Tottenham Hotspur spent a then record 65 million pounds to sign Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth, and in doing so, they made Solanke the heir to Harry Kane, who had just made a blockbuster move to Bayern Munich in pursuit of trophies away from the ambitionless Daniel Levy.
Solanke has been a total bust in the two seasons since his move, even though he did prove useful when Tottenham won the Europa League. In the Premier League, Solanke has been a disaster, and while Spurs were sold the idea that Solanke is one of the most well rounded strikers in the Premier League, his statistics say otherwise. Solanke only has a couple of assists in two seasons, and his dribbling and other creative statistics are pretty much non existent.
Meanwhile, Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi is becoming increasingly interested in Cody Gakpo, and while the word on the street is that Tottenham could sign Gakpo in conjunction with Savinho on the left wing, Mathys Tel is making waves again on that flank. So Gakpo is actually looking more like a center forward option who can play in either role, and perhaps Spurs could sign him in conjunction with a more out and out No. 9. Or they could just keep Richarilson, their leading scorer in the Premier League last season with 11 goals, and sign Gakpo to be more of a false nine along with him.
Dominic Solanke is not great all around
In that case, Gakpo would 100 percent be replacing Dominic Solanke. Because, again, while Spurs were sold that Solanke could play that all arounder role after Harry Kane and make the goal scoring wingers better, specifically Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski at that time, he has made the entire offense worse and plays very stagnant. His inability to actually stay healthy for a full season has not helped matters either, and while that was never really an issue at Bournemouth, it certainly was earlier in his career.
Solanke's all around quality is a myth. He's had more than three assists in a top flight season just once in his career, and in that campaign with seven assists for Bournemouth, the Cherries were terrible and Big Dom only scored a measly six goals anyway.
Cody Gakpo, on the other hand, is a better creator who had five assists last season and once had 12 assists for PSV before coming to Liverpool. While nobody would mistake those numbers as a world class for a left winger, he did have a more positive 1.5 key passes per game for the Reds last season and 2.5 key passes per game for the Netherlands at hte 2026 World Cup. Solanke has never come anywhere close in his career, so while Gakpo is not elite by any stretch, he really shows just how poor Solanke is as a supposed all arounder at center forward by comparison.
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