Dominic Solanke to Tottenham transfer: Lilywhites identify overperforming Bournemouth marksman as Harry Kane’s successor
Tottenham will be seeking to sign a centre-forward before the summer transfer window concludes.
After being installed as Tottenham’s head coach last summer, Ange Postecoglou, who had guided Celtic to consecutive Scottish championships, soon lost the talismanic figure and lethal goalscorer Harry Kane to Bayern Munich, though Spurs would finish a respectable fifth place in the Premier League.
However, their leading marksman, Son Heung-min, registered 17 goals, which proved to be the fewest returned by Tottenham’s top scorer since the 2013/14 campaign when Emmanuel Adebayor netted 14 times. The following nine seasons would be dominated by the aforementioned Kane, with his poorest output being 24 (2018/19 and 2019/20), which illustrates the high standard his eventual successors will need to meet.
This particular market the Lilywhites have entered can be competitive, and they’ve been linked with two of Kane’s international teammates, with Bournemouth centre-forward Dominic Solanke arousing the most interest, with Spurs, according to reports confident of activating his £65m release clause.
Such a fee demonstrates his unquestionable importance; last season, he levelled up extraordinarily. Bournemouth, who have only finished once in the Premier League’s top half across seven previous seasons, were indebted to Solanke, who bagged 19 goals across 38 appearances — a record that extends to 21 goals across all competitions.
Andoni Iraola’s side ended up in 12th place, marking a rare instance of a player finishing in the bottom half despite scoring 15+ goals. This was only the 39th occurrence in Premier League history, with two of those instances happening in the last seven seasons: Solanke last term and Danny Ings for Southampton in 2019/20.
Solanke also became the 15th player in Premier League history to score as many as 18 goals for a bottom-half team. Take his goals away from Bournemouth’s season; they would have 15 fewer points. Solanke’s goals have been worth more points than any other player in the Premier League last season.
In some ways, he was let down by his teammates. He was fourth in the Premier League goalscoring charts this season and broke the deadlock on a league-high nine occasions. Solanke was also on the losing side after claiming the first goal in three separate matches. Only once in the Premier League era has a player lost more games in a season after scoring the opener (Dion Dublin, four in 1995/96).
Under the guidance of Andoni Iraola, the Bournemouth centre-forward was tasked with spending more time in central attacking areas and posing a greater goal threat. So it wasn’t surprising to find that he averaged far more non-penalty goals (0.46), non-penalty expected goals (0.47), shots (2.95), and touches in the opposition box (6.46) per 90 minutes compared to any other season with Bournemouth. In total, he ranked fourth among all Premier League players for non-penalty goals (17), third for non-penalty expected goals (17.27), joint-third for shots (109), and sixth for touches in the opposition box (239).
His elite-level numbers suggest he could be ready to step back up to a bigger club and compete at the top end of the table. Inevitable speculation has linked him to Eddie Howe at Newcastle, given that they worked together at Bournemouth, but Alexander Isak is the first-choice striker at St. James’ Park.
It never worked out for him at Chelsea and Liverpool, but he was much younger then and needed a sufficient amount of playing time. Solanke — unlucky not to be part of England’s squad at Euro 2024 — may very well feel there’s unfinished business in the higher echelons of English football.
Settling alongside Son Heung-min, James Maddison, and Dejan Kulusevski might not come to fruition, with Spurs potentially eyeing Ivan Toney as an alternative. His valuation at Brentford was £100m earlier this year, but it has dropped somewhat as he enters the final year of his contract with the West London club.
Toney’s 2023/24 season began in January after serving an eight-month ban for betting breaches. The 28-year-old returned to a Brentford team struggling in a relegation battle, and his performances were affected by the team’s poor form. He scored four goals and provided two assists in 17 matches, below his expected goals (xG) of 5.97. Considering the challenging season Brentford had when evaluating Toney’s performance is important.
He scored all four goals in a five-game streak in January and February. Tottenham will be hoping he can rediscover that form under Postecoglou’s coaching. We can look at Brentford’s more successful 2022/23 season to better understand Toney’s abilities. During that campaign, Toney scored 20 goals and provided four assists, averaging 0.73 goal contributions per 90 minutes. This placed him third in the Golden Boot race behind Harry Kane (30) and Erling Haaland (36).
Toney played a crucial role in Brentford’s success that season, contributing to over 34% of the team’s total goals. He also ranked among the top 10 players in the league for total shots (94) and shots on target (42).
He could be available for as little as £30m, which is a massive bonus given Postecoglou’s need to strengthen other areas of his team. However, that valuation could change given that his successor, Thiago, who arrived from Club Brugge in Belgium, is set to miss an extended period due to a meniscus injury.
