OPINION
One of the hardest tasks that Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy has had in recent years has been finding an adequate striker to back up Harry Kane.
Vincent Janssen certainly wasn’t the man, while you would think we can all safely say that the Fernando Llorente experiment has not worked either.
However, there could be a solution in the form of Inter Milan frontman Gabriel Barbosa. ‘Gabigol’, as he’s known, has rediscovered his goalscoring prowess on loan at Santos recently, and could be just the man to provide Spurs with some Kane assurance.
Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport reported on Sunday that the Brazilian would be allowed to leave the San Siro on loan in January once his time at Santos comes to an end.
So he would be a temporary solution, but that would also make him a low-risk one. Gazzetta’s report also states that Luciano Spalletti is considering selling Barbosa, too, but that a loan move is preferable for Inter at this moment in time.
A fee of £18million is the figure quoted for Barbosa, not a particularly ludicrous amount and certainly within Tottenham’s ballpark.
Barbosa has shown recently that he can be a prolific goalscorer, scoring 16 goals in Brazil. He has been a leader for Santos and looks to be back to the form that earned him his move to Italy in the first place.
If Tottenham want a young player who could grow into his role as Kane’s sidekick then they need look no further than the 22-year-old – and following in the footsteps of Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus as a south American backup option covering for one of the best strikers in the Premier League would have the new White Hart Lane stadium bouncing.
If the move doesn’t work out then the player would simply head back to Inter, no problem. But with manager Mauricio Pochettino’s track record of improving players there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t be able to rehabilitate ‘Gabigol’ further.
This is a problem that the club needs to get sorted, because clearly Llorente isn’t the man to back up Kane. Barbosa, just maybe, could be.