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Tottenham sold the 'next Harry Kane' - and Roberto de Zerbi is paying the price
26 Sept 2026 20:03 BST |
4 min read
Analysis
Tottenham have come to regret their decision to cash in on Will Lankshear this summer.
The North London side have endured a disastrous start to the new season and have yet to win a Premier League fixture. Prior to their two consolation goals against Aston Villa ahead of the international break, they hadn't even found the back of the net in league play.
Dominic Solanke and Omar Marmoush have yet to make a tangible impact, while Richarlison, last season's top scorer, has been exiled by head coach Roberto de Zerbi. The Brazil international is expected to leave in January - or to have his contract terminated if an agreement can be reached.
Spurs will be hopeful that their attacking issues will be resolved once James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski are fully fit and firing again, but you wouldn't hold your breath given the severity of their injuries and, well, the club's recent history.
Tottenham have been a shambles for far too long. This summer, they spent a fortune on new players but seemingly without a coherent idea of how all the pieces should fit together, all while selling off young talent that likely wouldn't have been any worse than their big-money recruits.
Spurs' Lankshear regret
In light of their offensive struggles, the decision to offload striker Will Lankshear looks particularly damning. Admittedly, a reliable finisher is only useful if you can consistently create good opportunities for him, but he would surely have been helpful right now.
But they opted to sell him to Middlesbrough. Last season, Lankshear bagged 11 goals for an Oxford United side that ended up getting relegated, and he has already scored six times in eight games for Boro.
He was also on the scoresheet on his England U21 debut on Friday. Lankshear scored once in a 21-minute cameo during a 4-2 win over Kazakhstan.
The 21-year-old is already being likened to Tottenham great Harry Kane, although this seems very premature. He is fully expected to go down as one of the best signings in the Championship this season.
It is perhaps understandable that Spurs felt the money Boro offered was ultimately too good to turn down. The deal for Lankshear can rise as high as €23 million due to bonuses, which is a handsome chunk of money for a fairly unproven forward.
Nevertheless, Spurs' difficulties in front of goal make you wonder if it would have been worthwhile giving Lankshear a run in the team before deciding to cash in on him.
Former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood, for his part, is not surprised that it came to this. He believes that Spurs have done an abysmal job at giving young domestic players a first-team pathway in recent years.
"Will Lankshear did well at Oxford, he’s done well over there," Sherwood told MaxFreeBets. "If you’re ever gonna get a chance at Spurs as a young player, you need to go and score goals while out on loan, and he did that.
"I’m not saying he was the answer, but I think he deserves an opportunity to suggest he might be. He never got that opportunity. Spurs just look to go out and spend money and block up pathways of young kids. So he’s better off just going and getting a career somewhere else, and he’s doing very well."
Not giving Lankshear a proper chance could very easily come back to bite Spurs. According to striker coach Scott Chickelday, the comparisons to Kane are not far-fetched. "He has got all the finishes in the book," he told Sky Sports last month.
"He has got the little flicks around the corner, tap-ins, headers, volleys. Just an all-round No.9 and there are not many around at the minute. His finishing is incredible. I tell people, and they laugh at me, but this boy is the closest thing I have seen to Harry Kane.
"Did you see the one that he scored for Oxford from outside the box [against Sheffield Wednesday in April]? It was the typical Kane finish where he cuts in and bends the ball into the top corner.
"He likes to drift out on the left and cut inside. But whatever he can do on his right foot, he can do on his left. That is what gives him that unpredictability when he is finishing as well. He does not mind which way that the defender shows him.
"It is his ruthlessness in front of goal and his consistency in hitting the target. His shots-on-target ratio is phenomenal. In our sessions, he rarely misses the target at all. I am not saying that he is scoring with every single shot, but he does work the goalkeeper."
Chickelday could hardly stop waxing lyrical about Lankshear. "Sometimes you come out of the session, and you are like, 'This one is special.' You just get that feeling," he added.
"It is his mentality. He wants to be the best. He wants to be the No.1 striker in England. And then obviously he wants to be the No.1 in the world too. And I really would not be surprised in two years' time if he is Harry Kane's replacement.
"I do not want to talk about moves at the minute because Middlesbrough will probably kill me. He has only been there five minutes. But I think he is two moves away from being a £100m striker if he keeps developing and doing well - and I think he will."
Selling Lankshear could go down as one of the worst of Spurs' many bad decisions in recent years.
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