Tottenham warned off ‘underwhelming’ striker club insider rates below Richarlison | OneFootball

Tottenham insider John Wenham has warned the club that a striker they are targeting would be an “underwhelming” signing and he’s no better than Richarlison.

Spurs are continually being linked with attackers in the latter stages of the summer transfer window. Cody Gakpo, Savinho and Folarin Balogun appear high on the radar, if reports are to be believed.

Our friends at TEAMtalk have suggested the latter is open to a move to north London, with a Premier League return firmly on his radar.

But Tottenham insider Wenham is not enamoured with the potential signing.

He told Tottenham News: “I’m not overly convinced on Balogun.

“When those first reports came out from L’Equipe and the French media linking us with Balogun, the numbers in Ligue 1, which I don’t rate that highly as a division, were not that great.

“I know he’s got a couple in the Champions League as well, but it would be a bit of an underwhelming signing.

“That would be showing me that we’ve missed out on maybe the targets we had as the first and second-choice signings.

“I don’t know if I even rate Balogun above Richarlison, to be honest with you.”

€50m could be enough

But the aforementioned report from our friends over at TEAMtalk details how Spurs are the frontrunners for Balogun, suggesting they are indeed going to press on with their interest.

Their information is that a fee in the region of €50-60million (£43-51m) could be enough for Monaco to allow the USMNT man to depart.

There have been enquiries from other clubs, such as Galatasaray, and some in the Saudi Pro League, while Newcastle are also known admirers.

However, with Balogun already having signalled his willingness to join Tottenham, it’s not hard to see why the north London club are the side to beat in the pursuit.

As for a comparison with Richarlison, last season, the Spurs striker bagged 12 goals and assisted five more in all competitions last season. Balogun scored 19 and assisted five, so the numbers aren’t massively dissimilar.

But Balogun also represented USA at the World Cup, scoring three goals and assisting once. He’s also four years younger than Richarlison, at 25, so should not have reached his prime yet and therefore could create a larger gap between himself and the Brazilian.