Mauricio Pochettino is making being second choice to Harry Kane at Tottenham Hotspur a very hard sell.
Fernando Llorente sat and watched from the bench – again – as Tottenham Hotspur laboured to a 1-1 draw with Southampton at St Mary’s Stadium on Sunday.
With Spurs needing a goal to avoid dropping crucial points in the top-four race, Mauricio Pochettino turned to holding midfielder Victor Wanyama as his 85th-minute, and last, substitute.
Oh, the life of a second-choice striker at Tottenham.
Naturally, Harry Kane is the main man, and with 123 goals since the start of the 2014-15 season, it is easy to see why. But Spurs need to find a striker who can support Kane, and Pochettino’s treatment of Llorente, and before him Vincent Janssen, is only going to deter potential signings.
Of Llorente’s 22 appearances for Spurs since his arrival from Swansea City on deadline day in August, 11 of those have been as a substitute in the 75th minute or later – usually later.
The Spaniard, who made an excellent career for himself at Athletic Bilbao, Juventus and Sevilla before coming to England, has only started one league match all season – and he scored in it.
And yet when Spurs need a goal – as they did last weekend against Southampton, and at home to West Ham United earlier this month, he is Pochettino’s last port of call, rather than his first.
It is not as though the Spurs boss has an abundance of other attacking options to choose from amongst his substitutes – Tottenham have only scored one goal off the bench all campaign.
In comparison, Manchester City’s substitutes have scored 13, Manchester United’s 12, and Chelsea and Arsenal’s eight apiece. Kane is world class but Spurs are handicapping themselves by relying on him too heavily.
Which is why they need to be in the market for another striker, but few qualified forwards are going to be lining up to join Spurs if they expect to be fed the same crumbs that Llorente has been.
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