Lankshear outscoring Spurs as Boro go second
Will Lankshear is outscoring Tottenham on his own.
The 21-year-old striker left Spurs for Middlesbrough in the summer. He now has nine goals in 12 games for his new club, as many in all competitions as Tottenham have managed as a team, according to BBC Sport.
His latest strike settled it. A six-yard header from Tommy Conway's cross gave Boro a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. The result lifted Middlesbrough to second in the Championship, England's second tier, after the weekend's games BBC Sport live blog.
That league position carries real weight. The top two in the Championship go up automatically to the Premier League. At the time of the report, Boro held one of those automatic promotion places while Tottenham were in the Premier League relegation zone, the bottom three spots that send clubs down.
Lankshear's route north was built on goals. He joined Tottenham's Academy from Sheffield United, Tottenham Hotspur confirmed, and hit 23 goals for Spurs' Under-23 side in the 2023-24 Premier League 2 season. He scored and was sent off for the first team against Galatasaray in the Europa League in 2024-25, then scored 12 league goals on loan at Oxford United in the second tier last season.
Middlesbrough signed him to a five-year contract in July after Tottenham announced an agreement between the clubs. Boro paid an initial fee of about £10m, with a further £10m due in add-ons. The deal could rise to £20m in total, a potential club-record buy.
Boro needed a finisher. They missed out on promotion last season after scoring only once in three play-off games, the knockout ties that decide the final promotion place. The club have been here before with young forwards. Morgan Rogers spent six months at the Riverside Stadium before joining Aston Villa.
The contrast in front of goal is stark. Dominic Solanke's last-minute strike at Old Trafford was the first league goal scored by a Tottenham forward in five months. Lankshear has kept finding the net, including the winner of the Carabao Cup Goal of the Round vote for Round One.
What makes this stand out is how fast it has flipped. One summer sale was supposed to be about potential. Three months into the season, it looks like the difference between a team pushing for the Premier League and one trying to stay in it.
