Tottenham’s season has been dealt a hammer blow with the news that Harry Kane sustained ankle ligament damage in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester United.
The England striker came off worse in an encounter with Phil Jones and will not return to training until early March.
That means the 25-year-old could miss up to 11 games, including both legs of the Champions League last-16 tie against Borussia Dortmund and the Carabao Cup final, should Spurs overcome Chelsea in the semi-final second leg.
From a personal point of view, it’s a devastating setback for Kane’s hopes of winning a third Golden Boot in four years, currently sitting joint-top of the goalscoring charts with Mo Salah and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He will aim to return in time to play in the new stadium, which the club still hope will be opened in mid-March.
In the meantime, Daniel Levy has 15 days to weigh up whether to dip into the transfer market to fill the void. Mauricio Pochettino is no advocate of short-termism but he has been left desperately short, with Kane’s injury coinciding exactly with Son Heung-min’s departure for the Asian Cup.
It’s worth remembering that in two of the last five January windows, Spurs have declined to sign anyone. On the three other occasions, they have made just one addition – Lucas Moura in 2017/18, Shilow Tracey in 2015/2016 and Dele Alli in 2014/2015, with the latter loaned back to MK Dons for the remainder of the campaign.
That could be about to change, depending on the outcome of Pochettino’s meeting with Levy today.
Spurs have five options to cope with Harry Kane’s absence...
Troy Parrott
The 16-year-old is one of the standouts in the Academy. The young Dubliner has already trained with the first team, though the feeling is he’s just that bit too young to be called up.
The north Londoners have coped without Kane before, but that was usually with Son filling in. It’s going to be a long three weeks before the Korean’s return.
Loan options
It seems very unlikely that Spurs would make a permanent signing who would then struggle for minutes as soon as Kane returned. The Guardian have suggested Barcelona would be willing to loan unsettled Brazilian Malcom for the remainder of the season. The forward has been linked with Spurs in the past but they couldn’t finance his wages. Yet, since his move to the Nou Camp, he has scored just once in all competitions this season and probably isn’t the goal machine the Lilywhites are looking for.
Alli/Lamela as a false nine
Pochettino would prefer to utilise his current attacking options and the responsibility may fall on Alli’s shoulders, given that Lamela still has to be nursed and can rarely complete 90 minutes. The playmaker has been used as a false nine previously, especially in the domestic cups when Kane has been rested.
Fernando Llorente
Llorente hasn’t started a league game this term and his four goals came from a strike in the League Cup against West Ham, and a hat-trick against Tranmere in the FA Cup. The 33-year-old was actually hoping to leave in the coming weeks, potentially returning to his native Spain, but that is now going to be difficult.
Vincent Janssen
One solution that many fans would have liked to see, but which now seems impossible, is a comeback for the misfit 24-year-old. The Dutchman scored for the under-23s against West Ham but Pochettino confirmed, rather curtly, after the United game that he is not in his plans. It’s thought that the manager has been left unimpressed by his work ethic in training.
