Spurs’ £18m flop is now surprisingly taking part in soccer in Slovakia

Tottenham Hotspur’s 2017/18 season was seen as very hit-and-miss.

In what was one other trophyless season, the Lilywhites completed third within the Premier League securing European soccer.

Within the UEFA Champions League, the north London aspect was overturned by Juventus, which resulted in Giorgio Chiellini producing his well-known ‘It’s the historical past of Tottenham’ line which remains to be quoted at present.

Spurs’ largest win of the season might have been offloading a £70k-per-week dud for a whopping £18m, one who made simply 15 Premier League appearances for the eight-time FA Cup winners, as he now finds himself taking part in in Slovakia.

Who joined Tottenham within the 2015/16 season?

The yr of 2016 was one thing to overlook for Tottenham followers. Spurs had been neck and neck with Leicester Metropolis for the Premier League title which they in the end missed out on and to make the scenario even worse, metropolis rivals Arsenal pipped them to second place.

The one silver lining to the 2015/16 season was that the north London aspect landed some superb additions to their squad.

Like the vast majority of his time at Tottenham, former supervisor Mauricio Pochettino went for a youth-focused switch technique bringing in gamers simply earlier than their prime and for comparatively little cash.

The switch window was an total success because the signings of Trippier, Son and Alderweireld laid down the foundations for a squad that started to qualify for the Champions League for a succession of seasons.

Son lit up the Bundesliga the season previous to his transfer to Spurs, with the winger scoring 11 and helping 3 targets in his 30 appearances, serving to Leverkusen to a stable fourth-place end.

Son, now 31, has racked up over 150 aim contributions for the Lilywhites and the South Korean took dwelling the Premier League Golden Boot in 2022 (23 targets) displaying his signing was the spotlight of the window.

Nevertheless, the then 22-year-old Wimmer was a shock signing with English spectators figuring out little or no concerning the 6ft2 centre-back.

Why did Tottenham purchase Kevin Wimmer?

Wimmer regarded like the right singing for Pochettino, Spurs would get a younger and ‘established’ defender for simply £4m whereas the Austrian would get his ‘dream transfer’ to White Hart Lane, it appeared like a win-win for each events.

Throughout his time at Koln, the Austrian powerhouse had averaged 1.1 tackles per sport and was dribbled simply 0.2 instances per sport which might be key if he was to outlive in a extra bodily league the place attackers will attempt to take you on extra constantly.

To place this into context, the Tottenham centre-back Jan Vertonghen was dribbled previous on common 0.7 instances per Premier League sport within the 2014/15 season.

Wimmer additionally averaged 0.5 dribbles per sport whereas averaging 5.4 lengthy balls per sport displaying he was able to being a contemporary ball-playing centre-back that would assist begin assaults not simply finish the oppositions.

One of many key elements as to why Spurs bought the Austrian was to enhance squad depth and Tottenham lacked defenders and desperately wanted reinforcements.

The 2015/16 season noticed the departures of some defenders for the north London membership. Fazio moved to Sevilla on mortgage in January whereas Vlad Chiriches and Younes Kaboul had moved completely from White Hart Lane to Napoli and Sunderland respectively.

Tottenham had been left with simply three centre-back choices within the type of Alderweireld, Vertonghen and Wimmer.

How did Kevin Wimmer play at Spurs?

The Austrian’s time in north London was comparatively quick and slightly unsuccessful.

Throughout his two years at Tottenham, Wimmer made 31 appearances in whole with solely 15 being within the Premier League.

In his first season within the white and navy shirt, Wimmer performed 10 instances within the Premier League with solely a type of coming from the bench. The left-footed defender averaged two interceptions per sport which began to point out why the Spurs recruitment staff confirmed religion in him.

Wimmer additionally began in six UEFA Europa League video games and completed the competitors with a Sofascore ranking of seven.03 as Spurs topped a gaggle that contained Qarabağ, Anderlecht and Monaco.

The next season was the start of the Austrian’s downfall in a Spurs shirt. Within the 2016/17 season, Wimmer performed simply six instances within the Premier League as struggled to outperform Alderweireld and Vertonghen. His performances and the pitch had been lower than the usual of a membership gunning for Champions League qualification the place he was later bought to Stoke Metropolis for £18m.

Daniel Levy caught gold as he managed to extract £18m for the 6 foot 2 defender which meant the Tottenham chairman left the negotiating desk with £14m revenue – over quadruple what Spurs paid for the 6ft2 centre-back.

Talking on the signing of Wimmer, then-Stoke supervisor Mark Hughes, stated:

“We’re actually happy with what we’ve completed this summer time, particularly within the defensive positions.

“Bringing Kevin here’s a actual coup in my opinion as a result of he’s a vastly proficient younger participant who will undoubtedly add additional high quality to the group.

“As quickly as the opportunity of bringing Kevin right here introduced itself to us, we moved shortly on it, and have managed to get the deal completed, so we’re understandably delighted to have introduced him in.”

Wimmer in the end continued to wrestle within the Premier League and was later dubbed a “flop” by journalist John Percy, leaving the Bet365 Stadium on a free in 2021 after making simply 17 Premier League appearances for the Potters.

The place is Kevin Wimmer now?

After a quick spell in his native Austria with Fast Wien, Wimmer now finds himself contracted to Slovakian giants Slovan Bratislava.

The previous UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup champions have beforehand had gamers resembling Marek Hamšík and Watford’s Giorgi Chakvetadze on their books.

The £400k-valued man joined SK Slovan Bratislava in the summertime on a free switch and has to this point made seven appearances in all competitions.

Wimmer might have had the final snort because the Slovakian runners-up will likely be taking part in European soccer this season within the Europa Convention League, while Stoke stay caught within the Championship and Spurs discover themselves bored on midweek nights.