Spurs make contact to sign £47m Premier League “monster”

To put it lightly, it’s been a tumultuous few months or so for Tottenham Hotspur.

For example, Ange Postecoglou led the club to their first trophy in 17 years, only to be replaced by Thomas Frank a couple of weeks later.

The former Brentford manager will have his work cut out to try and get the club back towards the top of the Premier League next season, but Daniel Levy and Co can give him a helping hand by bringing in some major talent this summer.

Fortunately, that seems to be the plan, as reports have now linked Spurs with a forward who has won comparisons to the sensational Alexander Isak.

Tottenham Hotspur transfer news

Even though Spurs’ defence was a bigger problem this season, their attack wasn’t exactly fluid either, with six teams scoring more than them in the Premier League.

So, it’s not been much of a surprise to see the club linked with a host of frontline talent in recent weeks, like Bryan Mbeumo and Bradley Barcola.

However, with the former looking more and more likely to join Manchester United and the latter supposedly worth at least £101m, the Lilywhites might need to look elsewhere for attacking reinforcements.

Fortunately, another name has now entered the mix, someone with experience in the Premier League: Diogo Jota.

Yes, according to a recent report from journalist Matt Thielen, Spurs are one of several sides interested in the Liverpool star.

In fact, the reporter claims that the North Londoners have already made contact with the player over a potential move.

However, Newcastle United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and other teams outside the country have also made contact, and per reports from late April, Liverpool would want up to €55m for the player, which is about £47m.

It could be a complicated and costly transfer to get over the line, but given Jota’s ability and experience, it is one worth fighting for, especially as he’s won comparisons to Isak.

How Jota compares to Isak

Okay, so before we look at some of the other reasons why Spurs might want to go out and sign Jota this summer, we need to examine this comparison to Isak and where it has come from.

In this instance, it stems from FBref, which looks at players in similar positions across Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League, before creating a list of the then most comparable players for each one.

In this case, it was concluded that the Newcastle star has been the eighth most similar forward to the Liverpool star across the last 35 days.

The best way to see how this is worked out is by taking a look at the underlying metrics in which the pair rank closely, including but not limited to non-penalty expected goals plus assists, expected assists, clearances, blocks, progressive carries and more, all per 90.

However, while being compared to arguably the most sought-after and exciting striker in football today is certainly encouraging and an indication of the former Wolverhampton Wanderers star’s quality, it’s not the sole reason the Lilywhites should sign him.

In fact, the main reason that Levy and Co should be after him is his consistent output over the last few seasons.

For example, since the start of the 21/22 campaign, the 28-year-old “monster,” as dubbed by Liverpool blogger Si Steers, has scored 52 goals and provided 25 assists in 152 appearances, totalling 8,512 minutes.

That means the Porto-born dynamo has averaged a goal involvement every 1.97 games, or even more impressively, every 110.54 minutes, and that is the sort of output Frank could do with him in North London next season.

Ultimately, not only is Jota statistically similar to one of the best strikers in the world, but also someone with an excellent rate of output himself, and therefore, Spurs should do all they can to sign him this summer.

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