Tottenham have paid £65m for Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke - so does he follow a long line of great big-money signings?
Dominic Solanke has been a consistent threat for Bournemouth(Image credit: Alamy)
Tottenham have made Dominic Solanke one of their biggest-ever purchases after agreeing a transfer fee in the region of £65m with Bournemouth.
The former Chelsea and Liverpool centre-forward is a belated replacement for Harry Kane, who they sold to Bayern Munich last summer.
Like most Premier League clubs, Tottenham’s record with spending this kind of money has had its hits and misses over the years. Here’s the current top ten and how they got on at the club.
VIDEO Why Signing Archie Gray Was A Masterstroke By Spurs
Well, the jury’s out, naturally, given that the Leeds United youth product has only just made the move to the club this summer.
A versatile utility player most at home in central midfield but with experience at full-back, the dynamic youngster is part of the famous Gray family with links to Elland Road going back to the 1960s.
Gray has taken the step up from Championship level after establishing himself as a key player for Leeds last season, with their defeat to Southampton in the play-off final allowing Tottenham to swoop to give the 18 year old the Premier League move he presumably wanted.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
9. Moussa Sissoko (£30m, 2016)
Moussa Sissoko had good times under Mauricio Pochettino
The France international was already well-known to English fans when he made the move from Newcastle United in summer 2016 following the Magpies’ relegation to the Championship.
Sissoko had a tough time getting into the side in his first season at Tottenham but found his stride in 2017/18 and improved even further in 2018/19, when he was briefly considered one of the best midfielders in the Premier League. Sissoko helped Spurs reach the Champions League final and won Spurs’ player of the year award.
After recovering from several months out with a knee injury midway through the 2019/20 season, Sissoko returned to the line-up but fell out of favour as Jose Mourinho’s side laboured, and was sold to newly-promoted Watford for £3m in summer 2021. Not a bad investment by any means.
8. Micky van de Ven (£34.5m, 2023)
Micky van de Ven has been a great signing for Tottenham (Image credit: Getty Images)
The Dutch centre-back looks an absolute steal for Spurs so far following his arrival from German side Wolfsburg last summer.
Van de Ven has brought both pace and positional sense to a Spurs back line that has needed it in Ange Postecoglou’s unique brand of attacking football, and was one of the Premier League’s shrewdest signings last season.
Still just 23 years old, van de Ven still has plenty of good years ahead of him, and will be hoping to maintain the kind of form that saw him awarded the club’s player of the season award in his debut campaign.
7. Pedro Porro (£40m, 2023)
Pedro Porro arrived in 2023 after an initial loan (Image credit: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
That figure is slightly more complicated than that, as it includes the €5m initial loan fee Tottenham paid to bring the former Manchester City full-back in from Sporting, with a €40m obligation to buy in the summer.
Porro struggled to impress as he took his earliest steps at Tottenham, but has gone from strength to strength since then, starting all but three of Spurs’ Premier League games last season.
The Spaniard started the campaign in fine form for assists, notching up seven in his first 20 appearances, and when that dried up he become a goal threat instead, ending the campaign with three strikes in seven games. At 24, Porro looks like being been money well spent for Tottenham.
6. James Maddison (£40m, 2023)
Injury interrupted James Maddison's excellent start at Spurs
God, Spurs spent quite a bit last year, didn’t they? Again capitalising on a Premier League side’s relegation, Spurs held off interest from Newcastle United to land Maddison from Leicester City.
The attacking midfielder’s first season mirrored Tottenham’s as a club: an absolutely sensational start, with three goals and three assists in his first nine appearances, followed by a less convincing rest of the campaign.
In fairness to Maddison, he at least had a serious ankle injury to excuse him. Losing him midway through a 4-1 defeat to Chelsea proved to be an inflection point in Spurs’ season, and while Maddison’s stats on his return were respectable, he was unable to match the bar he had set for himself. The summer break may well have done him a lot of good, you suspect.
5. Davinson Sanchez (£42m, 2017)
Davinson Sanchez: not quite it
You wonder how much that transfer fee motivated Spurs to keep Davinson Sanchez around for six years, like stubbornly using a car you’re not quite happy with for years just to feel like you’ve got your money’s worth out of it.
Sanchez was not horrendous, but nor was he quite up to the standard Tottenham would have hoped for when they sanctioned what was then a club-record fee for the Colombian centre-back’s services, despite an initial strong start.
The shift away from a back three to a four was particularly deleterious to the erratic Sanchez’ form, and he left for Galatasaray in 2023 having played a diminished role following Mauricio Pochettino’s departure.
4. Cristian Romero (£42m, 2022)
Cristian Romero has impressed for Tottenham (Image credit: Getty Images)
Another successful loan-to-permanent deal, with Romero coming in from Atalanta on a season-long loan in 2021 – though in his case the permanent move appears to have been an option, rather than an obligation.
Triggering that clase proved to be a no-brainer for Spurs, and he has proven to be well worth the money… despite a disciplinary record that would make Patrick Vieira blush.
Romero has attracted transfer rumours since playing a key role in Argentina’s 2022 World Cup win, which have only amplified further after adding the Copa America this summer to boot. Real Madrid have been linked for ages…
3. Brennan Johnson (£47.5m, 2023)
Brennan Johnson has made a promising start at Tottenham, with room still to grow (Image credit: Alamy)
Another of those big-money arrivals in the same summer Spurs sold Kane, the Welshman had played a starring role in an eccentric Nottingham Forest side to help them get promoted and then stay in the Premier League.
It didn’t take long for talk of a potential big move to turn into reality, with Spurs splashing out to bring in Johnson.
So far he’s been more or less exactly what you would have expected for a winger taking another step up in level after being signed aged 22: occasionally brilliant, occasionally anonymous. His five-goal, 10-assist contribution last season was a promising start to build on, though.
2. Richarlison (£60m, 2022)
Richarlison had a poor first season at Tottenham amid personal struggles but was much better last term (Image credit: Getty Images)
The Brazilian has admirably made no secret of his struggles off the pitch during his first campaign at Tottenham, where he struggled to justify the hefty fee Spurs had paid to bring him in from Everton: just one goal in 27 Premier League appearances.
But last season was a return to exactly the kind of numbers that led Tottenham to sign Richarlison, as he chipped in with 11 goals and four assists.
The bulk of those goals came as part of a sensational run of form from December to February, but an injury-hit end to the season put an end to that. Richarlison has turned down a move to Saudi Arabia to stay and fight for his place at Tottenham.
1. Tanguy Ndombele (£63m, 2019)
Tanguy Ndombele was a disappointment for Tottenham
Ah, well, never mind, eh?
The midfielder remains the club’s record arrival five years on from arriving to bolster a side of Champions League finalists, but had fallen out of favour before the end of his first season at the club.
Ndombele showed some signs of improvement the following season, but a loss of fitness and form soon saw him return to disappointing sorts.
Spurs tried to cut their losses from 2022 with loans to Lyon, Napoli and Galatasaray, with a smaller and smaller number attached to the option-to-buy clause in each case; none of them bit, and Ndombele left as a free agent earlier this summer.
Steven Chicken has been working as a football writer since 2009, taking in stints with Football365 and the Huddersfield Examiner. Steven still covers Huddersfield Town home and away for his own publication, WeAreTerriers.com. Steven is a two-time nominee for Regional Journalist of the Year at the prestigious British Sports Journalism Awards, making the shortlist in 2020 and 2023.
