Dominic Solanke still has time to prove Tottenham Hotspur fans wrong, as Roberto De Zerbi appears to be high on the striker and willing to work with him for the 2026/27 Premier League season before writing him off as a transfer bust. But for many Spurs supporters, that ship has already sailed, as Solanke has totally failed to live up to expectations after coming to the Lilywhites in 2024 as a 65 million pound transfer from Bournemouth, including add ons, which was a record fee for the club at the time.
Solanke has barely scored Premier League goals for Spurs, and the all around quality that was touted of him has clearly not manifested itself at N17. No Spurs winger has truly benefited from playing alongside Solanke, who also spent most of the 2025/26 Premier League season injured, working his way back for the relegation fight but then played poorly and got injured again.
As Tottenham look for new striker targets to potentially replace Solanke or Richarlison - or even both - they are realizing that the market is quite barren. One name that has popped up again is World Cup breakout star Folarin Balogun, an American marksman who scored 13 goals with 4 assists for Ligue 1 giants Monaco last season and had once scored a whopping 21 goals in a French top division season with Will Still's underdog side Stade de Reims.
Folarin Balogun is not a truly great striker target
Balogun is not a bad player by any means, but the 25 year old will still cost quite a bit, with figures of around 60 million euros tossed in the air for the American No. 9. That's nearly the money Tottenham Hotspur spent on Dominic Solanke in 2024, and he was coming off a better season in a tougher league with 19 goals for the Cherries before making the switch to Spurs as the ostensible heir to Harry Kane.
That Solanke transfer has not worked out at all for Tottenham, and while Folarin Balogun is younger, coming off a better season, and actually has a better goal scoring record overall, it's debatable as to just how much of an upgrade he is over Solanke, especially if Roberto De Zerbi really is seeing something untapped in the former elite English prospect at Chelsea and Liverpool.
Balogun is a reminder of the mistake Daniel Levy made for Tottenham with the Solanke signing. Instead of spending 100 million pounds on a truly great striker who can transform the team, he cheaped out for Solanke, and now Spurs are looking at other 50-70 million pound options at striker who have boom or bust potential. Instead of spending 115 million pounds on Solanke and Balogun, they could have spent that on one player similar in caliber to Kane and been done with it. Going for third tier players like Solanke and Balogun almost never leads to a home run or titles.
Add us as a preferred source on Google