Newcastle's Aleksandar Mitrovic Would Be a Great Signing for Tottenham

Tottenham are in a great position right now. 

They have cruised through an apparently tricky Europa League group, risen to fifth in the Premier League table and produced a number of impressive results against top teams. 

Mauricio Pochettino deserves a significant amount of praise for gradually reshaping his team into a young, aggressive group that carries out his particular vision with remarkable dedication. 

An obvious concern before the season began was the lack of recruitment. 

Clinton Njie, Heung-Min Son, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Wimmer and Toby Alderweireld arrived, but 10 senior players left in the same window.

Spurs' lean squad has coped well despite suffering more injuries than last season.

That the 4-1 thrashing of Monaco in Thursday night's final Europa League group game was achieved without the involvement of Harry Kane also suggests that Tottenham possess greater squad depth than had been supposed. 

It was Njie's best performance for Spurs while Erik Lamela, Son and the young Josh Onomah also performed well. 

In the Premier League, though, Kane is an essential starter every week. 

Tottenham realistically need to find someone to help shoulder the burden. 

Son and Nacer Chadli are needed in deeper roles while Njie does not appear to be quite ready. 

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Spurs' next domestic opponents, Newcastle United, possess the exact player Pochettino could use as Kane's deputy. 

That man is Aleksandar Mitrovic. 

Ayoze Perez has been a more regularly mentioned transfer target for Tottenham, and Georginio Wijnaldum's fitfully brilliant start to his Newcastle career has also attracted attention, but neither really fits Spurs' requirements. 

Perez is comfortable drifting into wide areas but lacks the physical strength required of Pochettino's main forward. 

Wijnaldum is a fine player but not one who is needed, given Spurs' strength in depth in his area.

If Spurs could take any Newcastle player, it would be Mitrovic.

The Serbian was a superstar in Belgium, scoring 44 times in 90 games for Anderlecht despite arriving at the young age of 19. 

He is also an experienced international, scoring twice in 18 senior caps.

For Newcastle, his development has been slower, but it is difficult to move from a dominant team to one that is struggling. 

Mitrovic was the beneficiary of some desperately poor defending in Belgium, but he demonstrated the combination of physical power and skill that is necessary to succeed in England. 

He is also an excellent header of the ball.

The big Serbian makes good runs, gets into good positions and is clearly a great goalscorer. 

According to Newcastle newspaper, the Chronicle, the fans at White Hart Lane this Sunday may not get a chance to run their eyes over Mitrovic. 

Manager Steve McClaren named Mitrovic's inexperience as the reason why he's likely to prefer Papiss Cisse and Siem de Jong against Tottenham.

That lack of experience in English football would be a concern if Spurs were to make a legitimate approach for Mitrovic.

However, Pochettino's track record of gradually introducing his signings to the league suggests that Mitrovic would get time to develop his game under the Argentinian's watchful eye. 

Mitrovic's greatest ability is to identify physically outmatched players and aggressively exploit his advantage. 

In that way, he is not dissimilar to Tottenham's No. 1 transfer target, Saido Berahino. 

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The West Brom striker is certainly far quicker and more slight of stature but is comparably single-minded about goalscoring and effective at using his physical gifts to their fullest. 

Mitrovic's most famous goal, from an English perspective, was the winner against Arsenal in last season's Champions League. 

He used his powerful chest to hold off the defender before launching himself into a diving header. 

Mitrovic is an unlikely transfer target in January. 

He has only been at the club since the summer and will fancy his chances of winning a regular starting role. 

However, given that Newcastle are seemingly relegation-bound, Mitrovic could be available as soon as the end of the season.