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Everybody loves an underdog. In football, David vs Goliath encounters are typically thrown up on a weekly basis between two sides at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Individually speaking, though, it takes a relentless work-ethic and a touch of unseen natural talent to help underdogs rise to the top level.
For players plying their trade in non-league football, the prospect of playing in the Premier League sits in the realm of fantasy, but there are exceptions who climb to the peak of the ladder.
The centre-forward position is the most niche and difficult to master of all the outfield positions. Get it right, though, and it’s certainly easy to get noticed.
Just look at Jamie Vardy, for example. His well-documented journey from Fleetwood Town goal-machine to Premier League title-winner in 2016 is the ultimate started-from-the-bottom-now-we’re-‘ere story in recent footballing memory.
Callum Wilson may not be donning a Premier League winners’ medal on his mantelpiece just yet but his ability to resurrect his career in non-league football with Tamworth is a comparable story worth noting.
And, while he may not have needed to spend much of his senior career in the depths below League Two, Birmingham City’s Che Adams could yet be the next electric forward to follow in the footsteps of both Wilson and Vardy by making the transition to top-flight football.
The Birmingham City hitman has been in clinical goal scoring form this season, bagging 21 goals from 33 Championship appearances, a return which averages out at a goal for every 125 minutes of football played.
Former Birmingham defender Michael Johnson has already suggested that the 22-year-old is a perfect fit for Mauricio Pochettino’s style of football. As quoted by football.london, he said…
“I could see Adams at Tottenham, with the way they play. He loves the ball in and around the box and I think he has what it takes to play at the very top.”
Tottenham fans should be familiar with Adams from their League Cup semi-final clash against Sheffield United back in 2015. Then 18, Adams came off the bench and scored a brace within six minutes of being introduced into the action, but the teenager’s endeavours were undone by a late Christian Eriksen goal which sent them crashing out of the competition.
Just two months after leaving non-league Ilkeston, Adams’ brimming quality was there for all to see. Pace, power and a clinical eye for the back of the net left Spurs stunned.
It was the type of stunning cameo which will have resonated with everybody involved with Spurs, and four years later they would be wise to consider him as a potential transfer target.
First and foremost, Adams fits the profile of the type of player Pochettino has actively looked to integrate into his squad in recent years: English and bursting with potential. Add in both the powerful forward’s prolific return and the glaring need for a long-term understudy for Harry Kane at Spurs and it’s difficult to argue against his compelling case.
And, for the notoriously tight-fisted Daniel Levy, Adams should be available at a price which will offer the prospect of future profitability.
The Times reported earlier this month that Birmingham have slapped a £22 million asking-price on his head which, in the context of the modern economic climate, is peanuts – even chief pantomime villain and apparently penniless Mike Ashley splashed just shy of that figure on Miguel Almiron.
Tottenham have a multitude of reasons to host the next rags to riches story by signing Adams in the summer window.