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Louise Thomas

Editor

Proven goalscorer Dominic Solanke can provide the clinical edge needed to help push Tottenham up into the top four, according to former England striker Les Ferdinand.

Spurs have been determined to expand their attacking armoury this summer and laid out an initial £55million for Solanke, who scored 21 times in all competitions for Bournemouth last season.

With fellow new recruits Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall also on board, boss Ange Postecoglou hopes his squad can push on from last season’s fifth place finish in the Premier League to challenge again for Champions League qualification.

Ferdinand, who joined Tottenham in 1997 from Newcastle and went on to win the League Cup, believes Solanke can continue to deliver in front of goal for his new club.

“I have watched Dominic for a few years now and he seems to progress and get better each each year,” Ferdinand told the PA news agency.

“Scoring 19 (league) goals in what was a struggling team last season only added to his reputation and what he was doing.

“He has been at Chelsea and Liverpool, so he has got some good clubs under his credentials.

“Going to Spurs now, with the way the team plays, they will have the supply line for him to feed on.”

Ferdinand added: “A lot of the fans get caught up with that the player has to come from a big club and cost £80m or £100m for it to be anything to talk about.

“He is a proven goalscorer in the Premier League and you get to a stage where he will feel it doesn’t matter where he goes, that he can score goals with the form he is in at the moment.

“With the direction Tottenham are going in, you can only see him as an asset to the football club – and the truth of the matter is, when you look around, there is not a lot who are much better than him.”

Australian coach Postecoglou remains determined to build a Spurs squad which can become regulars in the Champions League once again.

“He has brought a fresh feel to what Tottenham are doing, now people are going to start expecting things,” said Ferdinand, who is supporting Prostate Cancer UK’s Big Blue Bike Ride on September 8.

“He wants to make sure Tottenham are a team that are equipped to finish in that top four, year in, year out – not just one season and then fall out of it again.

“If there was a negative last year, it seems like we have only got one way of playing, he needs a ‘Plan B’.

“Now with the players that he is bringing into the team, he is being able to shape it in the way that he wants to.

“With the squad that Tottenham have got now, you would like to think they would be looking at eyeing up a top-four finish at least as a target for the season.”

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men.

One in eight men will get prostate cancer, a statistic which shortens to one in four for black men.

“We have known it as the thing that not many men talk about,” said Ferdinand.

“And when you think it, it is something like 12,000 men a year die from prostate cancer, then if is caught early enough, the majority of those lives could be saved.”

:: Les Ferdinand is supporting Prostate Cancer UK’s Big Blue Bike Ride, which returns to Windsor on September 8. Cycle 45 or 60 miles through the Berkshire countryside and help save men’s lives. To sign up, visit prostatecanceruk.org/get-involved/big-blue-bike-ride

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