Waking up yesterday morning, loads of Tottenham fans found themselves faced with the news that Gareth Bale is reportedly being allowed to leave Real Madrid for free in summer. That bombshell was dropped by Marca, and it will give plenty of Lilywhites hopes of the Welshman’s return.
It will have been seven years in the summer since Bale made that massive £85m move from White Hart Lane to Los Blancos (BBC), and in those years since Daniel Levy has thrown money at the wall to bring in players to try and replace the fantastic left-footed fan favourite, with some sticking and a lot of it not.
Now that these reports have surfaced, though, we’re taking a look through the years since and giving every attacking player that Spurs have signed a ranking out of 10, and to clarify, given Bale’s positional exploits we’re classing ‘attacking players’ as wingers and centre-forwards, excluding attacking midfielders such as Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli.
With those stipulations in place, there are 10 players that we’re giving a rating to, so without further ado, let’s start with one of those signed using the Bale money…
#1 Erik Lamela 5/10
The Argentine was one of the most exciting of Tottenham’s seven signings in the summer of 2013. He came in for a fee of £25.7m from Roma (BBC), and he’s the only of those seven new faces who remains a Lilywhites today, although that doesn’t mean he’s the most successful of the bunch.
The longevity of his time in north London has certainly helped Lamela, although his numbers have been disappointing considering the initial excitement of his signing at first. A combined 80 goals and assists have come in the Argentine’s 214 appearances for the club (Transfermarkt), but a standout stat is that he’s missed 97 games through injury during his time at the club too (Transfermarkt).
#2 Roberto Soldado 2/10
It feels harsh to give Bobby Soldado such a low rating given how hard he tried and how well he connected with the supporters, but the numbers he produced during his time in north London cannot be overlooked. The Premier League, though, just wasn’t for the Spaniard, as his final season in Spain delivered 24 La Liga goals whilst his first English league season brought only six (Transfermarkt).
The fee involved certainly didn’t help Bobby’s cause. A £26m fee (BBC) when that money meant a lot promised more than the 16 Spurs goals he scored, especially considering five of those 16 were from the penalty spot (Transfermarkt).
#3 Nacer Chadli 6/10
You might be keen to question why we’ve given Chadli the same rating as Lamela in this list, but hear us out before going at us in the comments. When Chadli signed, the £7m fee (BBC) was a long way short of the fee paid for Lamela, and the Belgian was brought in very much as a bit-part option.
Regardless of that, though, he stepped up when he was needed, scoring 25 goals in 119 games for the club (Transfermarkt), including a season where his 13 goals in all competitions was only bettered by breakout star Harry Kane in the 2014/15 season (Transfermarkt), in which Spurs got to the League Cup final and finished 5th in the Premier League.
#4 Heung-Min Son 9/10
Finally, we’ve moved onto a signing who simply cannot be questioned. Heung-Min Son is nothing short of a world superstar now, one Europe’s most deadly attacking options both out wide and through the middle, and his numbers show exactly that, as since his £22m move from Bayer Leverkusen to Spurs in summer 2015 (BBC) he’s bagged 83 goals and 44 assists in 220 games (Transfermarkt).
It’s not just the sheer amount of goals that Son has scored that makes him such an incredible player, but the quality of those goals. In recent years some of his strikes, from solo efforts against Burnley and Chelsea to long-range thunderbolts against West Ham and Leicester, the South Korean really does have it all in his locker.
#5 Clinton N’Jie 1/10
To be honest, this rating could be described as generous. The Cameroonian attacker signed a five-year deal in 2015 after leaving Lyon for the Lilywhites (BBC), yet during his time at the club N’Jie managed just 14 appearances and failed to score a single goal in that time (Transfermarkt).
It seems that it wasn’t that N’Jie and Spurs weren’t compatible, though, more that N’Jie just isn’t good enough, seeing as he spent three years with Marseille after leaving Spurs scoring just 14 goals in 61 Ligue 1 games before then moving to Russia, where he’s similarly struggling to light up the league (Transfermarkt).
#6 Vincent Janssen 1/10
Another one for the scrapheap. Janssen signed for Spurs with plenty of promise in summer 2016. A fee of £17m (BBC) reflected the goalscoring exploits that the young forward had shown at AZ Alkmaar, yet his 27 goals in 34 Eredivisie games was followed up by a woeful season in which he managed just two in 27 in the Premier League (Transfermarkt).
It took Spurs longer than desired to wash their hands of Janssen, though. In summer 2018 he was stripped of his #9 shirt (TalkSPORT), but then the club u-turned on the decision and he made three league appearances as Tottenham went through an injury crisis at the back end of last season (Transfermarkt) before he finally left the club, joining Mexican side Monterrey (BBC).
#7 Georges-Kevin N’Koudou 2/10
This list is starting to look very bleak with many flops featuring, but we promise it’s about to get better. In the case of N’Koudou, though, that’s not the case. The Frenchman may have been a fan favourite for his bubbly social media presence, but he on-field exploits fell well short, and his stats are largely forgettable.
The French winger signed as an exciting French U21 international winger and Levy parted with £9m to bring him to north London from Marseille (BBC), although things didn’t go to plan. Unsuccessful loan spells at Burnley and Monaco came during his time at Spurs, but eventually, he left the club with just one goal to his name in 27 appearances (Transfermarkt).
#8 Fernando Llorente 7/10
Finally, a man who we can laud. The Spaniard may not have looked like the sexiest of signings when he was brought in on deadline day of the 2017 summer transfer window from Swansea (BBC), but by the time he left the club, he was nothing short of a Tottenham hero.
The six-foot-four-inch hunk of a target-man was integral to the Lilywhites’ run to the Champions League final last season, with *that* goal off his hip against Manchester City and his bullying of Daley Blind in the second half of the Ajax second-leg. You’ll also never be able to take away the day this Spurs writer travelled to the new White Hart Lane for the Champions League final screening in a ‘Llorente 18’ replica Tottenham kit.
#9 Lucas Moura 7/10
This is a difficult one to quantify. Lucas Moura is hardly a clinical player, and his head down running with the ball is one of the most infuriating things for Spurs fans, yet he’s responsible for arguably the greatest moment in the Lilywhites history when he bagged that hat-trick.
The £23m fee paid to PSG for Lucas (BBC) was undoubtedly worth it for that moment alone, yet he also has that memorable brace against Manchester United at Old Trafford and a hat-trick against Huddersfield too as a handful of his 23 goals in 99 games for the Lilywhites (Transfermarkt).
#10 Steven Bergwijn N/A
Much like an 88th-minute substitute in a player rating article, we simply haven’t seen enough of the Dutchman to give him a score here. His start to life at Tottenham has been strong, though, a debut strike against Manchester City was followed up by his second Spurs goal against Wolves, although an injury has halted his season and he sits on two Spurs goals in seven appearances (Transfermarkt).
The £27m fee paid for to PSV for Bergwijn (BBC) does look like a snip, though, especially given that the winger is just 22-years-old and leaves the Eredivisie with an impressive 29 goals and 35 assists in 112 games (Transfermarkt), and the best of Bergwijn is certainly yet to come.
Agree or disagree with these ratings? Let us know, comment below!
Fernando Llorente 7/10 are you sure ? he should be charged ticket money to get in as a spectator