What could have been? Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou makes Ivan Toney transfer admission after £65m Dominic Solanke deal

Tottenham zeroed in on Solanke in their quest to find a suitable replacement for the club's all-time top scorer, Harry Kane, after the Three Lions skipper left for Bayern Munich in 2023. The Lilly-whites had quite a few options on the table and among them was former Brentford striker, Toney.

However, Toney chose to shift base to Saudi Arabia following a £40m ($51m) move to Al-Ahli in the summer. This forced the North London club to look at other options and they finally chose to spend a club-record £65 million ($83m) on Solanke.

"We did look at him [Toney] but Dom was the one we wanted that fitted the profile we were looking for at the time," said Postecoglou.

Solanke has misfired in his first two Premier League appearances but Postecoglou is not concerned and replied: "Just take a breath, do a little bit of yoga, think about the world for a second and then make an assessment after. We don't have to rush to make a judgement all the time because the alternative is he may have got off to a great start, he is fit, scored in all four games, is flying and then he goes through a patch like all strikers where he doesn't score.

"I just don't look at those things. What I look at is he has come in, fitted really well and quite logically has picked up an injury that has disrupted the way he wanted to start his career, but he's still got plenty of time for that."

According to TBR Football, Arsenal were also keen on signing Toney. His representatives met with the Gunners' sporting director Edu around Easter but the talks fell through.

Solanke will be eager to prove his doubters wrong by scoring a goal or two when Tottenham host Brentford in a London derby on Saturday afternoon. They have won just once in the first four league matches and three points against the Bees would hand them a major boost in their top-four ambitions.