I played with Kane & Dele at Spurs, now I’m having a nightmare in Romania.
Despite that chaotic 3-2 defeat to Brighton, Tottenham supporters must be feeling pretty happy at how the Ange Postecoglou era is going.
The style of football can be a bit disorganised but you’re always guaranteed one thing with Spurs; entertainment. They play high press, with a high line and want to attack. It’s a shame Gareth Southgate didn’t have that motto over the summer with England.
Alas, Spurs look good and finally appear like a team who are no longer missing Harry Kane. Dominic Solanke arrived for a £65m fee over the summer and has three goals to his name already despite an injury-hit first few weeks in London.
However, it’s Welshman Brennan Johnson who looks like the real Kane replacement right now, scoring six goals in his last half-a-dozen outings for the Lilywhites. It’s quite the revival for a man who received horrific abuse for his performance against Arsenal a month ago.
At long, long last, Spurs are no longer reliant on what their all-time record goalscorer brought to the club. They’ve been searching for someone since the days of Mauricio Pochettino.
Pochettino’s best and worst signings at Spurs
A year prior to the Argentine’s arrival in the English capital, it was a big old summer for Spurs. Gareth Bale was sold for a mega £85m fee to Real Madrid and in walked the likes of Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen to name a few.
While Eriksen went on to become a Spurs icon, registering 88 assists and 69 goals across 305 outings, Soldado was sold just two years into Pochettino’s tenure, leaving for Villarreal after scoring just 16 goals in 76 matches. How the current USA manager replaced him was a strange one to say the least.
While club icons Heung-min Son and Toby Alderweireld both joined in 2015 – Poch’s second summer at the helm – it also saw Kevin Wimmer and Clinton N’Jie arrive.
In 2016 it was the turn of another club flop Vincent Janssen to arrive in the capital and he was joined by another notable dud Georges-Kevin N’Koudou. It’s safe to say that for every Son and Dele Alli that Pochettino acquired, there was a N’Jie or Serge Aurier.
So, where are some of those big-money duds now? Well, Janssen is actually having a happy time of it out in Belgium where the Dutch striker has scored 41 goals in 104 matches for Royal Antwerp after a spell in Mexico. But what about N’Jie? Things are far less successful for the Cameroon ace.
What happened to Clinton N’Jie after leaving Spurs
In 2015, Soldado had just left and Emmanuel Adebayor wasn’t handed a squad number. Bleak times indeed which left Pochettino with a sole senior striker; Kane.
He tried to solve the lack of depth by bringing N’Jie to the club in a £12m transfer from Lyon. Upon his arrival, which also happened to be his birthday, the forward stated that he was “very happy to join Tottenham”, hailing them as “such a big club in England.”
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Sadly, it never really worked out for the 44-cap Cameroon international who departed after just 14 goalless games for the club.
In that time, he played alongside the likes of Kane, Dele and Eriksen but even for three marvellous players, they could not get a tune out of N’Jie.
So, what’s he doing in the year 2024? Well, he’s struggling…again. After spells with Marseille, Dynamo Moscow and Sivasspor in Turkey, the 31-year-old is now playing in Romania for Rapid Bucuresti having signed for them a month ago.
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Since arriving in the Romanian capital, his club side have played four games but N’Jie hasn’t appeared in a single one of them. French outlet Foot Mercato recently remarked that things have started ‘very badly’ for him.
Why hasn’t he played? Administrative reasons. The former Tottenham man has a work permit and is currently in training but all of the paperwork is yet to be accepted.
Even without taking to the field, the Cameroon international has been the subject of criticism. Writing for Gazeta Sporturilor, journalist Narcis Drejan stated: “Rapid is making a big mistake! N’Jie and Boupendza are two vagabonds, the kind of players who miss training. When they see what Bucharest has to offer… […] They know they have value, but they have no pressure, they come for the money, to have fun, they no longer come for football.” Harsh words indeed.
This is a player who has clearly had a successful career – you don’t earn 44 caps for your country without it being so – just he has failed to ever live up to the mass potential that Spurs hoped they had invested in nine years ago.
