The Spurs flop who was sold in 2019 & is now outscoring Richarlison & Son

The Spurs flop who was sold in 2019 & is now outscoring Richarlison & Son

In recent years, Tottenham Hotspur have never had to worry about goals with the presence of Harry Kane at the top end of the pitch.

However, after the 30-year-old left the club to join Bayern Munich for £82m last summer, it left new boss Ange Postecoglou with a huge void to fill in the final third.

The club splashed £47.5m on Nottingham Forest winger Brennan Johnson in a bid to spread the goals around the frontline – subsequently taking pressure off the player trying to fill the boots of clinical striker Kane.

Whilst Kane’s departure from north London allowed for needed investment in other areas of the pitch, the question was always going to be whether the club would dearly miss his unbelievable goalscoring record.

During his 430 games for Spurs, the striker scored a staggering 213 goals – a tally that would make him the club’s all-time leading goalscorer. Players such as Heung-min Son and Richarlison have often featured upfront for Postecoglou’s side this season, but did they miss a trick with a former striker who has excelled this term?

Vincent Janssen’s time at Tottenham Hotspur

Spurs signed Dutch striker Vincent Janssen from Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar for a fee in the region of £17m back in the summer of 2016 after the striker scored 32 goals in 49 appearances.

The striker joined the club with real promise after his spell in the Netherlands. However, his spell in north London was nothing short of a disaster.

Janssen made 42 appearances during his stint for Spurs, scoring six times – with his first open-play goal not coming until March 2017, eight months after his arrival at White Hart Lane.

He subsequently joined Fenerbache on loan for the 2017/18 campaign in the hope he could recapture his goalscoring form, but the move was unsuccessful with Janssen missing most of the campaign through injury.

He only made a handful of substitute appearances for Spurs after his loan spell in Turkey, before completing a permanent move to join Monterrey in Mexico for £8m during the summer of 2019.

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Vincent Janssen’s stats so far this season

The now 29-year-old joined Royal Antwerp in Belgium back in 2022, with the striker finally starting to impress and showcase the talents he possesses.

This season alone, the Dutch striker has scored 16 times in 35 appearances, a tally that sees him rank within the top ten goalscorers in the country so far this campaign.

When comparing his stats to current Tottenham strikers Richarlison and Heung-min Son, Janssen remarkably beats the pair for total goals scored throughout the 2023/24 campaign.

Although Richarlison has started to justify the £50m fee the club forked out on him, the Brazilian’s total of 11 goals sees him five goals behind Janssen this season.

Meanwhile, Son has been Spurs’ most prolific goalscorer after Kane’s departure, with the South Korean finding the net on 12 occasions under Postecoglou.

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Although the Premier League is undoubtedly a tougher division than the Belgian Pro League, Janssen is showing Spurs what they’re missing after selling him.

He might not have been a starter under Postecoglou, however, his goalscoring record in recent times proves that Janssen still possesses a lot of qualities that might’ve been of use to the Greek-Aussie.