It seems that Vincent Janssen’s miserable year and a bit at Tottenham is set to end. Fenerbahce are taking the Dutch striker on a season-long loan deal. The Turkish club have announced the deal via their Twitter account, although Spurs have not yet confirmed the deal.
Janssen only arrived in north London from Dutch club AZ Alkmaar last summer for a fee in the region of £17million. The 23-year-old arrived at Tottenham on the back a prolific campaign for AZ. He also claimed the Dutch Player of the Year award in 2016.
However, it has all gone horribly wrong for Janssen at Tottenham. It may be a relief to everybody involved that he is set to move on. Although judging by some of the pictures of the striker having a medical he is not overly chuffed about the move.
Never had a hope at Tottenham
Janssen arrived at Tottenham saying all the right things. Things like, ‘I am going to try my best to dislodge Harry Kane from the team’ and ‘I am confident of being a success at Tottenham’.
In reality, the relative youngster never had a hope at Tottenham of ever becoming the team’s first choice striker. The main reason for his lack of hope was Harry Kane. The England international is not just one of the best strikers in the Premier League he is also one of the best out-and-out strikers in the world game.
For sheer consistency of goals scored in top European leagues, few central strikers can match his record over the last two seasons. Kane has won the Premier League Golden Boot in successive seasons. However, he is now odds of 4/1 second favourite to win the award this season, with Romelu Lukaku the favourite.
Janssen was always fighting a losing battle to see any minutes at the club. Kane is Tottenham’s talisman, a hero and it would take a special player to displace the striker from the Spurs starting line-up. Janssen is not that player.
The forward arrived as a backup for Kane. However, in his early twenties, he was never likely to be happy in a supporting role.
Janssen was out of his depth in the Premier League
Janssen did not play very often, but when he did, he looked out of his depth in the Premier League. He never looked like he would make it in the top-flight of English football.
While Janssen was a prolific scorer of goals in the Eredivisie, there are few that would argue that the Dutch league is anywhere near the same standard as the Premier League.
A number of top players have arrived in the English top-flight from the Eredivisie, including Ruud van Nistelrooy and Luis Suarez. However, for every Suarez or Van Nistelrooy, there is an Afonso Alves. The Brazilian scored an impressive 45 goals in just 39 games in the Dutch top-flight for Heerenveen
He then joined Middlesbrough in the January of 2008 for a club record fee of around £12.7million and flopped like a jellyfish on a wet mattress. Janssen has not been given as much of a chance to prove himself as Alves. However, Janssen may just fall into the same category of failing to make the step-up in league standard.
The major difference may be that Alves arrived in England with big expectations. Janssen arrived as a player that may play a few games if Kane was injured or needed a rest.
Janssen may develop with first team football
Vincent Janssen became something of a joke playing for Tottenham. However, at 23 he still has enough time to develop into a much better player in the future. At AZ, he proved he could score goals on a regular basis.
If as expected he plays on a regular basis in Turkey, he may rediscover the goal-den touch from his days in the Dutch top-flight. After all, it was not that long ago the Netherlands international was banging in the goals in the Netherlands.
Whatever happens for Janssen at Fenerbahce, it seems unlikely that he will ever return to Spurs and be a first team fixture. If he does then no doubt it will be a massive surprise to most Tottenham fans.
Will Vincent Janssen be a success at Fenerbahce?
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