According to the Telegraph, Tottenham remain interested in Josh King and could make a move for the Bournemouth striker this summer. They don’t need to agree a deal before October 5 either, as the EFL’s transfer window has 11 extra days than the Premier League’s.
The Cherries have already let Nathan Ake (Manchester City), Ryan Fraser (Newcastle United) and Callum Wilson (Newcastle United) join Premier League clubs and won’t stand in the way of King. What are the pros and cons to us signing him, however?
Fairly prolific in the Premier League
Bournemouth spent five years in the Premier League and King made 161 appearances, scoring 48 goals with 15 assists. The 28-year-old has averaged 9.6 goals and 3 assists each season, so he’s contributing more than 12 league goals every campaign. That’s not bad.
If we’re going to sign a player to compete with Harry Kane, they need to be prolific. King had a hand in 20% of Bournemouth’s goals in 2015/16, 32.7% in 2016/17, 24% in 2017/18, 26.8% in 2018/19 and 25% in 2019/20, so he’s been consistently useful for the Cherries. We could do a lot worse.
Not a target man
The Telegraph cite this in their report – King is not a target man. He can operate out wide and up front, but he isn’t a direct replacement for Kane.
In each of the last four seasons, the Norwegian international has created 30+ chances and made 45+ successful dribbles in the league. King has averaged more passes-per-game (19.2 with 72.3% accuracy last season) than Kane (19.1 with 66.7% accuracy) too, but he doesn’t provide as much of an aerial threat.
He’s lost more aerial duels than he’s won – 31/81 in 2015/16 (38%), 39/108 in 2016/17 (36%), 68/150 in 2017/18 (45%), 89/207 in 2018/19 (43%) and 59/126 in 2019/20 (47%).
King may cost £25m this summer, so does he present value for money? You can see why we’re considering a move, but King would also be an underwhelming signing.
We’ve needed to strengthen our attack for years and have been linked with Arkadiusz Milik, Haris Seferovic, Danny Ings, Loren Moron, Wout Weghorst, Carlos Vinicius, Callum Wilson, Troy Deeney, Vedat Muriqi, Patrik Schick, Robin Quaison, Rhian Brewster, Habib Diallo, Ollie Watkins, Alexander Sørloth, Bas Dost, Christian Benteke, Willian Jose and Mario Mandzukic this summer, so we could surely do better than the Bournemouth man?
In other news, Tottenham should NOT sign Demarai Gray this summer
with heung min son out for months they need to sign an attacker quick to cover for son but not many would join tottenham that’s the problem