Clinton Njie left Tottenham on loan last month.
Tottenham’s Clinton Njie during training
Tottenham Hotspur effectively gave up on attacker Clinton Njie last month, pushing him out the door to Marseille.
The forward was moved on as part of a deal to sign Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, a player of similar profile, who will take his place in the squad.
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Spurs signed Njie from Lyon a year ago, and the warning signs were there that he may not pan out to be a success.
The biggest one was that his side rolled over so easily and accepted an offer from Spurs.
Lyon and president Jean-Michel Aulas are famed for their tough negotiating strategy, as Tottenham once found out with a drawn out pursuit of Hugo Lloris.
He fought tooth and nail to keep Alexandre Lacazette out of Arsenal and West Ham’s hands this summer, and feels similarly strongly about star man Nabil Fekir.
When it comes to Njie, there was little resistance. A report in The Evening Standard a year ago hinted why – they felt that at £10 million rising to £12 million, Tottenham were already paying too much.
The report stated: “Sources at Lyon are surprised Spurs are willing to pay so much for a player who is not considered an automatic choice for Lyon’s first team. While he is thought to have considerable potential, he is far from the finished article.”
Tottenham’s Clinton Njie
Injury problems hampered Njie’s first season, but when he did get on the pitch he made very little impact of note.
Spurs needed a player capable of influencing games in intense Premier League title battles, and Njie was a prospect still developing and aiming to get to that level.
The hope is that he can use this year at Marseille and come back and show Spurs what he is made of, but his transfer increasingly looks like a mistake from the North London side.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy
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