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West Ham are reportedly interested in signing a former Spurs player who struggled in the Premier League - so why would they bring him back?
It’s two years since Steven Bergwijn left Tottenham Hotspur to head back home to the Netherlands, bringing to a close a disappointing three-season spell in London in which he scored eight goals in 83 games and seldom reached the levels of performance Spurs would have expected for a player who cost them £25m plus add-ons. But despite that failure, Bergwijn could so be making a surprise return to the capital – if reports suggesting that West Ham United are interested are accurate.
According to Caught Offside, West Ham are considering offering Ajax around €20m (£16.8m) for the 26-year-old, with the Amsterdam side set to hold out for anything up to €35m (£29.4m), a fee similar to that which they paid when they signed him from Spurs in the first place. But why would the Hammers be keen to sign a player who didn’t look up to speed in the Premier League just a couple of short years ago?
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Bergwijn was seldom much more than a bit-part player at Spurs, but at Ajax – the club where his journey started as an academy player - he’s found his best form. He hit 12 goals in 24 Eredivisie games last season and has a total of 29 goals and 11 assists in his 76 appearances since returning to the Netherlands. In addition he’s been named Ajax captain and recalled to the Dutch national squad, appearing twice at Euro 2024 as his side made it as far as the semi-finals.
That’s quite a glow-up compared to where he was with Spurs two years ago, and the stats bear out that there has been a big difference in his performance levels – in his first two years at Tottenham, before he was restricted almost entirely to substitute appearances in the 2021/22 campaign, he averaged 0.14xG for every 90 minutes he played. Now, that number is over 0.4, an absolutely staggering step change, and he’s outscoring even that. His stats as a goalscorer put him up alongside the best forwards in the Netherlands.
And he’s doing plenty of good work elsewhere, too. His passing numbers are exceptional and his movement seems to have improved, and he’s provided more expected assists than actual ones, perhaps a testament to a relative lack of quality around him – this is an Ajax side that has struggled substantially in spells over the last couple of years, finishing fifth in the Eredivisie this year after a dangerous flirtation with the relegation zone in the autumn.
Much of his improvement can be attributed to Ajax using him in a far more aggressive manner than Spurs did. Bergwijn’s average position is considerably higher up the pitch and he’s been use as a left forward rather than as a supporting winger switching between the flanks. That positioning has allowed his excellent late movement and finishing to come to the fore without compromising his accurate and often inventive passing game.
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The last two years have provided some sound evidence that Bergwijn was misused at Spurs and that his relative failure reflects more on the fact that he didn’t suit the strategy there than it does on any faults of his own – but he might well fit in better at West Ham, where he would provide a suitably aggressive left-sided foil to Jarrod Bowen. Assuming Julen Lopetegui wants to continue with the broad brushstrokes of David Moyes’ front three set-up, Bergwijn may well fit in very nicely.
There are caveats, of course. Bergwijn was producing just as impressively with PSV Eindhoven before he left for Tottenham back in 2020 and it may well be that his improved performances reflect in part on his ability to exploit a lower standard of opposition more efficiently. There are also injury issues – he missed 19 matches in the 2023/24 season for club and country, half due to a serious hamstring injury and the rest due to a string of knocks, bumps and in one case even dental surgery. It may be that he is becoming a little injury prone.
Whatever the causes of his uptick in output and form, Bergwijn seems to have grown as a player and seems like a good tactical fit for a club who certainly need to add a left winger next season if they want to get back in the frame for European football. Whether they feel able to get up to Ajax’s asking price is unclear, and with the player contracted until 2027 it won’t be easy to strong-arm the Dutch side during negotiations, but if West Ham do make a move for him it could end up being much better business than many Spurs fans would expect.