Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho “honestly believes” the club will sign a striker in the transfer window.
A new arrival would join Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn in Spurs’ squad.
Spurs were left short up front last season when Kane and Son were injured in January and February respectively.
“I want, I need a striker,” Mourinho said. “But I want to make it very, very clear that the club knows that I need a striker and they also want a striker.”
He added: “Are we going to get one? I believe so, I honestly believe so. The team needs it for the balance of the squad.”
Kane was Tottenham’s top scorer with 24 goals last season but suffered a hamstring injury in January and spent four months on an individual training plan to ensure he was fit to play in time for the Premier League’s restart in June.
But Mourinho said the new signing would not necessarily act as a “back-up” for the England captain and could play alongside Kane.
“I don’t like that word ‘back-up’,” he said. “I know we have one of the best strikers in the world. The best striker in England. But I don’t like the word ‘back-up’. A squad is a squad.
“A striker can play with Harry Kane. A striker who comes here won’t be filling the back-up situation.
“It’s not to support us in such a difficult season. It’s also to try and play. And why not play with Harry?”
Last month, defender Matt Doherty became Tottenham’s third signing of the summer following the arrivals of midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and goalkeeper Joe Hart.
Spurs finished sixth in the top flight last term and reached the last 16 of the Champions League.
Last season the club featured in the documentary ‘All or Nothing’, with cameras following Mourinho throughout the campaign.
“Tottenham did it for the right reasons,” he said when asked about the experience.
“At that level would I do it again? Yes I would. Did I love it? No! I hated it. Did I watch it? No, and I’m not going to. I believe it is very interesting for people.”
Fixture congestion ‘a big risk’
Spurs face Everton on Sunday in their first game of the new Premier League season and will then play a Europa League qualifying match away against Bulgarian side Lokomotiv Plovdiv.
The following Sunday, they travel to Southampton before competing in the Carabao Cup third round two days later.
When asked about fixture congestion, Mourinho said he “will get depressed” if he thinks too much about it.
“The other day I made a challenge with my boys and challenged them which one of them thinks he can play all these matches for 90 minutes?” he added.
“And nobody told me I can. We are all very aware it’s impossible to do it. It’s not human.
“It’s a big risk. It’s a big risk in terms of our ambitions. It’s very possible that you lose one of these matches.
“If we decide that one of these competitions is not important for us we go against the nature of the club. We go against our own ambitions.”
(BBC Sport)
