Being such a big club, Tottenham Hotspur have been blessed with some sensational talents over the years.
Luka Modrić, Gareth Bale, Harry Kane, and Son Heung-min have all left their marks on the club and the Premier League as a whole.
However, as with every other ‘big six’ side, the North Londoners have also endured their fair share of transfer flops as well, with the likes of Tanguy Ndombele, Serge Aurier and Clinton N’Jie all failing to make the grade in N17.
Yet, one of the most disappointing signings the club made in the 2010s was that of Roberto Soldado, a mistake they’d repeat a few years later with a forward who was even worse than Timo Werner.
Soldado's Spurs career
Following the world-record £85m transfer of Bale to Real Madrid in the summer of 2013, Spurs had to find a way to replace the goals they had just lost from their team, and they had plenty of money to do so.
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Famously, the club opted to splash the cash on the not-so-magnificent seven of Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Soldado, and while the penultimate player on that list came good in North London, the Spanish striker did not.
However, what makes the Valencia-born ace’s time in N17 so much more disappointing is that, prior to his £26m move to England, he was on fire and arguably one of Europe’s most devastating strikers.
For example, in his final two campaigns with his hometown team, the 12-capped international scored an astounding 57 goals and provided 11 assists in just 97 appearances.
However, in the two seasons he spent with the Lilywhites, he was only able to score 16 goals and provide 11 assists in 76 appearances, which makes it easier to understand why journalist Sam Tighe described him as the “flop of the season” early on in his Tottenham career.
Appearances
51
46
36
40
Goals
27
30
11
5
Assists
6
5
5
6
Goal Involvements per Match
0.64
0.76
0.44
0.27
After two years of dismal performances, the former Valencia star returned to Spain, signing for Villarreal, where he rediscovered some form and racked up a haul of 12 goals and 19 assists in 55 games.
In all, it’s hard to describe Soldado’s time in England as anything other than a complete flop, so it’s poor luck – or poor judgment – that Spurs made the same mistake with an even worse striker just a year after they sold the Spaniard.
The Spurs striker worse than Soldado
A year after Soldado left the club, Spurs already had their starting number nine sorted thanks to the emergence of Kane, but one thing they lacked was a reliable backup who could challenge the Englishman for his place in the team – absurd, we know.
So, the club turned their attention to the continent and paid AZ Alkmaar around £19m for Vincent Janssen, who, at the time, was undoubtedly one of the most exciting and promising strikers around.
After all, in his final season in the Netherlands, he won the Eredivisie Golden Boot and ended up with a ridiculous tally of 31 goals and seven assists in just 49 appearances across all competitions, which worked out to an astounding average of a goal involvement every 1.28 games.
However, what happened to the Spanish striker a few years earlier happened to the young Dutchman, as once he arrived in England and started to earn his £1.36m-per-year salary, his goalscoring ability seemed to all but leave him.
For example, in his debut season, the disappointing forward was only able to score six goals and provide four assists in his 38 appearances, which was a dramatic fall from his output a year prior, and led to Gary Lineker brutally describing him as a “poor man’s Soldado.”
The next season, he was sent on loan to Fenerbahce, but injuries limited him to 18 highly productive appearances, in which he scored five goals and provided four assists.
The Heesch-born poacher returned to N17 for the 18/19 campaign, but a foot injury limited him to just five appearances, in which he scored a single goal, and then, that summer saw his nightmare in North London finally come to an end, as he was sold to Mexican outfit Monterrey for just £6.3m.
That means the once-promising striker left the club with a grand total of six goals and four assists in 42 games, which comes out to a goal involvement on average every 4.2 games.
In contrast, Werner, who is widely criticised for his poor displays for the Lilywhites, has managed to produce nine goal involvements in 41 appearances.
While that comes out to a slightly worse average of one every 4.55 games, that has been almost entirely from the wings, meaning there is a strong argument that he’s been a better player for the club than the Dutchman was.
Transfer fee
£19m
Total Wages
£2.7m
Appearances
42
Cost per Appearance
£517k
Goal
6
Cost per Goal
£3.6m
Assists
4
Cost per Assist
£5.4m
Goal Involvements
10
Cost per Goal Involvement
£2.1m
Moreover, when you add up his transfer fee and the wages he earned for the two seasons he spent at the club, the overall cost for the North Londoners was about £21.7m, which breaks down to £517k-per-appearance, £3.6m-per-goal, £5.4m-per-assist or £2.1m-per-goal-involvement – which can hardly be described as value for money.
Ultimately, it’s a good thing that Kane came along when he did, as with Soldado and Janssen, Spurs did not have the greatest track record when it came to signing promising strikers in the mid-2010s.
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