Since making his Premier League debut for Tottenham in August 2012, Harry Kane has accounted for a staggering 28.6% of the club’s Premier League goals from then onwards, and after yet another stellar individual season in an uninspired Tottenham side, netting 30 goals in 38 appearances, the rumours surrounding the England captain’s future have once again resurfaced.
Bayern Munich are heavily pursuing a move for the Tottenham striker, meaning new manager Ange Postecoglou may have to prepare for life in north London without the club’s record goalscorer.
Postecoglou has employed different systems in his different jobs throughout his managerial career. While managing Scottish giants Celtic, Postecoglou landed on a 4-3-3 formation for 80 per cent of matches, culminating in a domestic treble last season.
With the likelihood the new Tottenham manager will stick with the system he enjoyed such success with at Celtic, Tottenham may not have to look further than their very own number nine, Richarlison.
The centre forward in Postecoglou’s system requires fitness, willingness and the ability to lead the team’s press from the front, and Brazil’s Richarlison looks to be well-suited to the role.
Having had a disappointing first season at Spurs, scoring only one Premier League goal in 27 appearances, Richarlison will be looking to get back to the form he found at Everton, where he netted 53 times in 152 appearances.
Richarlison became Spurs’ second most expensive transfer in the club’s history in July 2022, and will be looking to prove his worth under Tottenham’s new head coach. But while Richarlison could be the perfect fit for Postecoglou’s system, questions over his fitness remain, and Spurs may explore other options in the event Harry Kane does depart for Bayern Munich.
Brentford’s Ivan Toney is regarded as the player most similar in style and ability to Tottenham’s all-time record goalscorer, and is admired by many at the club. A Premier League proven talent, Toney may be available for a cut price this summer due to the eight-month suspension he is currently serving for breaching FA gambling rules.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhile Spurs would have to wait until January 2024 to see Toney make his debut in a Tottenham shirt, a centre forward rotation between Brazil’s Richarlison and England’s Toney could potentially fill the void left by Kane should he depart this summer.
Postecoglou will hope that Tottenham’s offensive play will thrive with or without Kane as part of his relentlessly pressing, high-possession system, but there remains a massive question mark over the state of the defence which conceded a staggering 63 goals in the league last campaign, only three less than the club’s worst PL defensive season in 1992/93.
Spurs have been heavily linked with Wolfsburg’s Micky van de Ven and Bayer Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba, and it is clear Tottenham need to bring in at least one first-team centre back to partner World Cup winner Cristian Romero for the upcoming campaign.
With less than two weeks to go until the opening day of the Premier League season, there remains a lack of clarity on how Tottenham will line up in Postecoglou’s first game in charge. Should Kane depart for Bayern, or elsewhere, Postecoglou will have an enormous task on his hands to replace him.
But in Richarlison and Toney, Spurs might just have the answer.
