Will Lankshear Is Doing What Spurs Couldn’t, and England Should Be Watching

Nine goals in 12 games. For a 21-year-old who was quietly shipped out of the Premier League in the summer, that is a number that demands attention.

Will Lankshear has been one of the Championship's standout performers since joining Middlesbrough from Tottenham, and his latest effort, a classic poacher's header to win it 1-0 against Wolves, only deepens the story. The kid is thriving. His old club is not.

The Spurs Situation Makes It Worse

Timing matters in football, and the timing here is brutal for Spurs fans to stomach.

At the point Lankshear nodded in his ninth goal of the season, Tottenham had scored as many league goals from their forwards combined. The club that sold him for an initial £10m had gone five months without a Premier League forward finding the net. Five months. That is not a rough patch, that is a crisis.

Spurs are sitting in the relegation zone while Boro are in the automatic promotion places. The comparison writes itself, and no amount of spin changes what it looks like on the surface. A young striker walks out the door, goals walk out with him.

Was selling him a mistake? In hindsight, the answer feels obvious. In fairness to Spurs, loan spells at West Brom and Oxford did not exactly scream 'Premier League-ready', and Lankshear had only glimpses of senior exposure in the Europa League. But the Championship is proving that given the right platform and a team built to create chances, this lad delivers.

The Kane Comparisons Are Not Just Flattery

The Harry Kane comparisons are floating around, and we're not going to dismiss them entirely.

Lankshear is 6ft 2in, strong, composed in the box, good in the air, and equally capable with either foot. He came through Spurs. He had mixed loan spells before finding his level. He is a late developer by the standards of modern football. Sound familiar?

Kane was not lighting the world up at 21 either. He had his own forgettable loan stints before everything clicked. The career arc is genuinely similar, and that is worth taking seriously rather than brushing off as hype.

What stands out most is the instinct. One-touch finishes, arriving at the right moment, reading crosses before they happen. That kind of positioning is not something you can coach easily. Either a striker has it or he does not, and Lankshear clearly has it.

He also has the attitude, by all accounts. In a results business, a 21-year-old who scores when it matters and works hard off the ball is already ahead of a lot of his peers.

Where England Men Fits Into This

Here is where it gets genuinely interesting from a bigger picture perspective.

Lankshear has already scored on his England under-21 debut. The senior England Men setup is watching, with Thomas Tuchel publicly open to selecting players from outside the top flight if the form is there. Given that Harry Kane is 33 and the search for a long-term successor has been going on for years, the question of who leads the England Men line in the next World Cup cycle is very much open.

There is no obvious next Kane at Premier League level right now. No young English centre-forward has made that role his own in the top flight. If Lankshear continues at this rate through the Championship season, reaches the Premier League with Boro or elsewhere, and keeps delivering, the conversation about England Men becomes very real very quickly.

We are not saying he walks straight into a senior call-up tomorrow. We are saying the pathway exists, and he is the one player in English football right now making that argument louder every week.

Our Take

Lankshear is the real thing. Nine goals in 12 games at Championship level, for a side built to create, is not a fluke. The Kane comparison is not lazy, it is earned through similar circumstances and a similar physical and technical profile.

Spurs have first refusal on future bids and a sell-on clause, so this story does not end here. But right now, Middlesbrough are getting the best of this deal, and England Men fans looking for their next number nine should be watching every single Boro game.