Tottenham Hotspur need a new centre-forwad and Jose Mourinho has already showed an interest in Leicester City misfit Islam Slimani.
Just because a striker toiled at one Premier League club, that doesn’t mean he cannot thrive elsewhere on English shores.
After all, while Islam Slimani never felt like a natural fit for a Leicester City side who had perfected the art of ferocious, Vardy-led counter attacking, an old-school, 6ft 2ins targetman might just be the missing piece for a Tottenham Hotspur side lacking any semblance of an outball during the injury-enforced absence of Harry Kane.
And with A Bola reporting that Leicester would happily cash in on Slimani for as little as £9 million, £20 million less than they paid to bring him to England four years ago, expect Spurs to enquire again about a man they gave serious consideration to as recently as January (The Telegraph).
That ill-fated spell at Leicester may forever remain a blot on Slimani’s copybook. But this powerhouse Algerian has scored goals almost everywhere else he has been.
He’s found the net nine times in 14 Ligue 1 starts during a loan spell at Monaco. And you can guarantee that Jose Mourinho knows all about a man who scored goals for fun over in his native Portugal with Sporting Lisbon.
Over the last decade or so, Mourinho has increasingly put his faith in classic number nines, a la Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Diego Costa or Romelu Lukaku. It was he, after all, who brought a 36-year-old Didier Drogba back to Stamford Bridge for a second spell in 2014.
And while 31-year-old Slimani may feel like a short-term quick-fix, so to did Drogba. So to did Ibrahimovic at Manchester United. Jose has history in this department.
With the global health crisis likely to wreak havoc on Tottenham’s already dwindling finances, don’t be surprised if a £9 million, 30-something Premier League flop rocks up in North London. Slimani might not be the solution every Spurs fan wants but that does not mean he cannot ‘do a job’ until a better option arrives.
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