Tottenham Hotspur has undoubtedly had a difficult history in the transfer market; the most of their inconsistent play since winning anything has been caused by a recurring pattern of miscalculations.
The club’s greatest acquisition to date, Tanguy Ndombele, came from Lyon with high expectations, but is currently struggling on loan at Galatasaray and has been called “one of the worst signings Tottenham have made” by writer Paul Brown because of the disastrous outcome of the deal.
The infamous “magnificent seven,” who saw Gareth Bale sell for a record-breaking £85 million in 2013, have mostly failed to live up to the promise. Additionally, the transfer window between Mauricio Pochettino’s dismissal and Ange Postecoglou’s arrival has witnessed bad luck.
Tottenham’s Gareth Bale celebrates.
Since Postecoglou’s arrival last summer, the plan has been improved and streamlined. Although Harry Kane hasn’t been immediately replaced since being sold to Bayern Munich, Spurs needs to make sure they invest their money carefully to avoid making the same mistake they did when they signed Roberto Soldado.
Roberto Soldado’s performance at the Spurs
In 2013, Soldado made a club record £26 million deal from Valencia to Tottenham in an attempt to avert Bale’s exit. It was viewed as a wise move as he scored 30 goals in 46 games across all competitions in the 2012–13 season.
However, he collapsed in London, with reporter Kevin Palmer labeling him “useless” for his pathetic attempts at shooting in the Europa League, barely putting up the kind of flashy performances required in the Premier League.
Qualification for the Europa League
Journalist Sam Tighe was so unhappy with the Spaniard’s attempt to emulate the former phenomena of Gare that he even went so far as to declare him the “flop of the season” after joining Tottenham.
Even though he played tricks on English soil and was sent back to his native country after joining Villarreal in August 2015 for a fee of £7 million, he did manage to score a few goals during his time with the Lilywhites.
Considering that tag has been attached to Vincent Janssen’s signature for the last ten or so years, he’s not the worst to lead as the spearhead.
Vincent Janssen was a very awful person.
After a very miserable stint in north London, Janssen may be the worst letdown of the Spurs era. He and Monterrey fled to Mexico.
The Netherlands star, who scored 32 goals from 49 appearances for AZ Alkmaar in 2015–16, was signed by Spurs in 2016 for a fee of £17 million, which was close to £20 million. You sense a pattern there.
Vincent Janssen is a Tottenham failure.
Before it was determined that Janssen was not capable of leading the team, he scored six goals in 42 games during his miserable tenure at Tottenham.
Journalist John Leverty went so far as to criticize him for his “dreadful” tenure at the team. Marcelo Bielsa, the manager of Lille, furthered his doubts about Janssen’s technical ability and decisiveness in pivotal situations when he turned down the chance to sign the center forward in 2017.
Even though he didn’t have the biggest paychecks while at Tottenham, he made over £3.5 million in his three seasons there, including an unsuccessful loan stint with Fenerbahce. His weekly wages of £34k totaled throughout that time.
This brings the overall cost of Janssen to almost £20 million when compared to the £17 million in pay and cost. When evaluating the return on investment, this represents an egregious miscalculation that is even worse than Soldado’s Tottenham years. At one point, the Spaniard, at the very least, was guaranteed a starting position and contributed 27 goals in 76 games.
When Postecoglou goes to sign a Kane replacement this summer, he won’t want to make the same error.
