Although Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi has been a big Dominic Solanke backer since he arrived at N17, the fan base has been quite sour on the striker. He had a strong purple patch briefly in the 2025/26 season after returning from a lengthy foot injury, but it did not take long for him to go back to struggling mightily - and then he got injured, too.
But because Solanke got injured before he actually got a chance to start working with De Zerbi, the manager continued to back him. Although many fans wanted Richarlison to stay over Solanke after the Brazilian helped lead the team to survival and literally led the team with 11 Premier League goals last season, Richy himself was lukewarm with De Zerbi nudging towards Solanke instead, and then his poor performance against Brentford combined with Solanke's stronger display against Charlton Athletic gave De Zerbi the justification he needed to pull the trigger.
While Tottenham have been unable to formally sell Richarlison, the deed is as good as done, in a sense, as the fallout of the transfer saga led to De Zerbi sparring with Richy and not even registering him in the first team squad.
Dominic Solanke isn't banking on his chances
But Dominic Solanke has failed to take advantage of his big chance. He is not the main striker option over new addition Omar Marmoush, but he got a chance to start recently against Everton, with Roberto De Zerbi giving the England international a big chance. And he royally screwed it up, standing out as the worst player on the pitch and somehow even struggling worse than Mathys Tel at his lowest point.
A lot of people point to the 2023/24 season at Bournemouth that made Tottenham Hotspur spend a then record 65 million pounds to sign the former touted Liverpool and Chelsea product from the Cherries, but those 19 goals in the 2023/24 campaign look more and more like a fluke.
Because, looking back, Solanke has never come close to that in the Premier League, neithe before 2023/24 with any other club or since then at Tottenham. He has not been remotely a scoring threat, and the Everton game really exposed how inept he is at actually getting into the box to finish off chances or to play as a scoring striker for a top Premier League team.
He was lucky that season at Bournemouth, and his luck has run out and been exposed. Tottenham fans can't look at that season as a credit to Solanke or a reason to think he can score 19 again. It was a fluke, and Spurs do not play the same friendly counterattacking that leads to clear chances in easy games. Solanke has to win like a real striker for an elite club, and he just can't do that.
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