Jose Mourinho is desperate for a striker to compete with Harry Kane for a starting place, but we’ve so far failed to land the signature of any of our transfer targets. Spurs have an abundance of wide-men – Heung-min Son, Erik Lamela, Lucas Moura, Steven Bergwijn, Gareth Bale – but are lacking depth at centre-forward.
We’ve been linked with Christian Benteke, Arkadiusz Milik, Haris Seferovic, Danny Ings, Wout Weghorst, Loren Moron, Carlos Vinicius, Callum Wilson, Vedat Muriqi, Patrik Schick, Troy Deeney, Robin Quaison, Rhian Brewster, Ollie Watkins, Alexander Sørloth, Bas Dost, Habib Diallo, Willian Jose and Mario Mandzukic to no avail, but we’ve finally completed a deal for Carlos Vinicius.
Prolific in Portugal
Vinicius joined Benfica from SSC Napoli and has gone on to make 49 appearances in all competitions, scoring 24 goals with 13 assists. The 25-year-old has a fantastic track record with all his clubs, so Tottenham should be confident he can make an instant impact.
- 2017/18 (Real SC): 38 appearances, 20 goals, 5 assists
- 2018/19 (Rio Ave): 20 appearances, 14 goals, 2 assists
- 2018/19 (AS Monaco): 16 appearances, 2 goals, 2 assists
- 2019/20 (Benfica): 47 appearances, 24 goals, 13 assists
How much will he cost?
Benfica paid £15.3m to sign Vinicius last summer, but his market value with Transfermarkt has risen to £18m. We’ll have to pay more than two times that figure to sign him, however, as we’ve agreed a £2.73m loan deal for the Brazilian and have a buying option worth £38m.
Benfica were understandably hesitant to let him leave given how valuable he is, but they’ve strengthened their attack with the signings of Darwin Nunez (UD Almeria), Everton (Gremio), Pedrinho (Corinthians) and Luca Waldschmidt (S Freiburg) this summer, so they have other options in Vinicius’ stead.
Summary
Finally, Mourinho gets his wish this summer. He’s spoken out about our need for another centre-forward and Vinicius is a brilliant signing, so we’ve pulled off an impressive piece of business. It would also be surprising if we didn’t turn his loan move permanent in 2021.
This could be a game-changer in our pursuit of a top-four finish, as we finally have depth in a key area and don’t need to put square pegs into round holes.
In other news, what’s the latest on Tottenham’s transfer pursuit of Milan Skriniar?
So far Vinicius hasn’t played a minute of English football but already he’s a “brilliant signing”, wow it must be wonderful to know the future. When you sign a player from abroad one of three things can happen. If you are lucky he will hit the ground running, this seems to be happening with Reguilón. Its more likely he will take a season to adjust, this seems to be what happened with Ndombele. If you are unlucky he will never adjust, Soldado for instance. There’s no way to know what will happen until the player actually plays in England, hence so many clubs going for loans with options to buy.
None of this seems to stop fans assuming every signing will work out, until they don’t of course.