Spurs hit gold with “incredible” Ange signing

Ange Postecoglou has been in the Tottenham Hotspur hot seat for about a year and a half.

Since taking the job, he’s made the team one of the most entertaining to watch in the Premier League, but while he enjoyed an incredible run at the start of last season, it’s not been so easy since.

For example, he has overseen more losses than wins in the league this year, although now that some of his stars are returning to the team, the results are also starting to improve.

Moreover, while not every signing has been a hit, many have been, including one player who’s been in fine form this term and has won comparisons to a star worth an enormous sum of money.

Postecoglou’s most impactful Spurs signings

While not every addition made by Postecoglou has been a hit at Spurs, he has made more than his fair share of brilliant signings since the summer of 2023, and one of the very best has undoubtedly been Micky van de Ven.

The Dutch international joined the North Londoners from VfL Wolfsburg for around £43m in August 2023, and while he has had several injury problems since, he’s been a revelation when fit.

In all, he’s made 41 appearances for the club, in which he’s scored three goals, provided two assists, set the Premier League sprint record – 37.38km/h – and completed a clean sweep of the Lilywhites’ Player of the Season awards last term.

Another star addition from the same summer has been James Maddison, as while he’s certainly someone who can blow hot and cold at times, he’s managed to rack up a rather impressive haul of 14 goals and 16 assists in 63 games since his £40m move from Leicester City, and thanks to his recent uptick in form, there are now talks about his potential return to the national team squad.

Lastly, while there are other names, one of the stand-out recruits from the summer just gone has been Dominic Solanke, who, in just 29 appearances this season, has scored 11 goals and provided six assists, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.7 games.

With all that said, there’s another signing made under the Australian’s tenure who is having the season of his life and has since won comparisons to an incredibly valuable player.

The Spurs gem who’s a £70m star in the making

While Solanke was doing brilliantly prior to his injury and climbing up the club’s top scorer list for this season, he was still behind one of Postecoglou’s other signings: Brennan Johnson.

In fact, the Welshman, who joined the club for around £47.5m from Nottingham Forest in September 2023, has only further extended his lead atop the club’s goalscoring chart recently.

His brace against Ipswich Town on the weekend takes him to 14 goals in 34 appearances, totalling 2211 minutes, across all competitions this season.

When you add his three assists to that tally, it comes out to a brilliant average of a goal involvement every other game or every 130.05 minutes.

Unsurprisingly, such a great return so far has seen the former Forest ace win comparisons to some of the most exciting players around, including Liverpool’s Luis Diaz.

The comparison primarily stems from FBref, which compares players in similar positions in the Premier League, then creates a list of the ten most comparable players for each one, and in this instance, has concluded that the Colombian is the second most similar attacking midfielder or winger to the Spurs star.

The best way to see where this comparison has come from is to look at the underlying metrics in which the pair rank closely, including, but not limited to, non-penalty goals plus assists, shots, passes and crosses into the penalty area, passes blocked, aerial duels won and more, all per 90.

While being likened to a winger who’s part of a team that looks set to win the Premier League is already great in and of itself, this comparison also bodes well for the 23-year-old’s future price tag.

For example, Football Transfers value the Liverpool star at up to €86.4m, which comes to about £72m, and if Johnson is so statistically similar to the Colombian, who is to say that he too won’t be worth that much should he keep up his current scoring form?

Ultimately, not everything has worked out for Postecoglou since he joined the club, but one thing the Australian has done is bring in more talented players, with the former Nottingham Forest gem chief among them.