Dominic Solanke’s journey at Tottenham has taken another step forward ahead of the start of the Premier League season.
The striker, signed for an initial fee of £55 million ($71 million) from Bournemouth with a possible future add-on of £10 million ($13 million), has been revealed as the club’s new No. 19 after Tottenham’s squad numbers for the new campaign were confirmed.
Solanke, who will start for Spurs in their first game of the new EPL season against Leicester on Monday, joined the club on a six-year contract on August 10.
The 26-year-old is expected to lead the attack against Leicester and will hope to continue his prolific goalscoring form that saw him net 77 times in 216 appearances in all competitions for Bournemouth.
However, his choice of shirt number has surprised some Tottenham fans, with some quick to point out that the previous owner of the number 19 was regarded as a failure.
Let’s hope it doesn’t have the same impact as it did in Sessegnon.
Solanke was given the choice of the number 19 shirt after it was vacated in the summer by the outgoing Ryan Sessegnon.
Sessegnon joined Tottenham in 2019 after impressing as an academy graduate at Fulham, but his spell with the club was limited to just 57 appearances and marred by injury problems.
Sessegnon left on a free transfer at the end of the season and subsequently joined his former club Fulham on a two-year contract.
Responding to a video of Solanke’s jersey unveiling on X (Twitter), one fan simply posted: “Hopefully it won’t have the same impact it had on Sessengnon.”
Hopefully it won’t have the same impact it had on Sessengnon.
— Daniel Cox (@dancox1986) August 16, 2024
Others were baffled by Solanke’s failure to pick the other possible 11 or 12 options, both of which were free following the departures of Bryan Gil and Emerson Royal from the club.
So random number but we move!
— Lukas (@Lukas___B) August 16, 2024
However, Solanke can take heart from the fact that there have been more successful No. 19s at the club, with Mousa Dembele and Adel Taarabt among those to have worn the number for Spurs previously.
