With only eight Premier League goals, 41 total Premier League appearances, and three assists, £50 million ($61 million) for Brennan Johnson appears to be a steep price to pay for someone who only progressed from the Championship 18 months ago. His 16 strikes in that level were also far from spectacular
Despite the fact that Johnson is only 22 and on the rise in his profession, such a price tag feels exorbitant even in today’s market. However, Rasmus Hojlund only scored nine goals in Serie A last season and left for Manchester United. Reading the contemporary terrain is as difficult as it has always been, and this summer has turned things on their head more than ever.
It’s understandable that Spurs fans find it difficult to justify paying more than half of their ‘Harry Kane budget’ on a player who scored more than three times less than the striker last year. Even if Ange Postecoglou had already directed some of those cash to Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario, and Alejo Veliz.
It’s difficult to accept a world in which Kane money only gets you Johnson and not much else. It’s a difficult pill to take, but one that Daniel Levy must swallow quickly if he is to bring in the club’s deadline day priority on time.
What would please Spurs fans is that Johnson will be scoring goals in League One for Lincoln on loan in 2021. As a youngster, his record of 10 strikes and 12 assists was remarkable and underlined his threat. That carried over to the Championship and the goal-scoring season that propelled Steve Cooper’s team to an unlikely and historic promotion.
Along with Taiwo Awoniyi, it was his effect that lifted the Reds beyond the relegation zone last season. Tottenham, who are now constructing, would benefit greatly from his continuous progress year after year. Johnson’s speed and current skills are considered as an improvement to depth right now, but it’s the player they want him to become that is really worth the money.
CIES Football Observatory now values the player at £25 million ($31 million), thus the price reservations at this level are understandable. Spurs are overpaying, without a doubt, but market conditions govern a player’s worth, and as has been the case all summer, it’s a seller’s paradise, as Tottenham and Levy are well aware after their negotiations with Kane and Bayern.
Forest, who will once again rely on Johnson to keep them afloat, believe that he is now worth £50 million ($61 million) to them. Leaving it to the last minute hasn’t helped either.
It was always going to get to this point, as predicted by football.london’s Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold earlier this week, but it might cost Spurs in more ways than one. “Brennan Johnson is Ange Postecoglou’s number one attacking target for the remainder of this transfer window,” Gold stated on his YouTube channel. “He appears to believe he is the ideal fit for his system, a fast, tricky type of player with a high ceiling.”
“Discussions have now begun. Everything I’m hearing indicates that this could go right down to the wire, all the way to the end.”
The truth is that the Spurs may have to bite the bullet. Despite their aspirations of lowering the sum with players included in the transaction, he is a raw but fairly proven striker with a contract through 2026 who is also a Wales international. Transfermarkt has continually seen his value climb throughout his young but promising career.
When he returned from loan in 2021, he was valued at just £1 million ($1.2 million), but that quickly increased as he helped them to the top of the Championship. It was £15 million ($18 million) a year later, a hefty but more reasonable sum for someone of his caliber. By the age of 21, with some Premier League experience thrown in, it was treble that.
This is still less than the price Tottenham needs to pay, but it comes at the expense of promises, assurances, and being late to the market.
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