KEY POINTS

  • King scored 16 Premier League goals last season but Jermain Defoe arrival jepordises position.
  • Spurs have been linked with move for King this summer but Mauricio Pochettino yet to make a single signing.

Tottenham Hotspur should consider moving for Bournemouth striker Josh King to provide backup for Harry Kane, according to former midfielder Jermaine Jenas. Mauricio Pochettino has not made a single signing this summer and one of the areas which requires addressing is in attack where the burden remains on Kane to fire Spurs to success.

The England forward scored 29 in the top flight last year but Vincent Janssen - the Netherlands hitman signed last summer and charged with providing adequate support to Kane - netted just twice in the league.

Though Kane fired a blank in Tottenham's opening Premier League game of the season against Newcastle United, Dele Alli and Ben Davies struck in the second half to delivery victory for Pochettino's men.

Yet there remains a lack of options behind Kane, and Jenas feels signing King, who scored 16 times last term, would be the most logical move.

"I like Josh King, I really do," he told The Sport Review. "He had a really good spell at Bournemouth towards the end of last year. I think he's a player they probably could get, especially now Jermaine Defoe has gone to Bournemouth. He [King] fits the bill perfectly.

"Harry Kane is one of the best strikers in the world, he's in that ilk now with Luis Suarez and so on. I think that having somebody to back him up like Josh King, who knows what it's like to come off the bench because he does it at Bournemouth, and who has genuine quality... he would be a player who I personally would like to see go to Spurs."

Earlier this summer Robbie Fowler, the former Liverpool and Manchester City striker, claimed that Tottenham were keen on acquiring King but it remains to be seen whether that interest will be firmed up. The Norway international has himself spoken of being intrigued by the alluring glances made by the north Londoners.

"I was focusing on the season and finishing it strongly," the 25-year-old told the Bournemouth Echo of the speculation. "But I would be a liar if I said I hadn't noticed it. It was in most papers in England and you have got people tagging you and sending you links here and there. I was intrigued even being mentioned in the same sentence as Spurs, a big team who play in the Champions League."

Pochettino is running out of time if he wants to make King part of his plans for the summer, with less than three weeks remaining of the transfer window before the deadline on 31 August. Tottenham are the only side in the Premier League not to have enhanced their squad and the Argentine fears his current squad may not be pushed to improve without the sufficient depth.

Josh King
King hit the back of the net 16 times in the Premier League last season. Getty Images