No matter what, Brennan Johnson will always live on in Tottenham Hotspur history and in the hearts of the fans for scoring the decisive goal in Bilbao to grant Spurs their first Europa League title in 41 years. That timely strike against Manchester United was worth a whole lot, but on the strength of his entire play, Johnson hasn't quite been worth the 47.5 million pounds the club paid to Nottingham Forest for him.
Johnson is great at scoring goals and poaching them, and you won't find many wingers on this planet who are as good at being in the right place at the right time to bungle one home. And even recently for the Welsh national team after being benched for poor play, Johnson came right in and smacked a banger to remind fans that he has real quality with that left boot of his.
The problem is that Johnson can't get games in the starting lineup consistently because when he does play, he struggles at everything else a winger needs to do. He can't defend, he can't take players on enough, he doesn't progress the ball, and he doesn't create chances at a high enough clip. Johnson shows flashes of the one-on-one ability and chance creation, but, too often, his head is in the clouds.
Thomas Frank is a fan but...
Tottenham fans have been saying this for a while, and now their manager, Thomas Frank, told reporters, via Lilywhite Rose, this truth out loud for everyone to hear:
"I'm very aware that Brennan has got some very good qualities, scoring goals running in behind, arriving in the box, I really like everything about him. So it's all about how you create that team where we perform, how do we get the best players in, what type of player do we play in positions to make it click, we also need that little bit of depth to keep the freshness and energy. That's the challenge."
Coming into the season, Tottenham fans were excited to see how Frank could help Johnson develop, as he was very high on the Wales international as a potential Brentford transfer; it's just that the Bees couldn't make a competitive enough offer to beat Spurs to the punch.
But now that Frank has Johnson at his disposal, nothing is developing positively for him. As Frank says, he's wanting to get Johnson games, and while he is a fan of his, Frank is basically saying that in trying to get the best players on the pitch and fill a cohesive squad that can do all the things to win games, Johnson often doesn't fit in the balance because of his deficiencies.