of great form came during the 2020/2021 season, where he was a mainstay and star player for ex-Spurs boss Antonio Conte at Inter.
Lukaku helped the Nerazzurri to a Scudetto that season with a seismic 24 goals and 11 assists in 36 Serie A appearances.
Former star Christian Vieri has called the former Man United striker a physical “beast”, while former Tottenham fan favourite boss Mauricio Pochettino once heralded his “quality” alongside Kane.
“We need to be very respectful to both of them,” said Pochettino on Lukaku and Kane when they were competing for the Golden Boot in 2017.
“I know everyone wants to discuss who is better, but they are both great players with quality and skill.”
