Spurs: Pochettino flop ended up costing Tottenham a staggering £1.5m per shot

The Lilywhites were bled dry by their useless forward.

Tottenham Hotspur are a club no different to most others in the Premier League, all of whom boast their fair share of transfer howlers littered throughout history.

Whilst Chelsea are seeking to stockpile those disasters in quick succession, whilst Everton have spread them out across the entire tenure of owner Farhad Moshiri, Daniel Levy instead attributes his worst acquisitions to the fans’ desire to push for silverware.

In the recent fan forum, the 62-year-old would even admit that the pressure got to him: “Maybe you’ll be surprised by my answer but I want to win as much as everybody else, but the frustration of not winning and the pressure from maybe some players and from a large element of the fanbase, that we need to win, we need to spend money, we need to have a big manager, we need to have a big name, it affected me.”

Whilst his frank response marked a shock admission from the usually silent businessman, it still almost seemed like he was absolving himself of blame, instead pushing it on the demands of those around him.

However, at the end of the day, he is the one who sanctions the deals and puts the people in place to make those torrid signings, some of which set the club back years.

Who is Spurs’ worst-ever signing?

Whilst many might rush to point out the likes of Erik Lamela, Roberto Soldado and Moussa Sissoko as the club’s worst-ever deal, there are many who perhaps go under the radar due to their fee not quite reaching the heights of some, but remain huge pound-for-pound disappointments.

After all, whilst Tanguy Ndombele went for £63m, there were sparks of life that outlined why they had spent such a mouth-watering fee. His debut strike against Aston Villa had fans thinking their club record acquisition was set to usher in a brighter era, that ultimately never came to fruition.

However, with the likes of Clinton N’jie, although hardly breaking the bank to bring him in, the output offered was truly abysmal.

Having emerged through Lyon’s academy as a goalscoring teenage sensation, the year before his north London switch would see the Cameroon international score seven and assist eight as a second string to Alexandre Lacazette and Nabil Fekir.

It was a risk worth taking on a young striker who could have upheld their front line for the next decade, but he flopped just as Ndombele did, and never really showed enough to merit his fee.

In fact, it could even be argued that the 30-year-old never really got the chance, with a mere 14 appearances across two years at the club. Unsurprisingly, N’jie would fail to score a single goal, before returning to France with Marseille.

It is ironic comparing how the current Sivasspor ace triumphantly announced himself to the Lilywhites with how that tenure panned out, as he would note: “I never spoke to Arsenal representatives on the phone, they simply contacted my agent. My choice was made, I was determined to join Tottenham.

“Here, I will be working under Mauricio Pochettino, a manager who plays youngsters and allows them to progress.”

This failed to be the case, and in the end, it proved to be a career massively unfulfilled.

How much did Spurs pay for Clinton N’jie?

Whilst the reported £12m fee might not force the average football fan to look twice, when placing it beside that aforementioned output it does become alarming.

Year

Clinton N’jie Market Value, via Transfermarkt

Club

2017

€7m (£6m)

Marseille

2016

€10m (£8.6m)

Tottenham Hotspur

2015

€10m (£8.6m)

Tottenham Hotspur

2014

€250k (£216k)

Lyon

Across a year when Pochettino welcomed Heung-min Son, Toby Alderweireld and Kieran Trippier to his squad, it is mind-boggling just how wrong the Argentine managed to get it with N’jie.

Now plying his trade in Turkey after a failed spell in Russia, it has been a disappointing fall from grace for a once-clinical frontman who had the world at his feet.

What was Clinton N’jie’s salary at Spurs?

As an investment in a bright striking future, around the period when Harry Kane was emerging through their academy too, it made sense to tie the 42-cap star down to a lengthy five-year deal.

However, he would not come even close to seeing out that £38k-per-week contract, exiting after just two years, one of which was spent back on loan for the club he would eventually join.

Therefore, the marksman would amass a further £1.97m on top of his aforementioned transfer fee, reaching a total outlay of £13.97m. Spreading that figure across the 14 senior showings N’jie mustered, Spurs actually ended up paying a whopping £990k for every appearance he made.

Did Clinton N’jie deserve to earn £38k-per-week?

It is absolutely fair to say that the 5 foot 9 dud failed to come close to commanding the salary he was rewarded with, given such a lack of importance and progression.

Although, the knee surgery suffered within six months of signing hardly aided the trials suffered, ruling him out for months just as he hoped to establish himself in the first team.

With the forward failing to even make a league start for Spurs, and across such limited game time struggle for form, the wage handed to N’jie was far from deserving even if circumstances were unkind to the forward.

In fact, to take that appearance fee and make things even worse, across those short stints on the field, the marksman would actually only manage to accumulate a pitiful nine shots. Therefore, the club did not just pay £990k per appearance, but also £1.5m per shot.

When did Clinton N’jie leave Spurs?

As aforementioned, N’jie would come crawling back to French football in 2017, still wounded from such a tumultuous spell in England.

Despite that he would remain optimistic and did enjoy a temporary resurgence, notching ten goal contributions in 22 Ligue 1 games. However, his was a career that would never be the same.

Speaking since his departure, the former Lyon starlet views his time in north London as a learning period rather than a complete failure, noting: “I don’t regret it,” he said last year. “It’s a choice I needed to make. The club was OK with it. Everyone thought it was a good solution. I acquired a lot of experience during that adventure at Tottenham. It really helped me afterwards, and it still does. Therefore, I have no regrets”

Whilst that may be a positive way of looking at it, the overwhelming negativity surrounding N’jie’s doomed tenure at Spurs cannot be denied.