Tottenham Hotspur have started life without Harry Kane impressively, drawing away against Brentford before beating Manchester United in London, but the club still need to sign a new centre-forward.
Kane, Spurs’ record goalscorer, completed a £100m move to German giants Bayern Munich this month and is yet to be replaced, with the £13m signing of Argentinan striker Alejo Veliz, aged 19, deemed one for the future at this stage.
The transfer window is now only one week away from closing, and if new manager Ange Postecoglou wishes to provide his squad with the best chance of reclaiming a place in the Champions League, a talisman must be targetted.
What’s the latest on Jonathan David to Tottenham?
According to reporter Ben Jacobs, speaking on the Last Word on Spurs Podcast, the Lilywhites are considering a bid for Canadian striker Jonathan David, with the Lille striker also open to moving to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Whether Spurs chairman Daniel Levy would be willing to meet the French side’s reported £55m valuation, however, remains to be seen.
How good is Jonathan David?
David has maintained his shooting boots wherever he has played thus far during his career, having scored 59 times from 138 games for Lille after plundering 37 goals from just 84 matches during the maiden period of his career for Gent.
The 23-year-old has also posted 25 strikes from 42 caps for the Canadian national team, and he has been hailed as a “phenom” and “one of the best strikers in the world” by radio host Tony Marinaro.
It’s hard to dispute that David is not one of the most consistent goalscorers around, having scored 26 goals from 40 displays last season and opened his account with one strike from two games this term.
He even ranks among the top 3% of forwards across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for pass completion, the top 18% for progressive passes and the top 15% for shot-creating actions per 90, as per FBref.
This illustrates a ball-playing faculty to mirror that of Kane, who himself ranks among the top 10% of positional peers for shot-creating actions and the top 4% for progressive passes per 90.
Having been lauded as an “unbelievable finisher” and a “predator” by Goal reporter Austin Ditlhobolo in the past, there is no doubt that David boasts the pace and the link-up play to thrive in the central striking position with Spurs.
With the creative James Maddison pulling the strings and orchestrating the play from the centre, he could maintain his exemplary rate of scoring, with the three-cap England international already bagging two assists from the opening two games of the season.
Maddison completed a move to Tottenham from Leicester City for £40m this summer after the Foxes were relegated from the Premier League.
This was despite the £170k-per-week playmaker’s best efforts, scoring ten goals and supplying nine assists from just 28 starting appearances.
He even ranks among the top 5% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for assists, the top 8% for shot-creating actions and the top 17% for progressive passes per 90.
Maddison’s creativity and David’s dynamism would create a marvellous blend of fluidity and cohesion, with the Brooklyn-born attacker benefitting from his peer’s supplementation while returning the favour and dropping deep at times too, weaving the play together and allowing the likes of Heung-min Son and Dejan Kulusevski to make forward inversions and opening up a wealth of new dimensions.
Therefore, David could prove to be the perfect profile as the focal point to latch onto Maddison’s creative ingenuity, and Tottenham would only benefit from securing his services as a resurgence is targetted after a miserable campaign.
