Tottenham Hotspur continue to be linked with strikers.
It is something of an inevitability, really, especially when your star striker, or your only striker, either or, suffers a potentially season-ending injury that suddenly sends you scrabbling for the phone book in a desperate attempt to bring in a replacement.
Harry Kane has injured his hamstring and faces a race against time not just to return before the end of Spurs’ league campaign but to be fit for Euro 2020 in the summer.
This is an issue.
The big fat Tottenham quiz of 2019 – how much do you remember about the last year at Spurs?
As Football FanCast has previously reported, sources have said that agents are routinely offering the club players, particularly those able to play as a striker.
AC Milan’s Krzysztof Piatek and Borussia Dortmund’s Paco Alcacer were two such examples of this but it appears, at this point, that neither are likely to happen. The former is wanted on loan while Milan want to sell him and the same is true of the latter.
Then there are the second-tier links. On Sunday, it emerged that Spurs could well make a move for Islam Slimani, the Leicester City striker currently on loan at AS Monaco.
He is doing well in France and has scored seven goals and provided seven assists this season; he could well fill a Kane-shaped hole, or should that be a Fernando Llorente-sized hole?
That, really, is the nub of the issue, the lack of squad depth, the inability to call on another experienced senior striker who can step out of the cold and into the limelight.
So here we are, Spurs being linked with players who couldn’t cut the mustard previously but who their agents surely feel just need one big move in order to get back to their best.
It is a poor situation and one that Spurs have got themselves into with their insistence on keeping Kane as their only striker. There is nothing to say, for example, that another forward could have been brought in to supplement his threat and play alongside him.
One source jokingly suggested that Christian Benteke could become a major target – the Crystal Palace man has been suggested as a potential signing by one agent but he has yet to score this season.
That is where Spurs are currently.
As good as some of the options may be on paper – Slimani is at least in some form – this was a wholly avoidable situation.
The club’s attempts to fix it, sadly, are not much better.
Meanwhile, Spurs are still paying for a huge mistake!