In any normal club, Brennan Johnson would be hailed as an icon and a legend. However, Tottenham Hotspur is no ordinary club.
At the end of the 2024/25 season, Johnson was the man who scored the winning goal in the European final. To be honest, this is the only positive that Spurs have had in their fight against relegation in the last two years.
His departure midway through last season was perhaps a surprise. It was almost a decision.
How Johnson’s sale cost the Spurs
In the 2024/25 season, Johnson actually finished the campaign as Tottenham’s top scorer. He took 18 points in all competitions, 11 of which came in the Premier League and five in the Europa League.
It has been a superb campaign for the Welshman, who has scored at one stage in seven consecutive games. In the process, he became the first Spurs player to score in six consecutive games in six years. The last player? Harry Kane, of course.
Therefore, if you told Johnson that he would be given the boot in eight months, he would not believe you.
Unfortunately, after scoring just two goals in his first 16 Premier League games in 2025/26, Spurs decided to cash in by selling him to Crystal Palace for £35m.
While his form dictated that he was unable to make the cut last season, his sales have been almost disastrous. Why? Well, Mohamed Kudus suffered four injuries in January, then another winger in the form of Wilson Odobert tore his ACL in February.
As a result, it left Spurs very short in forward positions. Is it really a surprise that Igor Tudor has struggled to turn things around since replacing Thomas Frank? Not without controversy.
With Odobert sidelined, Kudus has only returned to first-team form in recent weeks. They’ve since signed Omar Marmoush and Savio, so Johnson is no longer missing out, but they’re almost in a position where those two moves wouldn’t have been possible had they been relegated.
The Spurs star looks like another Johnson
Despite Johnson’s electrifying 2024/25 season, the remainder of his Spurs career was met with inconsistency. He was full of pace and a real presence on the flanks, but the simple fact was that his goals and assists were lacking.
In his debut season in North London, the Wales international scored just five times following a £47.5m move. It can be said that he never lived up to this mammoth fee.
Meanwhile, Spurs have signed another Johnson.
That player is Mathys Tel. The Frenchman signed an initial loan deal in the same winter as Johnson left and his move was later made permanent in the summer of 2025 for £30m.
Well, like Johnson, he wasn’t worth his fee. Like the Welshman, he is full of pace; he is a strong winger but lacks the end product.
As European football pundit Neal Gardner once noted, Tel was touted as “the next Mbappe” during his time at Bayern Munich. He was considered one of the best young strikers on the continent.
As a teenager, the striker scored ten goals and provided six assists for Bayern in the 2023/24 season, but was loaned out to Tottenham after struggling for regular starts in the 2024/25 season.
Mathys Tel career by season | ||
|---|---|---|
The season | Objectives | helps |
2022/23 | 6 | 0 |
2023/24 | 10 | 6 |
2024/25 | 3 | 2 |
2025/26 | 4 | 2 |
2026/27 | 0 | 0 |
Although he never looked like a regular starter in London, he wowed fans with his pre-season performances. Tel scored a fine free-kick against Sydney FC and then provided two assists for Mikey Moore against Hoffenheim.
The wire was powered by electricity in the summer. Playing from the left wing, he easily defeated the defenders. However, it has been another season to forget so far in the difficult and turbulent era of the Premier League.
Last season, the 21-year-old scored only four goals in all competitions. During that time, he failed to score or assist in his first six appearances.
Spurs have struggled a lot as a team this season, particularly in the final third. It took them five games to finally score in the Premier League and one of the reasons was Tel.
He is now falling down the pecking order. Although he started the first three matches of the campaign, he only played 27 minutes as a substitute in a 0–0 draw with Everton. The young Frenchman was then left out of the squad for the 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa.
So Spurs are desperate to improve and with other options in the squad – Marmoush, Savio, Kudus, Xavi Simons and Mykhailo Mudryk could stand out from the left – Tel should be sold by ENIC.
He may not have been at Tottenham very long, but we’ve seen enough of that. He will never live up to the potential he showed during one season in Munich.