Tottenham Hotspur have been linked with Napoli’s Dries Mertens but Mauricio Pochettino must be prepared to adapt for the Belgian.
Area Napoli reports that Tottenham Hotspur have been offered the chance to sign Napoli striker Dries Mertens this summer.
On the face of it, that’s a wonderful opportunity to add one of the most prolific strikers in Europe to your team and one that shouldn’t be missed – but it’s a lot more complicated than that.
If you were to look at Spurs’ front line, the only thing you’d say it lacks is squad depth. In terms of first choice signings, you’d imagine that it’s the right flank that would need strengthening, allowing Christian Eriksen and Delle Alli to play centrally, Harry Kane as a forward, and Heung-Min Son on the left.
Therefore, the main issue with Mertens is that he isn’t an ideal signing for either role.
Formerly a winger, the Belgian has been an absolute revelation as a striker in Italy, scoring 56 goals over the past two seasons ever since filling in for an injured Arek Milik.
That incredible haul is nothing like anything he’d shown before and helped push him from being a very good player to one of the best forwards in Europe – signing him to play any other role would be a waste of his talent.
Similarly, can you really bring in a player of such ability expecting him to play backup to Kane? Mertens is 31 years old now, an age that he surely means he isn’t prepared to be anything but a first-choice player.
Now, if Mauricio Pochettino can find a way to play a front two of Kane and Mertens, as well as fit all of his attacking talents into the side, then Spurs would have something very special indeed – arguably as good as anything around right now.
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