Soldado Off? Tottenham Target £33m Rated South American

In line with the production of Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and Hulk, Porto has one of the hottest strikers in Europe at the moment. Jackson Martinez has raised so much interest from abroad since joining Porto in 2012 to replace Radamel Falcao. He has scored 51 goals in 66 league matches for the Portuguese club and the recent interest from Tottenham is nothing but a positive move for the 27 year old striker and possibly a good move for the club especially with few options for Mauricio Pochettino upfront. Martinez has also been linked with a possible move to Napoli, Arsenal and Manchester United.

Roberto Soldado since his arrival in the English Premier League have struggled to produce the kind of consistent goal scoring form he had in La Liga and may soon be on his way out of White Hart Lane. He got relegated to the bench when Tim Sherwood was the interim manager of the club after been favourite to start ahead of Emmanuel Adebayor under Andreas Villas Boas. Harry Kane may have stepped up but he is still not in the class to help Tottenham fight for a champions league place leaving the lanky Togolese striker, Emmanuel Adebayor as the only dependable source of goal scoring for the north London team.

Martinez’s consistency in Porto cannot be overemphasised as he has shown on several occasions that he is good enough to try out his luck in the English Premier League. His adaptability to the Premier League is although in question as examples can be cited from some initial mouth-watering transfer deals. Shevchenko to Chelsea from Ac Milan, Alfonso Alves to Middlesbrough from the Dutch Eredevise and also Soldado to Tottenham from Valencia have all proved negative and the pressure will be on the 27 year old to replicate his form in England if he eventually makes the move. Despite the negativities, Tottenham Hotspur will hope to rely on the positive impact many other strikers have made on their arrival with Diego Costa of Chelsea the most recent.

The quest for a striker is of utmost importance for Tottenham’s manager Mauricio Pochettino who will be expecting his team to challenge for a top four finish this season. Jackson Martinez is a good target for the north London club and the Colombian striker will most likely be a big hit in a club like Tottenham. Tottenham have not been consistent with their results this season although there have been an overall improvement in their style of play. The arrival of Martinez will go a long way in creating necessary competition in the attack thus bringing out the best in the Colombian and other competitors which at the long run will help in building a formidable team for a top four finish in the league. On the other hand, it will also add the needed depth to the squad esoecially with their involvement in UEFA Europa league.