Tottenham Hotspur will begin the season in hope of finally ending their trophy drought. For all the development and brilliant work that Mauricio Pochettino has done with The Spurs, the club has no trophies to show for the good work. In football, trophies and titles help the club earn recognition but Tottenham have infamously fallen short on many occasions.
Their transfer business has come under the scanner too, as they have not recruited any noteworthy name yet. The North Londoners might be looking to clear out the deadwood from the squad in order to free up space and wages for new additions.
Accordingly, a recent report states that Spurs might offload Vincent Janssen and Fernando Llorente from the squad this summer. Both these players highlight Spurs’ flawed transfer activities over the past few years.
Harry Kane has been the main man for Tottenham for the last three seasons but the captain of the English football team doesn’t have any worthy backup in the team. As a result, Tottenham have recruited decent strikers as second-choice forwards but lack of playing time means these players have been left disappointed and frustrated. Janssen was signed from AZ Alkmaar and even won the 2016 Johan Cruyff Trophy. This implies that he was the ‘Dutch Talent of the Year’ that season and his impressive club and international performances led Tottenham to sign him.
However, ever since moving to North London, he failed to cement a starting spot and was unable to seize the opportunity when presented. Despite making 24 appearances in the league in 2016/17, he scored just two goals and was too unconvincing for the manager to trust him with a continuous run in the team. Resultingly, he was loaned to Fenerbahce in the Turkish League, where he scored four goals in 15 appearances.
Spurs had famously hijacked Fernando Llorente’s move to Chelsea and the former Swansea City man was expected to add another dimension to the attack with his talismanic aerial prowess. He played 16 games for Spurs in the league but the majority of them were appearances off the bench to see off the final few minutes every game. For a player who scored 15 league goals for Swansea just the previous season, it was a huge degradation in terms of playing time and the number of goals too.
The veteran forward will be understandably unhappy with this and could look for another transfer in order to revive his currently dormant career. Both Janssen and Llorente are members of the squad who are unlikely to be utilized and it would be in the best interest of all parties involved, provided, the club manages to offload them at decent prices.
Stats Courtesy: Whoscored
