Vincent Janssen Absent from Champion’s League Campaign

Dutch striker Vincent Janssen is markedly absent from Tottenham’s squad for the upcoming Champion’s League campaign. The competition’s group stages are set to get underway during next week and there is no sign of the player.

But the leaving out of Janssen from the 21-man squad hasn’t exactly come as a surprise and fans won’t be too shocked that he hasn’t been included in the team.

The £18.5 million striker has failed to live up to hopes, having scored only 6 goals in a total of 39 club matches since his arrival from AZ Alkmaar and his performance has occasionally been cited as somewhat dismal.

The recent signing of Fernando Llorente from Swansea has cast a further shadow of doubt over Janssen’s career prospects at the club – especially in the long term.

UEFA rules dictate that clubs are only permitted to include 17 “not locally” trained players in a squad, and yet Georges-Kevin Nkoudou was still preferred over Janssen; a very telling tale indeed.

A Costly Mistake

Janssen was initially scouted at a Euro 2016 warm up match between the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands by Tottenham boss Mauricio Potchettino, assistant Jesus Perez and head of recruitment Paul Mitchell.

Permission was granted by Alkmaar to fly the promising forward to London for a peek at the Spurs’ training ground at Hotspur Way. The initial offer for Janssen was £15 million, an offer Tottenham no doubt now wish they had not egged on further. The initial offer was rejected by Alkmaar – finally having come to a cool £18.5 million.

The bit that truly moves to the point of tears is the original price that Alkmaar paid for Janssen - £400,000. At the time of bidding sports betting sites kept close tabs on the cost of the transfer, and many punters were surprised at the high price tag attached to Janssen.

Now it appears the price was a bit high, and Spurs certainly haven’t got what they thought they had paid for.

Football in A Time Of Injury

Erik Lamela has also been left out of the Champions League squad, but for more honourable reasons. The winger is currently out of action because of a long-term hip problem.

In fact, the problem / injury is of such a nature that Lamela has been out of action since Spurs were defeated by Liverpool in October 2016, during a League Cup match and is not expected back in action before November of this year.

Lamela has in fact undergone a double hip surgery in May, an operation that is medically invasive and of a major nature, and which includes a long and arduous recovery period.

Danny Rose has been included in the star pack – this despite his slow recovery from a knee injury, but it looks like his performance is now up to scratch and his fitness levels are back to where they should be.

Other players included in the squad are Llorente, Serge Aurier, Davinson Sanchez, Juan Foyth and Paulo Gazzaniga.

Spurs will be facing Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and APOEL in the group stage – Group H.

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