Three years ago, in the summer of 2016, Tottenham fans were given the exciting news that they’d signed a striker who could fill in for Harry Kane when the Englishman was unavailable. What has followed, though, has been three years of hell for Vincent Janssen, who cost Spurs £17m in 2016 (BBC).
Before signing for Spurs, the then-22-year-old had been in stellar form for AZ Alkmaar in the Eredivisie, but he spectacularly failed to convert that form to his Premier League days, and in all competitions in his Spurs career, the Dutchman managed just six goals in 42 games for the Lilywhites, Transfermarkt.
Of those six goals, four of them were penalties whilst the other two came in a 6-0 win against Millwall and a 4-0 win against Bournemouth, so the news from Football.London that he’ll soon be off to Monterrey in the Mexican Liga MX will come as brilliant news to the Spurs fans just want to forget about Janssen.
The Dutchman will hopefully get a fresh start in North America and be able to restart his career after losing three years in his Tottenham days. He’s still 25-years-old and with a record of seven goals in 17 games for his country there is a goalscoring talent there.
The Mexican league may be a strange destination for Janssen, but it will get him away from the media attention of Europe and European football and gives him a chance to try and find some form before potentially moving back and showing what he can do when full of confidence.
The likelihood of Tottenham making any money back on the Dutch striker is minimal, but at this stage Mauricio Pochettino will have gone beyond wanting to make a pretty penny for his failed project and will just be desperate to offload him, preventing the need to call on him anymore in an hour of need.
Last season we saw Poch reluctantly look to the 25-year-old in search of a goal against Brighton, West Ham and Everton off the bench, but as you can imagine there was very little surprise when he didn’t net, and now the Lilywhites will be pleased to see the back of the flop.