Vincent Janssen Won't Be Another Sergei Rebrov for Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly set to complete the signing of AZ Alkmaar forward Vincent Janssen this week.

Per Darren Lewis of the Daily Mirror, the 22-year-old is keen to join Mauricio Pochettino's team and a fee around £16 million should see the deal go through.

Janssen has played only one season of top-flight football but hit 31 goals in 49 games, and he collected the Eredivisie Golden Boot and led Alkmaar to fourth place. He has also scored three goals in his five appearances for the Dutch national team.

Spurs have been desperate to add a striker to their ranks for over a year. Harry Kane has consistently exceeded expectations, but fatigue became an obvious factor toward the end of last season.

Should this deal be completed, Pochettino will have Kane, Janssen and the convalescent Clinton Njie to rotate between. According to Lewis, Tottenham will seek to add another player to that group, but it is a strong trio and should be sufficient for its purposes.

Spurs should be flattered that a player of obvious quality has reportedly turned down moves to both West Ham United and Paris Saint-Germain, according to Lewis, as he has his heart set on north London.

Tottenham have an abject record in terms of signing high-priced forwards, though, and the disastrous acquisition of Ukrainian forward Sergei Rebrov has long stood as a monument to their inability to master the transfer market.

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The £11 million fee remained a club record until the 2007 signing of Darren Bent, but Rebrov remains a byword among Tottenham fans for an overpriced, poorly suited signing.

Bent, while a comparably hapless player, does not match Rebrov's ignominy, as the club inexplicably convinced Sunderland to part with £16.5 million in exchange for his signature.

Roberto Soldado, briefly another club-record signing before being eclipsed by Erik Lamela, is the most recent addition to Tottenham's haul of expensive but ultimately unhelpful forwards. As popular as the Spaniard remains for his social-media profile, he struggled to put the ball in the net.

Russian Roman Pavlyuchenko, signed after impressing at Euro 2008, was a qualified success. His less-than-energetic performances frustrated, but 42 goals in 113 appearances—including four in the Champions League—is an adequate return.

Players who dominate the Dutch league are not always successful when they move abroad. Alfred Finnbogason, Mounir El Hamdaoui, Mateja Kezman and, most infamously, Afonso Alves have all topped the Eredivisie scoring charts in the last decade, but none succeeded after transferring to more competitive leagues.

However, Luis Suarez, Wilfried Bony, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Bas Dost all shone after moving on.

Generally, the players who excel in the Netherlands but struggle elsewhere are overly reliant on physical attributes. Strength and pace are in relatively short supply among the Eredivisie's poorer clubs, so unremarkable but physically gifted players are able to shine. Those players are then exposed by superior athletes in Europe's top leagues.

Janssen will not have that problem. He learned his trade at the vaunted Feyenoord Academy—the Rotterdam football factory that produced, among 11 of the Dutch 2014 FIFA World Cup squad, Robin van Persie.

Janssen has excellent technique, is comfortably two-footed and is physically powerful; all the right attributes to continue to develop as a player alongside more talented team-mates.

Fred Grim, who has managed Janssen with both Almere City and the Dutch Under-21 team, seemingly described Pochettino's dream forward when he explained his qualities to ESPN (h/t Football Oranje).

Grim said: "He keeps the ball well with his back to the goal. He knows how to position himself. He is quick and makes the right movements. He works hard without the ball and puts a lot of pressure on the defenders."

His hold-up play in combination with his intelligence makes him an ideal addition to a Tottenham squad replete with goalscorers.

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The likes of Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Dele Alli will thrive on Janssen's ability to feed possession into tight spaces.

His national-team manager Danny Blind said, per Football Oranje, "He just keeps adjusting to a higher level. I'm wondering where it ends."

Of course, there is risk with any transfer, but Janssen seems to be the right player for the right team, and his arrival would lift Spurs. He would be a competitor with and an ideal team-mate for Kane and allow Pochettino greater tactical flexibility.

Rebrov, Bent, Pavlyuchenko, Soldado. The line ends with Janssen.