Tottenham to Smash Transfer Record to Sign Colombian Striker – Report

Tottenham Hotspur are prepared to break the bank in order to land Porto striker Jackson Martinez as manager Andre Villas-Boas attempts to strengthen his forward line this summer.

Spurs finished agonisingly short of qualifying for the Champions League after north London rivals Arsenal pipped them to fourth place. Villas-Boas is determined to put things right this season and it appears signing a top quality striker is his main priority.

Portuguese publication Record believes that Tottenham are preparing a club record offer of around £25.6m for the Colombia international who scored 34 goals in just 39 games in all competitions for Porto last season.

Martinez helped fire the club to yet another league title and proved that he could be equally as prolific as fellow countrymen and £50m Monaco signing Radamel Falcao who scored exactly the same number of goals in his first season at Porto.

The 26 year old is said to have a release clause set at just over £34m but Tottenham are hoping they can begin negotiations early in the transfer window before the striker can be persuaded to sign a new deal.

Martinez is currently contracted to Porto until the summer of 2016 but it is believed that Porto want to extend his deal and offer him improved wages, whilst also increasing his release clause, after such a successful first season in Portugal.

While Martinez enjoyed a prolific season in front of goal the same could not be said for Tottenham's first choice strikers as Jermaine Defoe scored 11 league goals, while Emmanuel Adebayor struck just five.

With plenty of speculation over the future of Gareth Bale, who was the top scorer with 21 goals, Spurs may well need to improve their attacking options and Martinez now appears to be the number one candidate.

Villas-Boas knows the club well and will hope that he can come to some agreement having previously failed to convince his former employers to part with midfielder Joao Moutinho last summer.

Martinez was signed by Porto for just over £7m last summer so the Portuguese champions would stand to make a significant profit on the striker after just one year.