Spurs could get Johnson’s “extraordinary” £30m

There’s no escaping it: this season is shaping up to be a disaster for Tottenham Hotspur.

Ange Postecoglou sides are in the lower half Premier League table, with more losses rather than victories on their behalfand as things stand, they seem to have a growing injury list that has completely decimated their defense.

However, there have been a few positives from the campaign so far, such as their progress in the League Cup and the fact that Dejan Kulusevski he has taken a big step forward this year but the manager still needs Daniel Levy and Co to dive into the transfer market this month and give him more options.

Fortunately, reports at the end of last month did indeed link the club with the in-form striker who has won comparisons to the Swede and could be a dream upgrade Brennan Johnson.

Spurs’ attacking options

So while defense has been a huge problem for Spurs this season, both in terms of the way the defenders have been playing and the number of them being injured, the attack has generally been quite good for the North Londoners.

For example, the Lilywhites have already set the net on fire 41 times in his 19 years league matches, and there are five of them players with seven or more goals in all competitions in the composition.

Moreover, while not necessarily a complete game-changer for Postecoglou this season, summer signing Dominic Solanke has now settled into the squad and is currently enjoying great results ten goals and five assists to his name in just 25 games.

Likewise, Kulusevski, despite playing in midfield for most of the campaign, already is seven goals and eight assists in just 28 appearances, meaning he scored an average of every 1.86 games – more than justifying the ‘world class’ label he was given talent hunter Jacek Kulig previously.

In the end, although he can be frustrating at times and has had a few poor performances this season, Johnson has been a useful striker for the manager, picking up plenty of 11 goals and three assists in 28 appearances, which means that on average he scored a goal every other game.

However, while the Welshman has been good, the player Spurs were linked with just days ago could be the perfect upgrade, especially as he is being compared to the incredible Kulusevski.

Spurs are targeting who could replace Johnson

So, to get straight to the point, the player in question is Celtic star Nicholas Kühn, who, according to to a report by journalist Graeme Bailey at the end of last month, he is a player that Tottenham are interested in.

The report claimed that while the Scottish giants want to keep the German striker in Glasgow this month, a hefty bid could see them sell and, according to another report from Standard back in Novemberthat fee could be up to £30 million.

Now, that’s certainly a lot of money for a player from the Scottish Premiership, but given the fact that he’s better than Johnson and being compared to Kulusevski, he could be worth it.

So before we look at how he stacks up against the Welshman, it’s worth examining this comparison with the former Juventus star and where he comes from.

It primarily derived from FBrefwhich compares players in similar positions in Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and the Europa League, then creates a list of the ten most comparable players for each, and, in this case, concludes that the Swede’s second most similar forward is a midfielder or winger to the German in the last 365 days.

The best way to see where this comparison came from is to look at the underlying metrics where the pair are close, including but not limited to expected non-penalty goals, assists, shots on target, passing accuracy and more, all at 90.

That said, why do we think he could be an upgrade on Johnson? Simply put, his performance for the Hoops this season has been nothing short of sensational.

Let’s say, in just 26 appearances, the “extraordinary” right winger, as they call him former Celtic star Aiden McGeadyhe scored a goal 14 goals and 11 assistswhich means he is currently averaging a goal every 1.04 games for the Glaswegian side.

There is certainly something to be said for the level of resistance he faces north of the border, but his record is so far ahead of the former Nottingham Forest ace at the moment that this seems like a transfer worth the risk on.

Ultimately, Johnson has been a valuable player for Spurs and Postecoglou this season, but at the moment Kühn’s ceiling appears to be just that bit higher, so the North Londoners should do what they can to land him at N17 this month.