10 games to break into XI’: Tottenham 22-year-old told he won’t be starting anytime soon
Stephen Warnock says it’s going to take Brennan Johnson ‘ten games’ to break into Ange Postecoglou’s first-team after his deadline-day transfer to Tottenham Hotspur.
The 22-year-old has been added to Tottenham’s already-thriving and fearless forward line, but Warnock thinks there are only two positions he will be fighting for and that’s the wide areas, as he told The Football Show on Sky Sports.
With Son Heung-min netting a hat-trick against Burnley last time out, no-one is dethroning the club captain anytime soon.
Brennan Johnson can play down the middle, but if he has a preference for either wing, then it would be playing on the right channel.
The £48 million signing (Sky Sports) shouldn’t have a problem fitting in at Tottenham because he has had a taste of Premier League football in Forest colours.
Plus, he is being added to a system that, if you are any forward player in the world, then you simply are going to enjoy playing in it.
Brennan Johnson faces competition
“He is going to have to earn his place in the team, isn’t he?!” said Warnock. “It will be difficult for him to break in. Will he play off either side?
“He isn’t going to drop Son out of the position off the back of that performance. I think it could take Brennan Johnson ten games to break into this team and showcase what he could do. It might take an injury to someone. A drop-off in form for one of the wider players.
“I don’t see Brennan Johnson playing through the middle though. I do see him playing in one of them wide positions.
“But it might get to the point where Ange Postecoglou goes ‘I am going to rotate them’, he is then keeping them fresh and hungry coming off the bench. Impact players. If I, as a fullback, have done 60 minutes against Kulusevski, the Brennan Johnson is coming on, I am thinking ‘where is the respite here?’”
As Ian Wright mentioned before Johnson could put pen-to-paper at Tottenham, the Wales international is ‘perfect’ for the club.
Even though Nottingham Forest were losing such a key figure and someone who came through their academy, even Serge Aurier was happy to see him secure a transfer to Spurs.
Of course, there might be a hint of bias there because Aurier played for the London club, but it shouldn’t hide away from how Johnson is one of Tottenham’s best buys in recent years.
