Tottenham Hotspur are in a stage of transition this year, beacuse after winning the Europa League, they replaced their coach, signed two of the three most expensive players in club history, and, maybe most importantly, finally gave chairman Daniel Levy the axe just days after the summer transfer window closed.
So far, Tottenham have been an improved team to start the 2025/26 Premier League season, as last year's 17th-placed outfit have only lost one game in five with three of those five victories being a clean sheet. They are looking more secure and playing better football under new coach Thomas Frank than they were under recent Nottingham Forest hire Ange Postecoglou.
However, not everything is perfect for Tottenham, and as they continue to tweak the squad in Frank's image with new star-making additions, they are going to have to get real and make some brutal cuts to clear the way for the new faces.
One of those cuts could be the hero who won Tottenham the Europa League over Manchester United and scored more goals than any other player in the 2024/25 season, Brennan Johnson.
Now, Johnson is a smart player who has a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and Tottenham spent a lot of money to sign him ahead of clubs like Brentford, back when Frank was pushing hard to sign him for the Bees.
The thing is, Johnson doesn't really offer much besides scrappy goals. He doesn't score many great individual goals, he barely progresses the ball, he can't win one-on-ones, he's a liability in his own half, his defensive work is atrocious, and he offers no chance creation or creativity.
Johnson has two goals already this season, but Spurs quickly had to drop him from the starting lineup after a true disasterclass against Bournemouth. He was so bad that he didn't look like he belonged on a Premier League pitch, and, sadly, Tottenham fans saw scenes like that often last season.
He has come off the bench in his last two games against West Ham and Brighton, offering nothing in either appearance. He was particularly appalling on the left wing against Brighton, somehow being a downgrade on Wilson Odobert with no relevant attacking addition and only backwards passes.
With Mohammed Kudus sealing the right wing as his own as the team's new attacking star, Tottenham have no place for Johnson there. And he has been so awful on the left side that there's no place for him there either, unless Spurs want to risk losing every game like they did against Bournemouth. He is untenable in that position.
Johnson is a good player and still only 24 years old. That said, he's also no longer a prospect. At this stage, he is who he is, and that is a flawed, secondary goal-scorer who can't play at striker or anywhere else other than the right wing. And when he isn't getting on the end of team goals as a poacher on the wings, he isn't offering much.
Tottenham may have to sacrifice him for a new left winger who can play that position, because with Dejan Kulusevski also coming back to be the second fiddle to Kudus on the right wing, there's just no space left for Johnson, especially if he keeps dropping all-around stinkers.