Whenever your club is linked with a player touching 2m tall, the immediate reaction is to shiver with disgust at a fear of long balls and ‘chucking it in the mixer’ – Tottenham Hotspur fans have had their fingers burned before.
Another 6ft-something centre-forward arrived in north London who was supposed to give Spurs a ‘different’ kind of threat in the final third.
Fernando Llorente, formerly of Spain, Juventus and Athletic Bilbao and a prolific goalscorer at Swansea City, turned out to be more Vincent Janssen than Harry Kane.
His most memorable moment was a decisive goal in the Champions League victory over Manchester City – one that, in all probability, should have been ruled out for handball.
So with the Daily Mail reporting Tottenham have joined Southampton and West Ham United in the pursuit of Genk’s £20 million target man Paul Onuachu, you’d be forgiven for wondering how on earth the rangy Nigeria international – all 6ft 7in of him – would fit into Nuno Espirito Santo’s plans.
In fairness to Nuno, at Wolves he succeeded where Diego Simeone failed, getting the best out of another towering number nine in the shape of Raul Jimenez.
And while Onuachu is less technically gifted than the Mexican, he does have more ability on the ball than you might expect for someone with such a large frame.
Onuachu scored 35 times in all competitions for Genk last season and has another 11 already this term.
In addition to a trio of Premier League clubs, the Mail believes Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid are interested too. It’s clearly not just Tottenham who believe the late-blooming 27-year-old can make the step up from the Belgian league.
Tottenham have only scored eight times from set-pieces since the start of 2020/21 too. A 6ft 7in striker could go a long way to solving that particular problem.
You’d imagine, then, that Onuachu’s performance during tonight’s Europa League group-stage clash with West Ham will be watched with interest.
Here’s what some Tottenham Hotspur fans had to say on Twitter about the Onuachu whispers:
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