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Tottenham Hotspur should not be closing the chequebook yet, and they ought to make Victor Osimhen their headline signing of the summer.

Spurs have already spent heavily in this transfer window, but if they are genuinely intent on getting back to competing at the top end of the Premier League, further investment is required – and Osimhen should now be their top priority.

It is no secret that Tottenham need more cutting edge in attack, especially after Richarlison underlined exactly why he is not the answer with a disappointing display against Brentford in the opening match of the season, while Dominic Solanke’s injury history also makes him an option that cannot be fully relied upon.

Osimhen has for years been viewed as one of the finest striker talents in world football, but the question remains whether he has ever completely justified that billing. This feels like the moment for him to do so, and Tottenham could be the ideal club for that next step.

One of the biggest barriers preventing Victor Osimhen from moving to the Premier League in recent years has been the sheer scale of his wage expectations. That is arguably one of the chief reasons why he ended up at Galatasaray rather than sealing a move to one of Europe’s top five leagues.

The Turkish club paid around £35m up front for the Nigerian in the summer of 2025 after having him on loan the previous season. The agreement is also said to include a further £30m in add-ons, which would take the overall fee to roughly £65m.

Osimhen is also believed to earn in the region of £310,000 a week, which makes him an extremely costly player. For context, Tottenham’s wage bill has already changed significantly this summer following the arrivals of Sandro Tonali, on £200,000 per week, and Omar Marmoush, on £250,000 per week, although it remains unclear how much of that latter figure Spurs are covering during his loan from Manchester City.

Bringing in Osimhen would not only mean Spurs completely smashing their present wage structure, but they would also likely need to spend at least £100m on the 27-year-old.

Even so, given Tottenham’s current Financial Fair Play room for manoeuvre – helped in large part by the substantial income generated through the non-football events hosted at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – that level of spending is, in theory, possible.

Spurs have spent around £320m so far this summer. However, under the Premier League Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) rules introduced this season, clubs are permitted to commit 85% of total revenue to transfers and wages.

With that in mind, the Lilywhites could spend as much as £480m without breaching the regulations, having generated £565m in the last tax year, and that is before factoring in possible sales of players such as Richarlison, Pape Sarr and others who may yet leave.

After relatively modest spells at Charleroi in Belgium and Lille in France, Osimhen truly announced himself through his goalscoring brilliance at Napoli. There, he formed a devastating partnership with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and played a major role in helping the Italian club win the Serie A title for the first time in 33 years.

Osimhen scored 26 league goals during that 2022/23 season, along with another five in the Champions League. In the following campaign, he added 15 more in Serie A, and at that stage a move to the Premier League – particularly to Chelsea – appeared to be very much on the cards.

That transfer, though, collapsed because of Osimhen’s high wage demands. He turned down the move to Stamford Bridge, and a switch to the Saudi Pro League also broke down just before deadline day, leaving him stuck in limbo. The only club still willing to meet both his transfer fee and salary demands, and whose transfer window was still open, was Galatasaray.

Two years on, it is probably fair to say that Osimhen’s career feels slightly underwhelming. He has his goals, a Serie A title and a couple of Turkish league titles, but there is a strong sense that he could and should have achieved much more. He ought to have been testing himself in the Premier League, and it is difficult to fully place him among the very best strikers of his generation until he proves what he can do in England.

This summer, Osimhen is once again at the centre of heavy speculation surrounding his future. Reports in Turkey say Galatasaray have rejected a £128m bid from Al-Hilal. It is believed Osimhen would even have received a pay rise had he joined the Saudi side this summer, but money is no longer thought to be the main factor in his decision-making.

Instead, the indications are that Osimhen is open to a major transfer – one that can genuinely elevate his career. Arsenal have been mentioned as a possible destination. But it is the other half of North London that should really be catching the striker’s eye.

Under Roberto De Zerbi, Tottenham have returned to a smoother, more attack-minded style of football. Despite an underwhelming opening-day defeat to Brentford, there is still a strong belief that Spurs can compete near the top of the table this season, especially once their new signings settle in and De Zerbi’s ideas are fully embedded.

At present, it seems reasonable to assume that, if all goes to plan, Omar Marmoush will spearhead the attack for Spurs this season. But one elite player alone is not enough to reshape this side, and that is where Osimhen enters the picture. Having the Egypt international and Osimhen rotating may strike some as excessive, but it is exactly the sort of depth Tottenham require if they are serious about going toe-to-toe again with Arsenal and the rest of the Big Six.

For Osimhen himself, this system would also offer the perfect stage on which to display his qualities. Delivery from wide areas through players such as Pedro Porro, Destiny Udogie, Mohammed Kudus and new signing Savio would be ideal for a penalty-box finisher like Osimhen, who scores the bulk of his goals from inside the area. He is excellent in the air, so lofted crosses would be a major weapon, but he is equally capable of bringing the ball under control on the ground, creating room for himself and then applying his sharp finishing to convert.

It is true that chance creation has not been one of Tottenham’s strengths over the past couple of seasons. Yet even that may not be a major concern in Osimhen’s case, because he is so good at manufacturing openings out of nothing. The Nigeria striker possesses pace, power and an outstanding football brain, making him exactly the kind of explosive presence Tottenham have lacked for a very long time.

While Richarlison has generally depended on feeding off scraps inside the box, and Dominic Solanke relies heavily on team-mates making runs around him and opening up space, Osimhen has the ability to create something special in an instant.

Tottenham’s attacking options already look far stronger on paper, but the arrival of Osimhen would elevate a promising front line into one that could become close to unstoppable.