What Spurs can expect from Dutch striker intent on move
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Summer wouldn’t be summer without Tottenham Hotspur driving perilously hard for a bargain and at least one of the Eredivisie’s leading lights ditching the Dutch top flight in favour of the promised Premier League land.
If Tottenham’s notoriously tough negotiators get their way, then the next man to follow the well worn transfer path will be AZ Alkmaar striker Vincent Janssen.
As he attempts to take the load off an apparently strung out Harry Kane, Mauricio Pochettino has shown his hand in bidding for the prolific Dutchman, 22.
The sticking point so far is AZ’s valuation of their top scorer, and so far at least, what the Lilywhites are willing to pay.
Holland’s fourth-placed team rebuffed an £11m offer for Janssen, who clocked up 31 goals in all competitions and finished up a memorable debut season in the Eredivisie as its highest scorer with 27. However, fresh reports suggest an agreement around the £16m could have done the trick.
Albeit in an inferior league, such figures promise Spurs fans plenty of goals should he get his own personal wish to move to White Hart Lane.
Before AZ, a two-year spell with Dutch second-tier side Almere City, yielded a one-in-two strike rate of 32 goals in 74 appearances, so early in his career at least chances have been gobbled.
In the age of the non-descript ‘forward’, the Lane faithful will be privy to a 100 per cent centre-forward should Janssen get his move over the line.
Hold-up play and cool finishing are chief strings to his bow, but it will come as no surprise to followers of Pochettino’s managerial career in England, that the former Feyenoord youth has fostered a reputation for industry off the ball as well.
The man who England fans may remember scoring against them in a Euros warm-up friendly defeat at Wembley has instantly taken to the international scene, with a return of three goals from just five caps.
If burnout harms Kane’s chances of a hitting the ground running for the Londoners in the looming season, then on paper Janssen looks like the perfect player to pick up the slack.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
