There are many reasons why Tottenham Hotspur supporters are excited right now.
On Saturday, the Spurs swatted London rival West Ham 3-0 away from home.
Christian Romero ruled out the first half header in controversy, but ultimately it wasn’t important. Because Pipe Matal Saar, Lucas Bergar and Mickey Van de Ben were targets during the 17th minute scoring after the interval, while Tomas Soucek was sent for the hosts during this time slot.
This led to him earning three of the four Premier League wins in Thomas Frank ahead of the Spurs’ Champions League opener on Tuesday, and proudly returning to the European Premier Club Competition as an Europa League winner.
Tottenham’s latest Big Money signature made his debut at London Stadium, but it’s still not clear how good he is on the Lily White shirt, given that his compatriot, former Spurs player, has actually scored more goals since the start of last season.
Xavi Simons’ Tottenham debut
Announced on the pitch before an international break before a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth’s hands, Spurs supporters wanted to witness Zabi Simons’ debut at West Ham, who joined for around £51 million from RB Leipzig.
The Dutch International was deployed from the left, and the table below records his match statistics.
Simons vs West Ham | ||
|---|---|---|
statistics | Simon’s | Match ranks |
Target shot | 1 | Second |
The dribbling was successful | 1 | 7 days |
The exact path | 27 | The 11th |
Key Pass | 1 | No. 6 |
touch | 51 | 9th |
Average Sofa Score Rating | 7.2 | Number 8 |
Statistics courtesy of sofa score | ||
As the table documented, Simons makes something decent even when he starts his life with frustration in Tottenham, showing that he has gotten a glimpse of what he can produce, but hopes that more final products will come in the Champions League on Tuesday.
So, are there actually former Tottenham attackers of the same nationality?
The forgotten Tottenham attacker set fire
Steven Bergwijn joined PSV Aindhoven’s Tottenham Hotspur in January 2020 with a reporting fee of £26.7 million.
Well, they said first impressions were the most important and he certainly made something good, winning Manchester City 2-0 just a few days later, and also named Man of the Match that afternoon.
Given the Covid-19 lockdown, this will be the Spurs’ final home league victory in front of supporters for 560 days. This is part of why it is ingrained in memories.
But overall, the Dutch winger actually scored just eight times in the Spurs’ 83 appearances, but he certainly did well to take them. Synonymous with his famous comeback at Leicester, he scored in 95 and 97 minutes, turning a 2-1 loss at King Power in January 2022 into a 3-2 victory.
Upon arriving at the club, short-lived manager Nuno Espirito Santo said Bergwin has a “unique” skill set among his team, and he said he is “a very talented player.”
Nevertheless, he was considered a surplus of requirements by Antonio Conte in the summer of 2022 and was sold to Ajax for £26.4 million.
During his two seasons in Amsterdam, his birth city, Bergwyn scored a respectable 29 goals in 80 appearances, including netting against both the Champions League Rangers and Napoli.
However, in September 2024 he chose a left field career and signed Al Ittihad, the pro league side of Saudi Arabia, leaving his hometown behind.
A month ago, the forward began two matches at the Euro 2024. This is included in the XI of the knockout tie with Romania and Türkiye.
However, after his move to the Middle East, Dutch boss Ronald Kayman publicly declared at a press conference that, as long as he is in charge, Bergwin can no longer be called out.
Well, despite this continued snub from his national team, the 27-year-old excelled last season and scored a goal for the Saudi Arabian professional league, a key figure when his team won the title.
To launch a new campaign, Bergwijn flares up, scoring four goals in three games, winning 4-2 at Al-Fateh on Friday, 4-2 as Laurent Blanc’s side was hit 2-1 by Al-Nassr in the Hong Kong Super Cup semi-finals.
This means he has scored 17 club goals since the start of last season.
What Koeman himself would definitely point out is that Bergwijn is playing at a fairly low level, and that the Saudi Arabian League ranks among the most powerful in the world.
Nevertheless, Bergwijn still knows where the back of the net is, and even if Simons’ ceiling is exponentially high, he might have been a useful player in Spurs if he was staying.