Vincent Janssen has admitted that he didn’t feel appreciated during his doomed spell at Tottenham.
The Dutchman was signed to provide competition and cover for Harry Kane on the back of being the top scorer in the Eredivisie in 2015-16.
It quickly became clear that things were not going to work out for Janssen, who eventually left in 2019 after a return of six goals in 42 appearances for us. Thirty of those came from the bench; 38 came in his first season before he was left out in the cold by Mauricio Pochettino.
The 25-year-old has since refound some form at Monterrery to help fire them to the Mexican title, and is relieved to be valued again after spending years as the forgotten man at Spurs.
“It was not the period I was hoping for at Tottenham. As a 22-year-old boy from AZ this was a great step, but I didn’t make the minutes there that I expected,” he told Dutch media outlet VTBL.
“Also I did not reach my level there. Ultimately you want to play again, be a footballer and be appreciated.”
Janssen would never have come good at Spurs but I do think he was disregarded too harshly by Poch, who publicly criticised his efforts in training (I don’t think he ever did that with another player?) and repeatedly batted away calls about reitegrating him into the squad when Kane was injured, only to then do just that briefly in 2019.
Once we failed to sell him in the summer of 2017, they’d have been no harm keeping him in the fold at a time when Fernando Llorente was no more than an injury-time contingency.
He didn’t deserve the frozen out treatment.