View: Ivan Toney replacing Harry Kane at Tottenham makes perfect sense
As Harry Kane’s future continues to remain up in the air, Tottenham will begin to get linked with more and more strikers over the coming months.
Even if the England captain remains in North London beyond the summer, there are no guarantees he will sign fresh terms as he enters the final year of his contract.
If he chooses not to, the club will lose him on a free next summer. Either way, the situation is clear; Kane signs a new contract or Tottenham need a new number nine this time next year.
Richarlison failed to impress during his debut season at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and many fans will have doubts over whether or not he can lace their beloved star’s boots.
Meanwhile, names like Jonathan David of Lille (Daily Mail, 17 July) and Dusan Vlahovic of Juventus (Daily Mail, 16 July) have been mentioned recently, but one name linked with a switch seems to make the most sense.
That man is Brentford’s Ivan Toney who, according to football transfers (17 July), Spurs are eyeing as a potential replacement for their record goalscorer.
Replacing Kane will be near impossible as the fans proudly view him as ‘one of their own’ after he came through the club’s academy to become one of the world’s best strikers. Yet eventually, the club will have to move on, and Toney could be the perfect striker to move on with.
Last season the talisman scored 20 times in the Premier League in just 33 appearances and was one of only three players to score at least 20 goals during the season – alongside Erling Haaland and Kane himself.
Outscoring the likes of Marcus Rashford and Mohamed Salah is impressive in itself but when you consider the team Toney was playing in compared to those two, it makes the feat even more spectacular and suggests he could take his performance up another level by moving to a side higher up the league.
The season before, his first in the Premier League, he managed to score 12 league goals, a particularly impressive return for a debut season in England’s toughest league.
As well as his impressive goal-scoring record he also provided four assists for his teammates during the previous campaign and a deeper dive into the stats suggests he could be the man to fill Kane’s boots.
As per FBREF, he scored an impressive 0.61 goals per 90 which placed him in the top 11 per cent of Premier League forwards and would have at least 2.65 shots per 90, suggesting he was always a nuisance for opposing goalkeepers.
He would often win free-kicks for his team which would help them get up the pitch, drawing 2.26 fouls per 90, which placed him in the top eight per cent of Premier League forwards in regard to this particular statistic.
His all-around game was also particularly impressive as he would often look to find his teammates, something which Kane is very much known to do. His 1.65 passes into the final third per 90 positioned him in the top 18 per cent of Premier League forwards while his 0.15 crosses per 90 into the penalty area placed him in the top 19 per cent.
For years Kane has been Tottenham’s reliable man when it comes to penalties and has very rarely let the club down from the spot, Toney’s penalty record could be considered just as impressive. Last season he was in the top four per cent for penalties attempted (0.21 per 90) among Premier League forwards and the top three per cent for penalties scored (0.18 per 90).
In fact, across his career, he has scored 29 penalties and missed just two (Transfermarkt), a particularly impressive record which may seem insignificant on the surface level, but is extremely important.
Above all, of the names linked, Toney is the only striker Premier League proven, which could prove crucial. At a bigger club like Spurs the Brentford ace could really kick on and Daniel Levy could do a lot worse in his hunt to replace Kane.
In other Tottenham news, could Randal Kolo Muani also offer a solution to Spurs’ striking dilemma?