It’s been a tale of twists and turns at Tottenham Hotspur this season but Ange Postecoglou’s side have the chance to finish with a bang over these final few weeks in the Premier League.
While it’s easy to look at the campaign through the prism of top four qualification being the measure of success for a team like Tottenham, Postecoglou recognises the long-term goals and how things are not quite so linear – the Australian has been vocal on this topic in recent weeks.
Tottenham need time, and they need to continue the promising run of recruitment that has seen Postecoglou followed by first-team stars such as James Maddison, Micky van de Ven, Brennan Johnson and Guglielmo Vicario.
Still, though, the throne at the front of the ship sits vacant, with Harry Kane yet to be replaced as the club’s star centre-forward. Heung-min Son, now skipper, has done an excellent job in a more central role this season but he’s not the long-term solution.
Who Spurs sign remains to be seen, but the club certainly haven’t got it right in the transfer market in the years gone by, Kane’s emergence over one decade ago easing the issues risen from failures in signing Roberto Soldado, Clinton N’Jie and Vincent Janssen since.
He’s not the bottom of the barrel, but rangy striker Fernando Llorente certainly didn’t enjoy his finest football at Tottenham, incredible Champions League contribution aside…
Why Spurs signed Fernando Llorente
Tottenham announced the signing of Llorente from Swansea City in a £12m deal back in 2017, with Mauricio Pochettino’s side beating London rivals Chelsea to the 32-year-old’s signature.
Now 39, Llorente retired last summer but he’s enjoyed a long, nomadic career that has notably seen him win the 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship with Spain, the Europa League with Sevilla and three Serie A titles with Juventus.
He came tantalisingly close to playing a pivotal role in winning that elusive Champions League with Tottenham – but more on that later.
Spurs moved to sign the former Spain international following Kane’s injury struggles throughout the 2016/17 season, missing different portions with an ankle problem.
Moreover, N’Jie and Janssen had both been moved out and he offered something contrasting to the frontline, adding a target man figure for the likes of Christian Eriksen to whip balls in toward the danger area, having scored 15 Premier League goals with Swansea during his first campaign in England.
Llorente might have attained something of a cult status down N17 for that contribution, but there’s little question that, frankly, he didn’t produce the goods during his time at the club, especially when considering his success in the Premier League, or lack thereof.
Fernando Llorente's stats at Spurs
Across two campaigns for Tottenham, in all competitions, Llorente scored 13 goals and provided six assists across 66 matches, with just two of those strikes arriving in the Premier League.
Indeed, the 6 foot 4 titan only bagged one goal apiece across his two campaigns in the Premier League for Spurs and while he served his part with diligence, acting as a pillar from which forward play would often gravitate around, and towards, his goal record was disappointing given his success with Swansea.
He did, of course, score the all-important final goal against Manchester City as the Lilywhites advanced to the Champions League semi-finals in one of the most extraordinary ties in the competition history, bundling in late at the Etihad Stadium to seal the deal.
It was a momentous occasion, and while Llorente’s goal will stand the test of time as one of the most iconic and talked about modern Champions League moments, it’s not enough to allay his dismal scoring record domestically.
Especially when he was earning such a pretty pack packet….
Fernando Llorente's earnings at Spurs
Llorente is understood to have earned around £100k-per-week during his two-year stay at Tottenham, which works out to total earnings of just under £10m, £5m a season.
When combining this with the Spaniard’s salary, it can be deduced that he cost Tottenham a ballpark £21.5m across his duo of terms, working out to a contribution of roughly £1.6m per goal.
1.
Harry Kane
£100k-per-week
2.
Hugo Lloris
£100k-per-week
3.
Fernando Llorente
£100k-per-week
4.
Jan Vertonghen
£89k-per-week
5.
Heung-min Son
£80k-per-week
Llorente was on par with the squad’s highest earners, Kane and captain Hugo Lloris while surpassing Son in weekly earnings. During the same two-season period, the South Korean clinched 29 goals. Kane? He scored 65 goals across all competitions.
While Llorente did a job and was actually considered for re-signing, after his contract had expired, the monetary breakdown above illustrates why this would have been a bad idea.
Having aged further, after seeing his success in London limited to select moments, rather than fluid prosperity on an individual basis, it’s a good thing that such interest was shelved and forgotten about.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has been one to err on the side of caution but Tottenham simply have to throw the kitchen sink at signing the perfect centre-forward this summer, replacing Kane and adding a dimension to their attack that could propel them to a place on equal footing with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City.
With Kane graduating from the academy, it’s about time Tottenham got it right when obtaining a new focal frontman.
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