Tottenham Hotspur made a sizzling start to their Premier League campaign as they managed to keep a clean sheet and steal all three points from their first game of the season against a newly promoted Newcastle side on Sunday. However, Mauricio Pochettino, who has refrained from any transfer activity in the first month of this transfer window, has suddenly turned into a busy man.
He is looking to add some quality to his first team at the moment but is also having to sort out the futures of a couple of stars at the club and one such player at the club who is wanted by a few rivals in England is Vincent Janssen.
Stoke City keen to land Spurs’ star
The Dutch international joined Spurs last summer but failed to have the kind of an impact he was expected to have in the league in England. He has enough quality to thrive at the highest level but the physicality of the Premier League has left him a bit shook-up and it looks like he might take more time to establish himself in the first team under Pochettino.
And it is now understood that the manager is ready to listen to offers, to let him leave this summer. According to reports from the Daily Mail, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion are interested in his signature, so should Spurs sell? Is he an option for Stoke City?
Janssen and his problems
The player of the year in Eredivisie in the season before the last, the 23-year old academy product of Feyenoord, Janssen is one of the most exciting strikers in Europe at the moment. He made his international debut recently and has already earned 13 caps but he managed to make just 27 league appearances last season, most of which came from the bench.
A creative striker with a keen eye for goal, Janssen is not a target man that the Premier League demands but is a player who loves to fall deep and contribute to the build-up play. He can create and score goals regularly but in England, he is yet to show his potential.
The rigours of the English game and the aggressive approach from every defender in the league saw him unsettled early in his career in the country and though Pochettino was ready to stick with him, he did not show enough promise to warrant a place in a squad fighting for the league title. So it does not come as a surprise that Spurs are ready to off load him already.
Chances at Stoke
Mark Hughes can use the likes of Peter Crouch, Joselu, Mame Diouf, Sadio Berahino and Bojan in the striker’s role but Janssen adds a bit of dynamism which will add another dimension to their attack.
But more importantly, his style of play is a perfect fit for the one at Stoke City, who have adopted a more fluid style in the last few years under Hughes, and suits them better than at least a couple of those names.
He may not walk into the first team but playing for a club like Stoke City will reduce the pressure on his shoulders which might allow him to improve as a player.
Spurs might not be completely happy letting him leave and should look to insert a buy-back clause that gives them a chance to use his services in the future if Janssen turns into a star they were expecting when they spent on him last summer.
