Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly set to be without Harry Kane for the rest of the season, depending on their progress in the Champions League.
Tottenham have suffered a huge blow ahead of the final weeks of the season with The Telegraph reporting that Harry Kane is fearful that he will miss the rest of the campaign – only holding out some hope, at this stage, that he may be back for the Champions League final at the start of June if Spurs make it.
Mauricio Pochettino has had to deal with losing his talisman to lengthy injuries in the past. And previously, Spurs have actually coped a lot better without arguably their most important player than a lot of their rivals have when they have suffered a similar setback.
For example, Son Heung-min’s winner against Manchester City on Tuesday came after Kane had been taken off following his clash with Fabian Delph. So Tottenham can definitely believe that they can end the campaign on a high.
It will be much tougher, but Pochettino has options up his sleeve. And one of those players he may turn to is Fernando Llorente.
Llorente has enjoyed a better campaign this time around. But as things stand, it still appears safe to assume that the Spaniard – who earns £75,000-a-week, according to Spotrac – may be on his way out of the club when his contract expires in the summer, as reported by The Sun.
In truth, it would probably be a surprise if Llorente starts more often now that Kane is absent when Spurs have battles on their hands both at home and in Europe. But he will surely get a lot more minutes while his teammate is sidelined.
And because of that, the 34-year-old needs to look at the coming weeks as one final chance to prove to Pochettino that he deserves a brand new contract.
If the coming weeks prove to be successful for Spurs, and Llorente contributes a decent number of goals, then perhaps handing him a new one-year deal would make a lot of sense.
It does not appear to be easy to be Kane’s backup. And with Son also able to play in a central role, holding onto Llorente for another year could make sense, even if they manage to sign another striker in the summer to improve the depth further.
Given his teammate’s misfortune and the games coming up for Spurs, Llorente perhaps could not have asked for a better opportunity to prove that Tottenham must keep him beyond this summer.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
