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Vincent Janssen started each of the Netherlands’ two World Cup qualification matches this past week, but if Dutch paper De Telegraaf is correct, it may be the last time that we see Janssen play football until the January transfer window. According to Telegraaf Sport, Janssen has been exiled from the Tottenham Hotspur squad by Mauricio Pochettino after refusing to go out on loan at the tail end of this summer’s window.
Telegraaf Sport says that the pressure to move Janssen was so great, the club didn’t want him to play against France so he would be available for a final-day move, either to West Brom in a permanent deal or to Brighton on loan. Since he refused to move, Mauricio Pochettino has apparently told him that there is no way back into the side.
Tottenham has concluded after just over a year that Janssen, who scored only twice in the league, is not fit for the absolute top. He can not lead Tottenham's attack in the eyes of coach Mauricio Pochettino, and chairman [Daniel] Levy is impatient that he is no longer in a position to develop further. Janssen was told he had to cooperate in a transfer, otherwise he would not get a chance in Tottenham's first team.
Janssen's agents, Dutch former Prof. Patrick van Diemen and Louis Laros of the player union VVCS, stood behind the player and did not want to work on a last-minute transfer. Financially, Janssen did not have to move back to West Bromwich Albion, but from a sports point of view he found it far too early to leave a top club.
De Telegraaf’s concern is mostly Vin’s status with the national team, and suggests that he will be dropped from the Oranje until he finds a new club. I am more concerned with what appears to be a shockingly callous move from Mauricio Pochettino towards a player he signed just a year ago.
The writing has seemingly been on the wall for Janssen for a while, and the signing of Fernando Llorente from Swansea would seem to corroborate that, but this still seems extreme to exile Janssen completely. Tottenham’s team features a couple of players — Son Heung-Min in particular — who took a year to adapt to life in the Premier League. With so many games to choose from, it seems like there would still be a role for Janssen, even if it’s only for the shop window.
I’d like to see further corroboration of this story and not take De Telegraaf’s word, but if this is true it’s both emphatic, and more than a bit disturbing. We’ve seen evidence before that Pochettino is a taskmaster and is not above taking drastic measures with players that he doesn’t deem to be good enough for his side, but this just seems... extreme.