It’s a serious catch-22 for a club when they develop a player who they become so reliant on. On one hand the fans love to see a homegrown player lead their club and become a vital part of the team, but that reliance is an issue when they pick up injuries and leave the team looking for solutions.
It’s hard to argue that Spurs aren’t completely reliant on Harry Kane when it comes to leading the line and scoring most of their goals. They’ve had to deal with his absence in the past and tend to do okay, but they are so much better when he’s fit.
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A look at recent seasons shows his worst goal return is 24 goals in 40 games, so it looked inevitable that Jose Mourinho would build his team around him and expect Kane to lead the team in an attacking sense.
He’s going to have to find an alternative plan now that The BBC have reported he’s suffered a fairly serious injury. We don’t have an exact timescale just now, but it’s a torn hamstring which isn’t something you can play through or expect to heal quickly.
The back-up striking position has always been a problem for Spurs. It’s hard to find someone who is a quality player who is also willing to accept a back up role, so the recent examples of Vincent Janssen and Fernando Llorente demonstrate the difficulty of finding a decent back-up.
It will be fascinating to see if Mourinho will try to find a solution in his squad or if he will urge the board to sign a new striker, but you can’t deny this is a problem he could do without.