Tottenham fans, let’s take you back to early January 2020, when Harry Kane, the centrepiece of everything Spurs do, injured himself for 67 days.
Suffering a thigh problem, the England international spent longer away from a football pitch than he had previously done in his career, missing 14 games (he’d previously missed 11 twice in 2013 and 2016).
Instead of bringing in a direct replacement, however, Tottenham decided to spend £27m on Steven Bergwijn late on in the transfer window, with Mourinho lining up a variety of players in the striker role to keep his opponents on his toes.
Lucas Moura, Son Heung-min and the now forgotten Dele Alli all stepped in, and Spurs were faced with the same problem in the summer, eventually settling on Carlos Vinícius on loan from Benfica.
All this doesn’t mean they didn’t try and bring a striker in that January, however, as Krzysztof Piątek revealed he was supposed to head to London back when he was still at Milan, before his move to Hertha BSC.
Speaking to Prawda Futbolu, relayed by Interia Sport, he said: “I don’t know if I can talk about it, but Milan must have received an offer from Tottenham to loan me for 1.5 years. That was when Harry Kane was injured and I was supposed to replace him for the first three months. However, Hertha were more specific.
“They immediately spent a lot of money, offered a definitive transfer and a 4.5-year contract. Everything was in order. Their determination was enormous, it convinced me”.
The Bundesliga side ended up spending around £21.6m on the Poland international that transfer window, which the player has struggled to live up to, scoring just 11 goals in 40 appearances in all competitions, as well as assisting teammates three times.
Perhaps a bullet dodged by Tottenham, then.
