Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

News

HomeNewsEnglish Premier LeagueTottenham Hotspur

Carlton Cole says Tottenham have a ‘beautiful’ player who really reminds him of Hernan Crespo

Charles Jones

Tue 17 December 2024 16:45, UK

Dominic Solanke had big shoes to fill when he joined Tottenham in the summer.

Indeed, Solanke arrived as a c𒈔lub-record signing and as Harry Kane’꧅s long-term replacement, and that’s a huge task.

Ange Poste༺coglou told Solanke how he’d fit in🔜to his system when he arrived at Tottenham, and, so far, it’s been working ok.

Solanke has shown glimpses of brilliance, but, by-and-large, he has been inconsistent,

S💯peaking on the Joy of Football Podcast, Carlton Cole has praise Solanke as a player, claiming that his movement up front is beautiful and reminds him of Hernan Crespo🅷 when he was at Chelsea.

• READ MORE: Thierry Henry names what Gareth Bale did in a Tottenham shirt wh🐽ich he found simply ‘astonish🅘ing’

Dominic Solanke reminds Carlton Cole of Hernan Crespo

Cole spoke highly of Solanke and the way he leads the lin🔯e ꦓfor Tottenham.

The pundit says that Solanke’s moveme🍰nt actually reminds him of Argentina legend, Her♋nan Crespo.

“I loved Dom Solanke’s movement the otherꦰ night,” Cole said.

“So I’ll tell you why. Because it reminded me of what I saw. And this is a game I watched from the stands. I was in the squad, Hernan Crespo, against West ꦍHam at Upton Park. I think it was a 2004 or 2005 season.

“He’d gone in front of him, showed himself, then went behind him, then went in front of him like that again. Then the defender moved, then he went behind him, ball come in, goal. For me, that is. Those type of goals there, that is just beautiful for me when I’m looking at football. When I saw Dom Solanke ha♛lf done what he’d done, I was like, that’s beautiful.”

Dominic Solanke compared to Hernan Crespo

Creꩲspo is known as a football legend, but the comparison to Solanke is int𝓡eresting.

Indeed, Crespo and Solanke’ꦗs records in the Premier League are interesting to compare.

Solanke does have a 19-♌goal seaso🐽n to his name, but Crespo’s goal-to-game ratio is much greater.

That said, Crespo didn’t play much football in England, and in his first h𒊎alf-season at Chelsea he did get 10 goals in 1🙈9 games, a very impressive return.

Crespo was eventually phased out at Chelsea, replaced by Didier Drogba, a striker Wayne Rooney said was perfect.

Of course, Crespo achieved so much♛ in Italy that his🎉 CV is so much more impressive than Solanke’s.

If Solanke can achieve half as much as Crespo did during his storied career, Spu☂rs will have a star on their hands here, and, as Cole says, there are similarities in these two players’ games.