Sunderland show interest in Tottenham striker

According to sports journalist Michael Graham, editor at Sunderland Nation, Sunderland AFC holds "significant interest" in Tottenham Hotspur forward Dane Scarlett.

The report goes onto say that the club had previously shown an interest in fellow Spurs youngster Will Lankshear, but their preference is Dane Scarlett as a result of his previous experience playing senior football.

Scarlett, who is still only 20 despite being around the Tottenham Hotspur first-team since 2020, has already had first-team loans at Portsmouth, then in League One, and Ipswich Town in the Championship.

This further reiterates the consistently made point that the club needs to be more savvy with loans out. Both loans turned out to be reasonably unfruitful, particularly at Ipswich. Scarlett started 19 games over the course of the entire 22/23 season at Portsmouth, finding the net on four occasions.

He failed to register a single start, or goal, in his 12 Championship appearances at Ipswich, totaling just 156 minutes, before returning to Spurs in January as a result. Because of the rules that state a player can only play for two clubs in one season - Scarlett's 45 minutes vs Fulham in the Carabao Cup second round back in August meant he had to stay put at Spurs and further stall his development.

It is really important that Spurs make the optimal decision for Scarlett's development this season - so let's analyze how good or bad a loan to Sunderland would be.

Sunderland show interest in Tottenham striker

Sunderland have struggled for a number 9 since Ross Stewart left the club for Southampton last year, and were regularly forced to play players out of position as the side's striker.

Eliezer Mayenda, a natural striker, who started up front in the opening-day victory at Cardiff City, could only muster 57 minutes of action on loan at Hibernian last season, and you would fancy Scarlett's chances of ousting him out of the side.

Nazariy Rusyn, also a natural striker, who replaced Mayenda with eighteen minutes left, was only able to muster 9 Championship starts last season despite the lack of options Sunderland had. Far from a glowing endorsement, so perhaps another player Scarlett could knock down the pecking order.

Sunderland are a good attacking side, which is of course a huge tick in the box. He would be playing with Jude Bellingham's younger brother, Jobe, and former Spurs winger Jack Clarke, who has come in leaps and bounds since his move to the North East.

He would also be playing with a fellow Spurs academy player, Dennis Cirkin, who would be providing him crosses from left-back.

Sunderland recently appointed Regis Le Bris from Lorient, who had mixed success with the French club in Ligue 1.

Verdict - All in all, this would be a promising loan for the Spurs youngster, and they could certainly provide him with worse loans than Sunderland.