Tottenham’s seemingly never ending search for a striker has finally come to an end Today as the club announced the signing of Vincent Janssen for AZ Alkmaar. The 22 year old Dutchman joins for a fee believed to be £17m. He joins the long list of players who have joined from the Eredivisie after a successful time there but are Tottenham getting a Ruud Van Nistelrooy or an Alfonso Alves?
The problem Spurs had was having to buy the right striker for their squad, with someone as good as Harry Kane as your first choice forward it was always going to be a difficult task to get a player in knowing that they would have to make do with spending more time on the bench than on the pitch. By too big a name and that player is going to be unhappy at the lack of game time buy too less of a player and there wouldn’t be a suitable backup for England international Kane.
Their have been countless forwards who Tottenham have seemingly missed out on due to not fitting the criteria set above but it seems as Janssen is going to be the man to be called upon as and when Kane is rested by manager Mauricio Pochettino.
There will definitely be times during this campaign in which Kane is rested, he looked a shell of the player who played in Euro 2016 but some of that can be attributed to the fact that he hasn’t had a rest in two years. Taking part in the 2015 Under 21 European Championships and then a summer tour to Australia has seen an almost constant footballing schedule over the past 24 months and you could really see the effects in France.
Tottenham were incredibly lucky last season that Kane didn’t suffer a major injury as his 25 goals propelled the North London side to a third place finish but it would be foolish of them to run the risk of once again going into a season with only one recognised forward. The signing of Janssen should also go a long way to appeasing a Tottenham fanbase who were starting to make a long running joke of when a backup forward would be signed. At last that joke can be put to bed.
For £17m what are Tottenham getting for their money? Someone who took Dutch Football by storm last season with 27 goals in 34 league apperances and also 3 goals in his first 5 games for the national side. Those figures may look impressive by they always come with a caveat that you never know how a player will settle in once they’ve made a move to English football.
For another success story there has been a flop. For Dirk Kuyt read Mateja Kezman, yes Janssen could be a risk at £17m but by Today’s money that isn’t really a great deal and isn’t really a bank busting move for Spurs either. Also with Janssen coming in as a squad player the pressure won’t be so much on him as it was Roberto Soldado whose £26m move to White Hart Lane was far from a success.
There weren’t many weaknesses in that Tottenham squad from last season but it seems with the signing of Victor Wanayama as well that Mauricio Pochettino’s side identified what is needed and more importantly getting his business done early.