Spurs’ top scorer last season 

©IMAGO

Crystal Palace have made a statement of intent early on in the transfer market, completing the signing of winger Brennan Johnson from Tottenham. The Welshman arrives for a €40 million fee in a move that reshapes the Eagles’ attacking options ahead of the second half of the season. The 24-year-old arrives at Selhurst Park with Premier League experience and the expectation that he can add pace, penetration and end product to Palace’s forward line. Last season, he was Spurs’ top scorer with 18 goals in all competitions.

After an up-and-down spell in North London, Johnson’s move across the capital offers both a fresh start and a significant vote of confidence from Palace’s recruitment team. At 24, he fits the club’s profile of investing in players entering their peak years, while the size of the fee underlines belief in his ability to deliver consistently at top-flight level. Just six months ago, Johnson was scoring the winning goal in the final of the Europa League, winning Tottenham their first trophy in 17 years. Now he is surplus to requirements. Let’s take a look at why it didn’t work out.

Why it didn’t work out for Brennan Johnson at Tottenham?

Johnson has a current market value of €35m, but that figure has dropped from €50m in December of 2024. To see why it didn’t go to plan firstly we must consider the arrivals of Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons. That duo came in for a combined €129 million this summer and haven’t helped Johnson’s case. Ghanaian Kudus has primarily occupied the right-wing spot which was usually Johnson’s position last season, whilst Dutchman Simons has added further competition in forward areas. Johnson has also been less favoured by new manager Thomas Frank than previous boss Ange Postecoglou, whose style of play seemed to suit him better.

Matthew Hayes is part of Transfermarkt’s Social media team and an avid Spurs supporter. He gives us his opinion on what’s gone wrong for Johnson in North London: “I think he’s just missing the technical skills needed to perform at a team with the ambition of Tottenham. He’s really quick, but he doesn’t really have the ability to beat a defender one-on-one. He has a great knack of arriving at the back post but that’s just not been useful to us this season because of the issues we are having down the left-wing. And that’s all ignoring the fact that we paid big money for Kudus to come in and replace Johnson, so the odds were stacked against him before the season even started.”

Johnson will be hoping to turn around his career south of the River Thames and he will go into a highly-functioning Crystal Palace team with an astute manager in Oliver Glasner. The Welshman is likely to occupy one of the two ‘wide 10’ positions in the Austrian’s favoured 3-4-3 set up. He will provide competitions for the likes of Yéremy Pino and Ismaïla Sarr. Palace are currently 10th in the Premier League table, but are just three points adrift of fifth-placed Chelsea. Johnson will also have the chance to shine in Europe again in the Europa Conference League