Fernando Llorente has signed for Serie A side Napoli on the final day of the transfer window after rejected a new deal from Tottenham.
The veteran attacker joins Carlo Ancelotti’s side after being released by Spurs this summer following the expiration of his contract with the Premier League club, however, reports from the likes of Football Insider claim that Llorente rejected a new, revised deal from Tottenham that would see his weekly wage decrease from his contract last season.
But as confirmed by Napoli on their official Twitter account, the former Juventus and Athletic Bilbao attacker has signed for the Italian giants, leaving Tottenham with just Harry Kane as their sole senior centre-forward in the first-team.
Llorente might have been useful for Spurs this season based on his impact for the club over the past two years where the Spaniard scored 13 goals in 66 appearances for Mauricio Pochettino’s side as numbers from Transfermarkt show, with the majority of these strikes coming from off the bench.
Indeed, the 34-year-old scored some of Tottenham’s most important goals in their run to the Champions League final last season, scoring in Spurs 3-0 win against Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16 as well as bagging the vital away goal in Tottenham’s 4-3 defeat against Manchester City.
Missing out on Llorente could see Pochettino yet again turn to youth to fix a squad depth problem in the Tottenham first-team, with 17-year-old striker Troy Parrott seemingly the favourite to act as a backup for Kane as the season progresses.
As numbers from Transfermarkt show, the teenager impressed at youth level, scoring 19 goals and assisting 5 in 28 appearances for Tottenham’s various development sides, and this impressive form could be the reason as to why Pochettino gave up on the pursuit of Llorente, who returns to Italy with many Spurs fans fond of the attackers time at the club.