Dominic Solanke’s journey to becoming Tottenham Hotspur’s £65million ($85.1m) club-record signing has not been conventional.
When he was scoring goals for fun as a teenager in Chelsea’s academy, training alongside Didier Drogba and Diego Costa with the first team, it was assumed he would make a smooth transition into becoming one of the best strikers in the Premier League.
It took a lot longer than was expected. Solanke made one appearance for his boyhood club and a promising move to Liverpool did not work out either.
The centre-forward rebuilt his career with Bournemouth and arrived at Spurs as Harry Kane’s replacement this summer. Ange Postecoglou will hope he plays a leading role in his revolution.
Missing a glorious chance on his debut away to Leicester City and suffering an ankle injury that ruled him out of their next two games was not the ideal start to his Spurs career.
The good news is that Postecoglou confirmed on Friday afternoon that he has trained this week and has a chance of being fit enough to face Arsenal on Sunday. Solanke will become an instant hit with Tottenham’s supporters if he scores in a win against their north London rivals — it would be the perfect way to celebrate turning 27 on Saturday.
Solanke joined Chelsea’s academy as an under-8. He was chauffeured from his home on the outskirts of Basingstoke to training by Adi Viveash, who held a variety of roles in Chelsea’s youth-team set-up for nearly a decade, including as head coach of the under-18’s and then the under-21s.
Solanke won the FA Youth Cup twice with Chelsea and scored in the 2015 UEFA Youth League final when they beat Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2 in Switzerland. He was named their academy player of the season in 2014-15 after he scored 41 goals.
“Arsene Wenger saw him in an FA Youth Cup semi-final,” Viveash, who left his role as Coventry City assistant manager in July, told The Athletic this year. “Dom was 16, the second leg was at the Emirates, and Wenger said to me that he hadn’t seen anybody play like that — able to play in (a combination of) the two positions (No 9 and No 10) at a young age and have that football intelligence.
“Him and Tammy (Abraham) scored a ridiculous amount of goals coming through at youth level — it was like a competition — and then, for whatever reason, Dom’s career didn’t go in the path that I certainly thought it would. If there was anyone I would have put my hat on (hitting the top), it was him.”
Solanke’s time at Chelsea overlapped with Jose Mourinho’s second spell in charge. Mourinho spoke highly of Solanke and gave him his debut in a Champions League game against Maribor in October 2014. It was his only appearance. He spent the 2015-16 season on loan with Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem and was frozen out of Chelsea’s plans when he returned due to a contract dispute. In an interview with The Athletic in February, Solanke said his appearance against Maribor felt like a “token.”
“There wasn’t really anyone breaking through to the first team,” he said. “I don’t think there had been anyone who had gone through and stayed there since John Terry. There were some great young players and we were all trying to be the one, but we knew it was going to be difficult because Chelsea could just sign whoever they wanted.”
Solanke’s eye-catching performances for England’s youth teams underlined his talent. He helped them win the Under-17 European Championship in 2014 and was the joint-top scorer at the tournament alongside Jari Schuurman of the Netherlands. He scored twice in a group-stage game against Turkey to help England come from behind to win 4-1, found the back of the net in a 2-0 victory over Portugal in the semi-finals and gave his side the lead in the final against the Netherlands, which they won on penalties.
John Peacock was in charge of England’s Under-17s and remembers Solanke was “always smiling” and “took on board everything that was asked of him”.
“There was a lot of noise around him because of his ability to score goals and be part of a successful academy team at Chelsea,” Peacock says. “He had a good support network around him. He was a quiet and unassuming character.
“We had an extremely difficult group (at the Euros) and Dominic, like the rest of the team, had to come up with really good performances to qualify for the knockout stage. His technical work and decision-making was of a high level. He is persistent and never lets defenders rest.
“When he was at the finals, he had to do his GSCE exams. He took that in his stride and came away with a lot of A*s. The day before or after we won the final, he had another exam. That shows you the concentration and desire he has to succeed at whatever he does.”
Peacock left his role with the Football Association shortly after that tournament but returned three years later on a short-term contract as an advisor to help the under-20s at the World Cup in South Korea in 2017. Paul Simpson was the head coach and led a team which included Solanke, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Ademola Lookman — who finished second with Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations this year — Fikayo Tomori and Lewis Cook to a 1-0 victory over Venezuela in the final. Solanke was player of the tournament.
“The big goal for me would be Mexico in the quarter-finals,” Peacock says. “Lewis Cook played a fantastic through ball and Dominic slotted it away. It wasn’t an easy chance to take.”
In that summer, Solanke left Chelsea to join Liverpool. A few months later, Gareth Southgate called him up to England’s senior squad for the first time. The forward made his debut in a 0-0 draw with Brazil at Wembley when he replaced Jamie Vardy. It looked like his career was back on track.
Eighteen months later, he left Anfield with one goal in 27 games — with Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino as competition — and has not played for England since.
