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Tottenham will not sign a striker in January

By Rucker Haringey

LEICESTER, ENGLAND - JANUARY 20: Joshua Onomah of Spurs and Mauricio Pochettino the manager of Spurs celebrate following their team's 2-0 victory during the Emirates FA Cup Third Round Replay match between Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur at The King Power Stadium on January 20, 2016 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
LEICESTER, ENGLAND - JANUARY 20: Joshua Onomah of Spurs and Mauricio Pochettino the manager of Spurs celebrate following their team's 2-0 victory during the Emirates FA Cup Third Round Replay match between Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur at The King Power Stadium on January 20, 2016 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images) /
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Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is preparing Spurs fans for the club not to sign a striker in January

The one glaring need Tottenham Hotspur have to fill in the January transfer window is their backup striker position. Spurs have no cover for the spectacular Harry Kane and would benefit greatly from providing him a qualified backup. Unfortunately for Spurs fans (such as myself), reading between the lines of Mauricio Pochettino’s latest comments make it clear Tottenham will not sign a striker in January.

I’ve been heading towards this conclusion for several weeks, but was stubbornly holding out hope that Daniel Levy would splash the cash to back the manager. At various times over the past several weeks I’ve thought we would ultimately end up with Saido Berahino, Sandro Ramirez or at least Mousa Dembele. Pochettino’s words have now convinced me that no help is coming.

His latest comments that referenced his disastrous Dani Osvaldo signing at Southampton are the final straw for me. The manager is making it clear that he will not bring in any player who will risk the harmony of the Tottenham dressing room. He sincerely fears adding a character like Osvaldo to his current squad and risking his carefully built squad’s culture.

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It’s not the first time Pochettino has made comments that have made me think we weren’t going to sign a striker. After Tottenham’s FA Cup win over Leicester he openly admitted that he wanted Hueng-Min Son to play well enough to relieve the need to purchase another attacker. Perhaps his one goal, one assist performance versus the Foxes was enough to allay any of Pochettino’s fears.

If we’re being honest with ourselves Pochettino hasn’t said a single thing about adding a striker that should raise any optimism regarding an incoming purchase. He’s repeatedly said he’s happy with the squad and he values its happiness over spending money on an addition. It’s just us, as the Spurs fan base, that’s failed to heed his message between the lines.

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He’s even specifically reminded us that the club has a new stadium to pay for and can’t afford a serious mistake. Sure, per Pochettino we’d pay 20 to 25 million pounds for a player who would impact us like Gareth Bale, but that type of player isn’t coming to White Hart Lane for that price.

What is unclear is whether or not Pochettino really doesn’t think we need a striker or if he’s just adhering to the party line. It’s entirely possible that he would like to add a striker, but Levy has informed him that the targets he wants are out of the club’s current price range. We may not like that reality, but we have to at least acknowledge that it’s possible.

The reality this leaves us with is that Tottenham will head into the second half of the Premier League season with just one pure, experienced striker on its roster. Harry Kane will need to play like Batman for Tottenham to mount a title challenge. He’ll just need to play like Robin to keep Spurs in the top four.

Time will tell if this will go down as a wise strategy by Spurs or if this will be Daniel Levy’s greatest failing as the Tottenham chairman. I hope that no matter what the reality is, that Pochettino feels fully supported by the club.

This is an article I’ve written fully hoping to be wrong. I want to see a quality signing at striker come into Tottenham in the next two weeks, but it’s just not the logical conclusion at the moment. Pochettino has given us repeated clues that we won’t sign a striker in this transfer window. It’s up to us whether or not we’ll listen to what he’s saying.

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