Andre Villas-Boas
Spurs boss ANdre Villas-Boas is hoping to win the race to sign Joel Pohjanpalo. [Reuters]

Tottenham Hotspur are the latest club to be linked with a potential bid for HJK Helsinki striker Joel Pohjanpalo who has already held talks with Liverpool and Monaco.

The 18 year old was previously invited to train with the Liverpool youth team last season but remained with his hometown club and went on to hit the headlines after scoring a hat-trick in just three minutes on his debut.

Despite spending a week with Liverpool just over 12 months ago, and going on trial at Monaco, it appears that Tottenham are the favourites to seal a deal for the highly-rated young striker.

The Daily Mirror reports that Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas wants to secure the signature of Pohjanpalo and is prepared to make an initial offer of £1m.

Reports suggest that the deal could be agreed within the next week as Tottenham look to improve their attacking options with a player who could be ready to compete for a spot in the first team squad.

Spurs are short of out-and-out strikers with just Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor the only senior players available to Villas-Boas, while Harry Kane struggled to make an impression on his two loan spells last season.

Liverpool and Monaco are still said to hold an interest in the striker but neither club can match Spurs in offering European football, though the recently promoted Ligue 1 side have big ambitions after spending more than €100m already on transfers.

Pohjanpalo may be relatively untested but he has already demonstrated his potential, scoring 19 goals in all competitions for Helsinki last season and earning his first international cap for Finland in the 3-0 win over Cyprus in November last year.

Should Tottenham secure the services of the striker then it would be their second signing of the summer after breaking their transfer record just over a week ago when they signed midfeilder Paulinho for £17m from Corinthians.