Tottenham Hotspur Urged to Offload Roberto Soldado

Tottenham Hotspur striker Roberto Soldado's future at White Hart Lane has come under intense pressure after a failure to score against Manchester City extended his dismal run without a Premier League goal.

Soldado, a £26m signing from Valencia last summer, has netted just one league goal in 2014 back in March and in just his third appearance in the top flight this season missed a second-half penalty as 10-man Spurs slumped to a 4-1 defeat to champions City.

Having registered just six league goals in his first full season at Tottenham, Soldado's role in north London continues to come under scrutiny and former manager Tim Sherwood would prefer to see youngster Harry Kane lead the attack.

"Harry Kane is better than Roberto Soldado," Sherwood told BT Sport. "I chose Kane last year as he was consistently performing better in training.

"He [Soldado] needs to start producing on the field and we can't make excuses for him anymore. He should be settled in at the club after living here for over a year."

The 29-year-old Soldado was one of a myriad of signings made last summer to offset the sale of Gareth Bale. However the tenures of Andre Villas-Boas and Sherwood failed to yield a Champions League place as several of the new additions failed to adapt.

Ex-Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp believes the likes of Soldado and Argentine Erik Lamla are among the players guilty of underperforming.

"They have struggled ever since they sold Gareth Bale and most of the men they brought in have not been good enough," he told The Daily Mail.

"Spurs have spent plenty of money but how many of those transfers were for top-class players?

"Erik Lamela has not lived up to his billing and clearly Roberto Soldado is not the answer up front. They still look short at centre half, too. Younes Kaboul gave away a penalty at City — exactly what you don't want your captain to do — and the rest just could not cope with Sergio Aguero.

"Tottenham have paid a lot of money for an awful lot of players. I just hope they kept the receipt."