Kalinic Rumors Make Sense for Spurs

Spurs rumored interest in Fiorentina striker Nikola Kalinic looks more plausible than it might initially look.

Rumors coming out of Italy this week suggest that Spurs might be interested in pursuing the Fiorentina striker this summer as a backup to star man Harry Kane.

Multiple sources continue to whisper about Michy Batshuayi and other prodigiously talented young strikers that could be arriving at White Hart Lane this summer, so news that Spurs might be interested in recruiting the 28-year-old former Premier League reject comes as something of a shock.

Long time fans of the English game might remember from Kalinic for his brief stint with Blackburn from 2009 to 2011. It’s fair to say the striker didn’t exactly thrive on England’s biggest stage – in 2,514 minutes on the pitch he scored all of seven goals per Transfermarkt.

From England he moved on to the Ukrainian Premier League, plying his trade for Dnipro for the next four seasons. He improved, though not to an especially dramatic extent. His biggest goal haul in any season in Ukraine was the 12 he scored in his last season with the club.

That performance was impressive enough to pique the interest of a bargain-hunting Fiorentina side late into last summer’s transfer window. They paid a little over £4 million to bring the Croatian international to Florence.

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The Viola got a return on their investment almost immediately. Kalinic was absolutely on fire for the first few months of the 2015/16 Serie A season, scoring ten goals and setting up four assists in his first 16 appearances for the club. By the time the league broke for the holidays only Gonzalo Higuaín led him in goals, and Kalinic was in the running to be among the top scorers for the season.

Kalinic’s efforts helped propel Fiorentina into title contention along with Napoli and Inter (Juventus had not yet hit their stride), thus were not inclined to listen to the inevitable offers for his services made in the January transfer window.

Since the turn of the year, though, both player and club saw their good fortune evaporate. The Viola dropped out of the title race as Juventus and Roma re-discovered their mojo, and it’s no surprise that that decline coincided with Kalinic’s sudden loss of form. He’s scored twice since the league returned to action in early January, his most recent goal coming on Sunday against Juventus.

So while transfer speculation surrounding Kalinic might have cooled in general, Spurs interest might only be heating up. The poor run of form in the latter half of the season will drive down the Croatian’s price to a level that Spurs might find easier to bear than, say, the £20-odd million needed to acquire Batshuayi.

Spurs need a player who can reliably function as a back-up for cup games and perhaps the Champions League group stage. Kalinic is that player not just because he scores goals, but also because of the manner in which he scores them.

Take what was unequivocally Kalinic’s finest match of the season, September’s 4-1 win over Inter wherein he scored a hat-trick.

Inter were, at the time, among the better teams in Serie A. They had the best defensive record of any team in the league, having only conceded once in a five match winning streak to open the season.

Kalinic, Josip Illicic and Marcos Alonso were able to put Fiorentina 3-0 by the 23rd minute however. They did so using some downright Spursian tactics. Midfielder Borja Valero thrust forward from the center of the pitch to cut off Inter’s attempts to play through the defense, while Kalinic and Illicic tested the tensile strength of the the backline and Alonso stretched play from the left wing. The combined result was an Inter back five too stretched to cope.

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His pace, sense of timing and deft finishing made Kalinic the perfect point to Fiorentina’s spear on the day and through much of the first half of the season. The decline that followed suggests that maybe he’s not consistent enough to be a regular starter, but that’s not necessarily a trait Spurs are looking for at the moment. They need a veteran striker who knows how to score, and one who would be willing to sit on the bench if it meant Premier League and Champions League opportunities.

In terms of price and ability, Spurs could do far worse than Kalinic.