Will Lankshear has 15 goals in 16 games for Middlesbrough since leaving Tottenham in July, and with Spurs’ first-choice striker scoring just one Premier League goal this season, many fans are questioning whether the club have sold the wrong man.
The 21-year-old scored twice in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Charlton at the Riverside. This took him to the top of the Championship goalscoring charts with 13 league goals in 13 games, for a team sitting at the top of the table and unbeaten in 11 league matches.
North London’s Dominic Solanke is still waiting for his second league goal of the campaign. However, Tottenham win. That’s why we think the honest answer is more complicated than “getting it back.”
How good was Lankshear at Middlesbrough?
Simply put, he was the best striker in the division. Middlesbrough signed him on 22 July for a fee initially reported to be around £10 million, which could rise to £20 million with add-ons, and he scored twice on his league debut in a 2–1 win over Lincoln on 15 August.
It hasn’t stopped since. His header secured a 1–0 win over Wolves in the club’s 150th anniversary game on 10 October, and a 5–1 defeat at Bolton put Boro on top.
The Charlton game showed both sides of him. Just before the break, he cut through Sebastian Berhalter and slotted the ball past the keeper. Then, seconds after substitute Nathaniel Chalobah came on in the 82nd minute, he slipped and the ball fell to Lankshear, who smashed the ball into the top corner with his left foot.
Most of his goals are similar to the latter: right place, right time, the defender already moves without reacting. Head coach Kim Hellberg keeps things calm. “Of course I want to finish first or second, but for us it’s all about getting better” he said after the victory.
Not a one-season wonder
What makes it difficult for the Spurs to shrug off is that it’s not a hotline out of nowhere. On loan at Oxford United last season, Lancashire scored 11 Championship goals and 12 goals in all competitions in 44 games.
This was for a team that finished 22nd and was relegated to League One. He was still their top scorer and Oxford named him Young Player of the Season.
So in two years he has gone from scoring goals for the relegated side to chasing the leaders and continues to rise to every challenge thrown his way. We were asking Tottenham to keep him until July 2025 after his pre-season goal and the case has only gotten stronger since then.
Why Solanke is still leading the line for De Zerbi
The numbers on the other side don’t look good. Solanke, who cost £55m plus up to £10m in add-ons, managed three league goals in 15 injury-hit games last season and scored one in the Premier League this season.
Here’s a look at what happened after a series of games following the international break in October. Spurs won 2-0 at Stamford Bridge, then beat Crystal Palace 2-0 in 34 shots, their third league win in a row for the first time in 20 months. Much of that is in midfield and the £185m pairing of Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes is finally starting to look worth the money.
Although some have a focal point in the front. Solanke is pressing hard, holding the ball up and pinning the centre-backs and Roberto De Zerbi’s side look more settled with him. He doesn’t have to be the best number 9 Tottenham have ever seen.
Will Lankshear start now for Spurs?
The case for
Spurs put a lot of balls in the box and very few of them fall to the striker. Lankshear’s entire game is predicated on reading where the ball is going to land, a kind of six-yard-box instinct that you can’t really coach.
He is also only 21 years old. Had he never been a Tottenham player, the 21-year-old, who leads the Championship goalscoring charts, would be the kind of striker Premier League clubs will be scouting for in January. It took teenager Luca Williams-Barnett to excite the crowd in a high-creating, low-finishing attack against Sara.
Opposite work
The leap from the Championship to the Premier League is huge and every fan group can name a striker who took the riots down a notch and was never on top. Lankshear may be different, but nobody will know until someone puts him in a Premier League team week in and week out.
There is no shortcut back either. He’s not on loan, so there’s no January recall to discuss. He is currently a Middlesbrough player and if he continues like this, he will not be in a rush to sell.
Did Tottenham make a mistake selling Will Lankshear?
Our take: It’s too early to call it a mistake, but it’s fair to call it a risk that’s starting to look expensive. A striker scoring at this rate for the league leaders at 21 will be playing in the Premier League, whether with Boro or someone else, and has a decent chance of scoring against Spurs one day.
The bigger point is that the Lankshear debate is really about the level Solanke and Tottenham want to reach. If this team is good enough to win three in a row with a non-scoring forward, imagine him with a proven, high-profile No. 9. This is where the money is going next summer.
Until then, Solanke is De Zerbi’s confidant and the trip to Elland Road is his next chance to put that conversation to rest. Lankshear, meanwhile, are at Wrexham on Wednesday night and few would bet against him adding to that tally.