New Tottenham signing Dominic Solanke will not be fit for Spurs’ first home game of the season against Everton on Saturday his manager Ange Postecoglou has confirmed.
The striker made his debut for the North London club on Monday night in Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Leicester City but came away from that clash with an injury.
Postecoglou confirmed to the press on Friday that the 26-year-old picked up an ankle issue and will miss Spurs’ first home game of the season on Saturday against Everton.
“Dom picked up a knock in the last game. He got through the game but it flared up the day after. He’ll miss tomorrow,” the Australian coach said via The Independent.
“It’s an ankle injury. He copped it really early on, someone went across his ankle. He’s definitely out tomorrow.”
This is a big blow for Tottenham as the North London club do not have strong options for the striker role and Postecoglou would have wanted Solanke to get up to speed as soon as possible. The Englishman’s injury means Everton is one less game to do so and it remains to be seen how long the former Bournemouth star is out for.
Huge season ahead for Dominic Solanke at Tottenham
Solanke joined Tottenham ahead of the 2024/25 campaign as part of a £65m deal with Bournemouth. The striker is the Harry Kane replacement Postecoglou didn’t receive last summer and the Australian coach will hope that he is half as good as the Spurs legend.
The 26-year-old had the best season of his career during the 2023/24 campaign and will now test himself at the highest level.
The Englishman is an intelligent footballer and is expected to make the step up at Tottenham, however, this ankle injury is not the ideal way to start his career at the North London outfit.
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Tottenham Hotspur are likely to be busy in the coming weeks as they look to get some more signings on board ahead of transfer deadline day.
Spurs have made two signings so far, landing Archie Gray and also securing the signing of Yang Min-hyuk, though he won’t join the squad until next year.
Tottenham still have a fair bit of work to do in the window, as they could do with a new striker, another midfielder and potentially another centre-back.
However, there will invariably be targets that will slip through the net and, according to a report, one such player has gone elsewhere.
He was said to be Ange Postecoglou’s “dream” signing in midfield and, if the report is true, Spurs have missed out due to a gamble that backfired.
Tottenham planned to swoop for Conor Gallagher in 2025
The player in question is Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher, who Tottenham have been linked with for a number of months now.
Dean Jones told GiveMeSport earlier this year that Gallagher is Spurs’ ‘dream’ signing in the number eight position.
However, the England international is now set for Atletico Madrid, who will sign him for just £36million, according to Fabrizio Romano.
Worse still, Romano has now revealed that Tottenham actually wanted to sign Gallagher in the summer of 2025, when his Chelsea contract would have expired.
Another big name on his way to Atletico Madrid is Conor Gallagher,” Romano said on his Daily Briefing.
“The Chelsea midfielder said yes to the La Liga giants after a complicated saga that took some time – he’s now agreed to the contract terms and will fly for his medical.
“The verbal agreement is in place, but all still waiting to get all signed in order to feel finally safe on this saga, it’s almost ten days now.
“Chelsea will make a guaranteed €40million from the sale of Gallagher.
It’s a good sale for them, especially as they preferred to sell him abroad even though he also had interest from Premier League clubs.
“Tottenham wanted him for next summer as a free agent, but no formal bid was sent to Chelsea this summer.”
Tottenham gamble backfires
Looking back, it beggars belief as to why anybody would have expected a player of Gallagher’s quality to wind up as a free agent next year.
Gallagher is not only a Chelsea-quality player, but he was often one of their standout players and even captained the team at times.
In addition, he is an England international who featured at Euro 2024 and, at 24 years of age, he’s yet to reach his prime as a midfielder.
Somebody was always going to snap Gallagher up before his contract expired. Atletico look to have won the race for just £36million.
And even if nobody went for him this summer, he’d have been able to seal a pre-contract agreement with a non-English club in January.
It’s a shame how badly this gamble has backfired, and now Tottenham will need to look elsewhere.
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