Solanke’s £19million move to Bournemouth in January 2019 was a fresh start. Joshua King and Callum Wilson were the first-choice strikers under Eddie Howe so Solanke, who was 21, was mainly restricted to coming off the bench.
“He was pleased to find himself somewhere he would be loved,” Steve Cook, who was a senior member of Bournemouth’s squad, tells The Athletic. “He was so good at such a young age, there were massive expectations and that can weigh heavily. He played for two giant clubs where it was going to be difficult to get minutes. He came ready to work and with a lot to prove.”
Things did not go according to plan. Solanke suffered from a few niggling injuries and finished the 2018-19 campaign without a goal. His struggles continued the following season. “We didn’t speak about the lack of goals,” Junior Stanislas, a team-mate on the south coast, says. “His quality was evident in training. His hold-up play, skills and willingness to run in behind — he was someone you always wanted on your team. He brought so much more than goals.”
Solanke found the back of the net for the first time in a 4-1 victory over Leicester in July 2020. It was his 39th appearance for Bournemouth and 60th in the top flight. He only had to wait 20 minutes for his next — a stylish finish with the outside of his right boot which nutmegged Kasper Schmeichel. That result left Howe’s side three points from safety with three games remaining.
“His first goal was massive,” Steve Cook says. “It was a game we had to win but unfortunately we didn’t manage to stay up. It wasn’t the prettiest of goals and it crept across the line. I don’t think Dom showed he was struggling, he just cracked on. Everyone was delighted for him.”
Stanislas, who is now an academy coach at Bournemouth, believes dropping down into the Championship was “a blessing in disguise” for Solanke. Wilson moved to Newcastle United while King joined Everton midway through the 2020-21 season. This left Solanke as the main striker under head coach Jason Tindall.
Solanke scored 15 times in the second tier, playing with “freedom” upfront alongside Stanislas and Arnaut Danjuma, but it was a turbulent year in the dugout. Tindall was sacked and replaced by Jonathan Woodgate at the beginning of 2021 before Scott Parker took over in June. Solanke produced the most productive season of his career under Parker with 29 goals and seven assists in 46 appearances to fire Bournemouth to promotion.
“There were changes with personnel, so there were fresh ideas and you had a young, hungry squad,” Stanislas says. “Dom was confident and you knew you had a goalscorer that you could rely on.
“He is a willing runner, someone who can go in behind, take the pressure off, stretch the line and get you up the pitch. He is just as comfortable coming to feet and he brings others into play. Someone who can do both is difficult to defend against.”
The confidence was flowing and nothing summed up Solanke’s evolution like the 1-1 draw with promotion rivals Fulham. Bournemouth were losing 1-0 when he stepped up to take a penalty in stoppage time. “It was two teams right at the top of the league and it was a big moment,” Stanislas says. “He scored late on and when you’re playing against rivals you have to pick up points. It was a big goal.”
Cook had joined Nottingham Forest and came up against Solanke after Bournemouth’s draw with Fulham. “He has got everything,” the 33-year-old defender, who now plays for Queens Park Rangers, says.
“He has mixed with some top strikers and taken bits from all of them. He can drop into the No 10 position and roam. You never know whether to follow him or stay. When he is confident, his finishing is fantastic. It was a great challenge and difficult coming up against him in training. What stands out is his willingness to learn.”
Solanke produced a modest return of six goals and seven assists during Bournemouth’s first year back in the top flight. He played a direct part in all of the goals in a 3-2 victory over Spurs in April 2023. The forward pressed Pedro Porro and Davinson Sanchez in the build-up to Bournemouth’s first, scored the second and set up Dango Ouattara’s winner.
Solanke’s work rate is one of the reasons why Postecoglou was keen to sign him. Nine of the 10 players who covered the most distance in the top flight last season were central midfielders. Solanke was the exception as he ranked eighth by covering 396.9 kilometres.
Andoni Iraola’s appointment as Bournemouth’s head coach helped Solanke hit a new level. He finished with 19 goals in 38 appearances, including a hat-trick against Forest. Iraola said in December that he was becoming “a complete No 9.”
The bigger clubs were on his radar again.
“I don’t think you can ever say someone will be a top performer but I always felt Dominic would have a good career,” Peacock says. “There are going to be knockbacks and it is about overcoming them. Through resilience and hard work, he has another great challenge in front of him at Tottenham.”
That part of his character is one of the reasons why Postecoglou was attracted to him.
“I got a real sense he had a burning desire to take his football to another level and challenge himself at a big club,” Postecoglou said on signing Solanke. “We have got him at a good time. He has had to work his way back up, which is a good thing.”
It is a daunting task replacing Kane, Spurs’ all-time top score, but Solanke, according to his former team-mates and coaches, will take the challenge head-on. If he can match or surpass the amount of goals he scored last season, he will not have to wait too much longer for a second England cap.
(Top photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
