Mourinho also did not confirm whether Dele Alli will play in Thursday’s Europa League play-off home game against Maccabi Haifa
Thursday 1 October 2020 07:09, UK
Tottenham head coach Jose Mourinho believes the club will sign a new striker before the summer transfer window shuts on Monday.
Harry Kane is the only recognised centre-forward in Spurs' first-team squad this season, with deputies Heung-Min Son and Gareth Bale currently unavailable.
Tottenham have been linked with moves for Bournemouth's Josh King, Napoli's Arkadiusz Milik and Torino's Andrea Belotti, but Mourinho is confident the club will secure a natural back-up striker to Kane before Monday's 11pm deadline.
Mourinho said: "I am optimistic, but more than that the feeling that I like is that we are trying everything to do it.
"You succeed or you don't succeed. It's like a football match: you win or you don't win but you give everything and try everything. The transfer market is the same.
"I like the feeling that my club is trying to do everything for us and for the team, that's the most important thing for me.
"If we succeed then great - I believe so - but if we don't then that's football."
Transfer speculation continues to surround Dele Alli after he was left out of Tottenham's matchday squad for their Carabao Cup fourth-round win over Chelsea on Tuesday - the second successive match he has missed.
Mourinho did not confirm whether the England midfielder will be involved for Thursday's Europa League play-off home match against Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa, but praised the 24-year-old's professionalism and attitude with his future uncertain at the club.
He said: "I cannot confirm whether Dele is playing [against Maccabi Haifa] tomorrow, but I also cannot confirm that he is not playing.
"We still have a training session today and we still have decisions to make.
"The only thing I can say is that he's being very professional. I have only respect to him; he's being very professional.
"Even yesterday when the team was preparing for a game and he wasn't, a lack of motivation and even a lack of professionalism for his training session would've been perfectly acceptable, but it was exactly the opposite.
"He trained really well and hard yesterday so he has my respect and the respect of his team-mates, so it's possible that he plays tomorrow."
Sky Sports News reporter Kaveh Solhekol told The Transfer Show:
"Reading between the lines, it sounds like Dele Alli could be involved tomorrow night. He's been left out of four of the last five squads.
"Jose Mourinho has been challenging him to prove that he was worth a place in the Spurs squad and judging by what Mourinho has said today, Alli has risen to that challenge. He says Alli had been professional, training very hard and had his respect and the respect of his team-mates.
"It sounds like it's possible that Dele Alli could be back tomorrow."
