Alderweireld Challenges Spurs to Secure Osimhen Over Arsenal

Toby Alderweireld has thrown down a challenge to his former club. If Tottenham are serious about climbing back to the top, he says, they should go and take Victor Osimhen away from Arsenal.

The former Spurs centre-back believes the Galatasaray striker is exactly the kind of ruthless finisher Roberto De Zerbi’s new-look side still lack, even after a lavish summer of spending.

Tottenham only just escaped a relegation scrap last season. It was ugly, it was nervous, and it exposed a glaring issue: they didn’t score enough. The response from the board has been dramatic.

They have already smashed their transfer record twice, landing Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali for a combined £185 million. Jan Paul van Hecke, Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka have also arrived to stiffen the spine and add experience across the pitch.

Yet for all that money, one hole remains.

A Centre Forward

Spurs have been linked with wide attackers such as Savinho, Cody Gakpo and Pedro Neto, but Alderweireld is adamant that the club’s priority has to be a true No 9.

“Spurs could use a striker like Victor Osimhen, they need his goals because it’s what they lacked last season as well,” he told Hajper, cutting straight to the point.

The 25-year-old Nigerian has become one of Europe’s most feared strikers, and that profile has inevitably drawn interest from the Premier League’s elite. Arsenal have been strongly linked, while Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are all watching the situation.

Alderweireld knows the concerns those clubs share.

“The only concern for clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United is maybe his age. He’s not the youngest player anymore and it seems like everyone wants to find a 23-year-old superstar who can bang in goals for the next seven or eight years, and I understand that, but you also need a good mix.”

That “mix” is something he keeps coming back to. For him, it is not a theory, it is lived experience.

He points to his days at Ajax as the perfect example of how a dressing room should be built.

“That’s why it can be important to sign proven players who know how things go so they can bring on the younger, potential superstars alongside them, because they can set the best example,” he explained.

“I think about my time at Ajax. The mix was on another level. We had Dusan Tadic and Daley Blind and Frenkie De Jong and Matthijs de Ligt coming through. That’s what you need.”

In other words: sign the finished article as well as the next big thing. Let the stars of today drag the stars of tomorrow up to their level. For Alderweireld, Osimhen fits that bill perfectly for Tottenham.

Getting him, though, is another matter.

The Nigeria international is firmly on Arsenal’s radar. Reports suggest Galatasaray recently approached the Gunners to discuss possible deals for Gabriel Martinelli and Ethan Nwaneri, while floating Osimhen as part of the conversation. The idea of a complex swap has been raised, but at this stage there are no active negotiations.

Osimhen, for his part, is saying nothing that would inflame the market. Asked about the growing noise around his future, he kept it brutally simple.

“I’ll focus on my job,” he said last week. “We’ll see and think about what comes next then.”

So the window ticks on. Tottenham have rebuilt almost every line of their team, yet the most important question still hangs in the air.

Who will finish the chances for De Zerbi’s side when it really matters – and will Spurs dare to wrest that answer away from their north London rivals?