With Tottenham Hotspur continuing their preparations for the Premier League clash against Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, a major distraction for manager Mauricio Pochettino as he met with the press was the January transfer window and a potential replacement for the now injured Harry Kane.
With our England man out of action until mid-March following the ankle injury he sustained against Manchester United, Pochettino explained to Sky Sports that for him, a failure to sign players in the window would not be a ‘gamble’ when it came to our hopes for the remainder of the 2018/19 campaign.
“I think in the end, if for another transfer window we don’t sign players or we are not going to sign a striker, that is not going to be a gamble, it’s not going to be a risk. I think we have players that can cope with that place when it’s not Harry Kane available and, of course, if we want to find a player similar to Harry Kane, I think we are going to make a mistake. To find another Harry Kane is impossible, because we are talking about the three, four, five best strikers in the world.”
That won’t come as a surprise to many fans as it is an understandable angle on replacing Kane, but many will believe in not trying to that would be a mistake.
I guess Poch shares that view somewhat as he went on to explain that a greater focus for him was finding another Kane from our youth ranks.
“We have the possibility to create our new star through the academy. Of course that is our objective – to try to create the new star of Tottenham. To find him here in our academy, would be the most exciting thing. We look back four and a half years ago, we did not find here Harry Kane or Dele Alli as big stars. When we look back, and we compare with another big club in Europe, the two most important players in the squad were building here in Tottenham. How many clubs did the same as us in the last four or five years? That is massive. It is a massive thing to be satisfied about, for us and our fans.”
Poch went on to add that our ‘wish or hope’ was that we finish the new stadium, move in, pay down the debt and invest further in our Academy to look for more ‘big stars’ for the future.
“That is the dream.”
Although the gaffer was talking down the transfer market, he knows himself there has to be a balance and whilst youth promotion will delight plenty and is absolutely the right path to take, Pochettino himself will know the budgets and know you can’t throw youngsters in without support.