Richarlison embarrassed as pundit feels new boy will ‘do better’ but is not worth price tag
Gabby Agbonlahor has embarrassed Richarlison by stating Brennan Johnson will “do better” than him, despite not being worth the £47.5million Tottenham paid.
Spurs have recruited well since Ange Postecoglou took over as manager. Permanent moves for Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro have gone through, while James Maddison, Manor Solomon and Johnson are among the stars to have walked through the door.
Maddison and Solomon have been particularly useful. The former has scored twice and provided two assists so far in a Spurs shirt, while Solomon assisted twice in the 5-2 win over Burnley.
New centre-back Micky van de Ven is also proving to be a very useful addition to the north London outfit.
Tottenham have so far conceded four goals in four games, with two of their three wins in the Premier League involving clean sheets, on of which against Manchester United.
The latest new signing, Johnson, is yet to pull on a Spurs shirt, having only signed late on deadline day, a day before the Burnley fixture.
However, having been bought for £47.5million, and after scoring eight goals for Nottingham Forest last season, hopes will be high for him.
That the forward can play anywhere across the front line will be useful for Spurs, but former Premier League striker Agbonlahor thinks he’ll play in the middle, and he feels if he’s to replace Richarlison there, he’ll be a more useful asset.
Agbonlahor feels Johnson will ‘do better’ than Richarlison
“I expect he’ll play through the middle and do a better job than Richarlison,” Agbonlahor told Football Insider.
It’s somewhat embarrassing for the Brazilian than Agbonlahor feels Johnson will be a better asset, as the pundit doesn’t actually believe he’s worth his price tag.
“I do like Johnson, but he’s not a £50million player at the moment,” he added.
And if Johnson – who will be better than Richarlison in Agbonlahor’s opinion – is not worth £50million (£47.5million) then Richarlison surely isn’t worth the £60million Spurs paid for him last summer.
Price is a gamble unless Johnson rises rapidly
Agbonlahor continued, suggesting Johnson isn’t the strongest in front of goal, but does has some redeeming qualities.
“His finishing isn’t there at all just yet – we saw that chance he missed against Arsenal on the opening day,” he said.
“He has some other decent attributes. He’s quick – but he’s not a top player.”
As a result of what Johnson apparently lacks in his game, Agbonlahor feels the price is a risk unless he can quickly improve his attributes.
“It’s a lot of money, unless Postecoglou is convinced he can improve him quickly.”
Surely Postecoglou either feels Johnson is already up to scratch – which seems fair enough after eight Premier League goals in his first top-flight season – or that he will progress to the required level quickly.
He might not be required to start all the time given the amount of quality Spurs have got across the forward line, but it would be nice for them if he succeeded through the middle, given Richarlison is yet to get off the mark in the league this campaign.
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