Jamie O’Hara thinks that Spurs re-signing striker Fernando Llorente is not a forward-thinking move – and the club should be looking to push on after reaching the Champions League final last season.
Llorente, who joined Tottenham from Swansea City in the summer of 2017, is out of contract after his two-year deal expired on 30 June, but has been offered fresh terms in order for him to remain in North London for a further year.
With Harry Kane out injured with an ankle injury, the World Cup winner played a major part in helping Tottenham reach the final in Madrid, scoring against both Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City before coming on as a half-time substitute against Ajax in the semi-finals to help turn the tie in Tottenham’s favour.
But his Premier League form was far less impressive – Llorente has netted just twice in 36 league games for Spurs – and despite his crucial moments in Europe, O’Hara, who won the League Cup with his boyhood club in 2008, would no be happy to see the Spaniard sign a new deal.
Speaking to TalkSport, O’Hara said: “It’s a tough one because the hardest thing in football is to get top strikers, especially for cheap. Probably Spurs are thinking we’ll get one in or something will come up and they have probably found it difficult, so they are perhaps looking at it that Llorente did score important goals for them last season.
“I don’t think it’s a forward-thinking move for a football club. Llorente will be happy with the deal because he’s 34 and they have probably offered him £60k-a-week. He’ll probably look at it and think ‘It’s another season playing at the top level’.
“But for Spurs it’s not a forward-thinking move. They recently reached the Champions League final. They have talked about that they really want to push on now. I don’t think Llorente is that.”
Llorente is not in Asia with the rest of the squad and is thought to be weighing up his options before making a final decision in the coming weeks.
I have a lot of time for O’Hara. He talks well and is usually fairly good with his analysis. But I disagree with him over Llorente.
Llorente
Te is asked to do a near impossible job. Play very rarely and score goals when you do. Many times last season he saved our skins, and yes fluffed his lines too. But when it mattered, he turned up.
He doesn’t complain, accepts his role and seems to enjoy it.
Whilst we have young Parrott coming through, it would be wrong to go out and buy another mediocre Jansen. No good striker of worth will join, unless he sits on a bench for £300,000 a week. And then how effective would he be?
Sorry Llorente does a sound job, and adds to the squad not weakens it.