Tottenham Hotspur wasted £18.6m on Janssen last summer – but West Brom could help them make most of that money back.
Tottenham Hotspur may be about to pull off one of the best deals of the summer transfer window. Though this concerns a potential departure from North London, rather than a big-name marquee arrival.
According to The Sun, West Brom are close to agreeing a deal to sign Vincent Janssen for an eyebrow-raising fee of £15 million – £2 million more than they paid Spurs for their current record signing, Nacer Chadli, a year ago.
Baggies boss Tony Pulis has made it clear that a new striker is top of his list of priorities with both Salomon Rondon and Hal Robson-Kanu lacking the consistency to threaten top flight defences on a weekly basis.
And it’s fair to say few Spurs fans will be disappointed at the prospect of Dutch international Janssen departing just 12 months after arriving from AZ Alkmaar. After all, Janssen was certainly more Mateja Kezman than Luis Suarez in his debut season in English football, doing very little for the reputation of Eredivisie strikers.
Infamous flop
In a total of 27 Premier League appearances, although only seven of these were starts, Janssen located the back of the net on just one occasion from open play. However, it wasn’t his apparent lack of predatory instinct or sluggish movement that was the primary cause for concern.
Instead, Janssen’s remarkable ability to miss the target from almost anywhere in the penalty area proved his undoing, the strapping centre-forward reminiscent of sitter specialist Roberto Soldado.
It’s fair to say the form that saw him win the Eredivisie Golden Boot by plundering 27 goals in 2015/16 was nowhere to be seen. At the time, his £18.6 million move to White Hart Lane, as reported by Sky Sports, looked sensible business.
A year on, Spurs will be pinching themselves with West Brom willing to ensure they recoup the majority of their outlay.
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