Alan Shearer knows a thing or two about justifying a hefty transfer fee - and the Premier League’s record goalscorer reckons Dominic Solanke can now stop worrying about his own £65million price-tag.
Solanke started repaying Tottenham’s faith in him when he scored his first goal for the Londoners since his arrival from Bournemouth in the 3-1 victory over Brentford at the weekend.
Shearer became English football’s most expensive player when he made the £36m move from Southampton to Blackburn in 1992 - and then broke the world transfer record six years later when Newcastle paid Rovers £15m.
He justified the money by scoring heavily for both clubs - and ended his career with 260 Premier League strikes.
Shearer said: “He (Solanke) will be relieved because, through no fault of his own, he's gone for a massive transfer fee. Someone's been prepared to pay £65 million - that would've been hanging over him.
“He was also injured and only started a couple of games so already the noise increases and the quicker you get that goal, the better it is for you, for the club and for the belief that the fans have in you.
“He'll have had a really good weekend because for a forward, a goal makes all the difference. Ideally, Solanke would've loved to have played the next day because of his confidence and he'll just not be able to wait to get out for the next game.
“We see it with so many strikers, when you get your first goal it's a massive relief and you just want the next game to come as quick as possible.”
Shearer now believes Ange Postecoglu’s men can build on their come-from-behind victory over Brentford after a tough start to the season.
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He told Betfair: “One of the things that has stood out for Spurs in the early games is that they got into so many good positions and they were really wasteful in three or four of those first five games.
“They have created chances and got into those positions, they've just been really poor in front of goal. Brennan Johnson got his goal so that'll do him the world of good and they need to go on a good run now.”
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