Spurs Relegated Striker Decision

Well I said on Twitter I feel another post coming on and I'm straight into it while it is fresh in the mind.

If you haven't seen it, take a look at this supposed ITK that is miles behind the times.

It is a situation we have discussed here before and indeed my recommended path.

OK.

If you remember,we had two options.

Keep Serge Aurier and buy one right-back or sell Aurier and buy two new right-backs.

From a football point of view I chose the latter and I demonstrated that from a financial point of view it made sense too.

It has been in Spurs thinking.

Now, we have discussed juggling the finances and the wages budget.

We need to think of everything in the real world, not the Sugar Daddy fantasy world that plenty out there still believe in, along with fairies at the bottom of the garden.

I have discussed that if you pay more in one area, you have to make saving in another area or raise more cash.

We are looking to buy a striker, Artem Dzyuba is now out of the equation with a clutch of strikers becoming available with Premier League experience.

The Russian has been told we won't be signing him, the circumstances have not aligned and so he has signed a new contract.

Troy Parrott has been sent out on loan to Millwall who have obviously guaranteed us that he will be playing football regularly, one of our main criteria in loaning him out.

Clearly, we know we are signing a forward.

Now, if we go for England international Callum Wilson, who probably most would prefer, his wages and the whole financial package is going to be greater than we had originally planned to spend.

Therefore, we either go for lesser targets elsewhere, we don't sign another centre-back (although Kim Min-jae will be great for marketing and we wouldn't lose money on him) or we have to raise cash.

Serge Aurier, as discussed previously, raises money, not a huge amount, but his wages can be split between Timothy Castagne and Max Aarons.

They can be paid £30,000 each, Aurier earns £70,000 a week.

Leaves us £10,000 a week over to add to any strikers wage packet.

Let's have a look at the relegated striker.

My choices would either be a player nobody is talking about, Dominic Solanke who will be 23 in September and is a full England international with 1 cap or Troy Deeney on loan for a season while Troy Parrott develops or Teemu Pukki.

Why is nobody talking about Solanke?

Or Pukki much for that matter?

The 6 Relegated Striker Options

Callum Wilson (28) - contract until 2023

HOMEGROWN

8 goals 3 assists in 35 games 

Goal every 362 minutes

Reportedly £100,000 a week

Joshua King (28) - contract until 2021

NON-HOMEGROWN

6 goals 4 assists in 26 games

Goal every 337 minutes

Reportedly £60,000 a week

Dominic Solanke (22) - contract until 2022

HOMEGROWN

3 goals 1 assist in 32 games

Goal every 548 minutes

Goal Participation 10%

Started 45% - Minutes played 48%

Reportedly £52,500 a week

Troy Deeney (32) - contract until 2021

OK, there are 6 options there.

Solanke is young, could Mourinho improve him and would he improve in a better team?

Could we sell him in a year if he doesn't work when Troy Parrott is back?

Would Callum Wilson, Teemu Pukki, Danny Welbeck or Joshua King stunt the development of Troy Parrott in a year?

Bearing Parrott in mind, is Troy Deeney as a short-term option the ideal replacement?

Parrott is 32, towards the end of his career, still knows where the goal is, works hard for the team, is homegrown, a leader and this would be his opportunity to play at a big club to end his career and play some European football.

There is a lot going for him on loan or at a minimal fee, minimal because of his age.

Financially he would make sense.

Danny Welbeck earns too much for what he produces, as arguably Solanke does but he has age on his side to develop..

Deeney scores a goal every 223 minutes while the more expensive (both transfer fee and wages) Callum Wilson scores a goal every 362 minutes.

The other advantage of Deeney is he is homegrown, asis Wilson, but not King or Pukki.

King scores a goal every 337 minutes, so faster than Wilson but is non-homegrown and PUkki scores a goal every 263 minutes, the best of the lot, but is also non-homegrown, although he is cheap on wages.

Ideally we want a homegrown player which limits the choices to 3, Wilson, Deeney and Solanke, since Welbeck simply isn't a viable proposition, he'd need to be on half his ages to be entertained..

So who would you choose?

Deeney does have to have knee surgery but it depends entirely upon how long that would take to heal and he would become available. Some are ruling him out without knowing this rather important timescale.

Who can Mourinho get the best out of?

Remember if we bring in Castagne, Kim Min-jae and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg then we have our full quota of overseas players, unless we sell Aurier.

That means we can't sign an overseas striker or a third non-homegrown goalkeeper.

To give yourself breathing space next summer, wouldn't it be an idea to have a non-homegrown place available so we don't have to sell to buy for that reason?

Isn't everything geared towards a homegrown striker, Wilson, Deeney or Solanke?

OK, so with that in mind, with the information at your disposal, who would you sign?

We haven't discussed transfer fees of course.

Wilson is £20m I believe.

Troy Deeney would be cheaper, particularly if it were a loan, which would suit him as he then becomes a free agent next summer and can command higher wages and higher signing on fee at another club.

It's a win win scenario.

Troy Deeney has a 33% goal participation figure whereas Callum Wilson's is only 27%

Solanke is your young development option, he was highly thought of. Untap what people thought was there and you'll have a bargain on your hands.

So all those wannabe Daniel Levy's out there, make your stab.

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