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With Liverpool awaiting Willian's choice between north London and the North of England as the Brazilian attacker decides on his footballing future and fans try to stave off a pessimism that seems unavoidable with the club already having missed out on its two biggest transfer targets this summer after Henrikh Mkhitaryan chose Dortmund and Diego Costa chose to stay with Atletico Madrid, suggestions of a Plan B should Willian choose Tottenham have already begun to crop up.
The name increasingly mentioned as a possibility should Willian's decision leave Liverpool 0/3 on big name signings in the summer market is Brazil and Internacional forward Leandro Damiao. A natural striker compared to Willian's wide attacker, Leandro as the club's backup big-money attacker would suggest Liverpool is less concerned at this point with bringing in a flashy new signing to fill a particular role than they are simply to bring in a flashy new signing.
It would also be the second potential flashy new signing the club was after who has previously been linked to Tottenham. Though Spurs' interest in Willian this summer has come late, the London club had been linked with a move for the player while he was at Shakhtar Donetsk and manager Andre Villas Boas is reported to have an existing relationship with him. Similarly, Leandro is a player Spurs have been linked to heavily across multiple windows.
After years of Liverpool fans bitterly joking that Spurs' scouting department consists of an intern obsessively tracking Liverpool in the transfer market and looking to swoop in on any deal Anfield seems close to sealing—as with the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson and Clint Dempsey last summer—if true, it would mean that Liverpool's two latest attempts at a marquee signing this summer have been for players who have previously been linked to Spurs.
The 24-year-old Leandro has made 149 senior appearances across all competitions for Porto Alegre's Internacional, scoring 83 times. He has also made 16 appearances and scored three times for the Brazilian national team. Earlier in the summer, with Napoli and Tottenham both reportedly interested in signing the player, Internacional's manager set a fee of £21M to pry the striker away from South America.
Turkish winger Arda Turan has also once again been linked with a potential Liverpool move, though after having been linked to Anfield every summer since Rafa Benitez was still at the club few will credit such rumours as anything but the rehashing of already oft-rehashed stories.