Alderweireld Challenges Spurs to Steal Osimhen from Arsenal

Toby Alderweireld has thrown down a challenge to his former club: if Tottenham are serious about their revival, go and steal Victor Osimhen from under Arsenal’s nose.

The ex-Spurs defender believes the Galatasaray striker is exactly the profile Roberto De Zerbi needs to complete his rebuild in north London, after a season that nearly ended in disaster.

Tottenham only just escaped a relegation fight last term. Since then, they have spent like a club determined never to flirt with the drop again. They have smashed their transfer record twice in one window, landing Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali for a combined £185 million, a statement of intent as bold as anything seen in the Premier League this summer.

Defensive and structural pieces have already arrived. Jan Paul van Hecke, Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka have all come through the door, giving De Zerbi a new spine to work with. But the glaring hole remains up front. Spurs know it. Alderweireld knows it.

"Spurs could use a striker like Victor Osimhen, they need his goals because it’s what they lacked last season as well," he told Hajper, cutting straight to the heart of the issue.

Tottenham have flirted with wide forwards in recent windows, being linked to the likes of Savinho, Cody Gakpo and Pedro Neto. All exciting. All useful. None of them a pure No 9 in the Osimhen mould. For Alderweireld, that is the key distinction. Wide forwards decorate a team. A ruthless centre forward defines it.

The Belgian also touched on the one factor that might give the Premier League’s elite pause.

"The only concern for clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United is maybe his age. He’s not the youngest player anymore and it seems like everyone wants to find a 23-year-old superstar who can bang in goals for the next seven or eight years, and I understand that, but you also need a good mix."

That “mix” is not just a cliché for him; it’s lived experience. He reached back to his days at Ajax to explain why a dressing room needs both hardened professionals and emerging stars to truly function.

"That’s why it can be important to sign proven players who know how things go so they can bring on the younger, potential superstars alongside them, because they can set the best example," he said.

"I think about my time at Ajax. The mix was on another level. We had Dusan Tadic and Daley Blind and Frenkie De Jong and Matthijs de Ligt coming through. That’s what you need."

In other words, a player like Osimhen is not just about goals. He is a reference point. A standard-setter. The kind of forward younger attackers learn from in training every day.

Arsenal lurking, Spurs watching

Getting him, though, is another matter entirely.

Osimhen, a Nigeria international with a fearsome reputation in Europe, has drawn strong interest from Arsenal. The Gunners have already been in Galatasaray’s orbit, with reports suggesting the Turkish club recently sounded them out over Gabriel Martinelli and Ethan Nwaneri, even floating the idea of Osimhen as part of broader discussions.

For now, those talks have not moved into active negotiations. The door, at least in theory, remains open.

That is where Alderweireld wants Spurs to walk through. A club that has already committed huge money to its midfield and defence now faces a defining call in attack: double down and bring in a proven finisher, or trust that goals will emerge from the committee of forwards already in the building.

Osimhen, for his part, is giving nothing away. Asked about the speculation last week, he kept his response clipped and professional.

"I’ll focus on my job," he said. "We’ll see and think about what comes next then."

Tottenham have rebuilt almost everything else. The question now is whether they are prepared to take on Arsenal directly for the striker who could turn survival into ambition.