Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino looking for Harry Kane alternative in the academy, not the transfer window

Striking options | Pochettino and Tottenham are working to create another superstar from their academy
Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs
Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP19 January 2019

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has claimed it would be impossible to buy a striker to compete with Harry Kane this month and says the club is working to create another superstar from their academy.

With Lucas Moura and Moussa Sissoko also injured, Eric Dier still working his way back to fitness and South Korea's Heung-Min Son away at the Asian Cup, Pochettino is short of players for Sunday's league game at Fulham – the first of five matches in 14 days.

But the Argentine said he still a number of options up-front, including 16-year-old Troy Parrott (below) and 20-year-old Kazaiah Sterling, who skipped the U-23s game on Friday to train with the first-team squad.

"Yesterday I was watching Barcelona's 3-0 win over Levante and their striker was Leo Messi," Pochettino said.

Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images

"We can play Fernando Llorente, we can play Dele Alli, you can play Erik Lamela, you can play Sterling, Parrott. I don't know. We can play many players. It's not that you have to play with one specific striker. Chelsea played against us with [Eden] Hazard as a striker, when [Oliver] Giroud was on the bench and [Alvaro] Morata was out of the squad. We are so crazy, the managers, that sometimes we decide to do something different, no?

"I don't see it as a gamble [not to sign a forward]. I think in the end, if for another transfer window we don't sign players or we are not going to sign a striker, that is not going to be a gamble, it's not going to be a risk.

"I think we have players that can cope with that place when it's not Harry Kane available and of course if we want to find a player similar to Harry Kane, I think we are going to make a mistake because to find another Harry Kane is impossible because we are talking about one of the top three, four or five best strikers in the world. We have the possibility to create our new star through the academy. Of course that is our objective – to try to create the new star of Tottenham, to find him here in our academy, would be the most exciting thing."

To prove his side's ability to adapt, Pochettino said Spurs had already found a way to play without Mousa Dembele, who ended his six-and-a-half year association with the club on Thursday, joining China's Guangzhou R&F.

"If it’s Moussa in the middle of the pitch, what happens with his team-mates? They relax and give the ball to Moussa. It’s like when I am relaxed and I am talking with someone and Jesus arrives. I lose the focus and have to ask Jesus what he said. That’s a bit similar. It’s like give the ball to Moussa and he is going to fix the problem.

Five midfielders who could replace Mousa Dembele at Spurs

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"And of course as always we need to provide the team with a different capacity to win the ball and build from the back and have a different option. But the moment he is not in the team, you start to add different qualities. Maybe you have more capacity with Sissoko to add to the team more transitions, to have this powerful drive when he drives the ball. You have different qualities and you have to mix with the team and be consistent way and try to find a different way."

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