Tottenham may offer Fernando Llorente an improved contract

Fernando Llorente is a limited player, but he scored some massive goals for Tottenham last season. Spurs may be poised to bring him back to North London.

Tottenham’s lackluster start to the Premier League season has Mauricio Pochettino searching for answers. In particular, the clever Argentine is looking for ways to score against stubborn opponents who park the bus against Spurs. One way to do that is by employing a towering target man to simply overpower opposing centre backs.

Last year, Fernando Llorente was that player for Spurs. He’s nowhere near as dynamic as he was during his younger days, but he still has a real knack for finding the back of the net. Several of the goals he scored for Spurs during last year’s magical Champions League campaign will live on in Tottenham lore for quite some time.

Currently, the Spanish veteran is a man without a club. It’s quite possible Tottenham will try to change his status in the coming days. According to The Daily Mail, Pochettino is very concerned about his club’s lack of a Plan B late in tight matches. Last season, putting Llorente on the pitch was frequently Tottenham’s last roll of the dice.

The North London club have already offered Llorente one contract this summer, but the striker wasn’t keen on accepting a significant pay cut. It’s very possible that he will have more leverage in contract talks after Tottenham’s slow start. It’s not inconceivable to think that Spurs will give him another one-year deal at last year’s reported salary of £90,000 per week. That’s an overpay for what Llorente is worth at this late stage of his career, but Spurs are very short of other realistic options at this point in the season.

The only other legitimate option Pochettino has at his disposal is to promote 17-year-old Irish striker Troy Parrott to the first team. He lacks the size and stature to play as a target man, but his movement off the ball is a real strength. It does seem that Pochettino would prefer to let Parrott enjoy another full season of U23 football before promoting him to the first team.

If that’s the case, re-signing Llorente will be the club’s only path towards striker improvement until January. Don’t be remotely surprised if rumours connecting Spurs with another run at Llorente begin to pop up in advance of Sunday’s North London Derby. He isn’t a perfect solution for Pochettino, but he would give Spurs a Plan B they desperately lack at the moment.