Xavi Simons is not having the season anyone anticipated when Tottenham paid €65 million to bring him to north London, and now one of the club’s most celebrated former players has gone public with his frustration.
Rafael van der Vaart, speaking on Ziggo Sport’s Rondo programme as reported by De Telegraaf, did not hold back in his assessment of the 22-year-old, admitting he has been left deeply disappointed by what he has seen so far at Spurs.
“He disappoints me,” Van der Vaart said plainly. “I had expected much more from him. He wants so badly to show how good he is. That has the opposite effect. He was the young talent, and everyone was talking about him. He is still playing a bit like that.”
This is a pointed critique from someone who knows exactly what it takes to perform at Tottenham, and it reflects a growing sentiment among supporters and observers that Simons has not delivered on his enormous potential since arriving in the Premier League.
Xavi Simons Tottenham numbers make for uncomfortable reading compared to Leipzig form
The statistics underline the problem starkly.
At RB Leipzig, Simons contributed 22 goals and 24 assists across 78 games. On loan at PSV Eindhoven, he managed 22 goals and 11 assists in 48 appearances.
At Tottenham, across 38 games, he has four goals and five assists in total and just one goal and four assists in 25 Premier League appearances this season alone. For a player who cost €65 million, those are numbers that simply do not stack up.
Transfermarkt now value him at €50 million, a drop of €15 million from his transfer fee in the space of a single difficult season.
That decline in valuation speaks to how far Simons has fallen short of the level that made him one of the most exciting young attackers in Europe just twelve months ago. RB Leipzig, for their part, appear to have had the better of that deal.
Van der Vaart’s frustration was compounded by how good Simons looked before arriving in England. “At Leipzig he really had a good spell. Tottenham is nothing at all. After PSV, he also showed it in the Bundesliga,” he added, making clear that this is not a case of a player who was overrated before his move, it is a player who has regressed significantly since making it.
Dutch legend Ruud Gullit has also been watching and left with unanswered questions of his own. “He is hyped. I still don’t really know how good he could be,” Gullit said.
That kind of uncertainty from two of Dutch football’s most respected figures, both of whom have watched Simons up close throughout his career, tells you everything about how confusing his Tottenham spell has been for those who know him best.
What Xavi Simons needs to turn around his Tottenham career heading into next season?
Simons has been operating in a Tottenham side that has been in crisis for much of the season, cycling through managers and performing well below expectations as a collective. It is not easy to express yourself as an attacking player in that environment, and at 22 there is clearly still time for him to turn things around.
But the window of patience will not stay open indefinitely.
Tottenham paid serious money for Simons on the basis of his Leipzig and PSV performances, and those returns are a very long way from being replicated in the Premier League.
With Roberto De Zerbi arriving at the helm, he will assess the squad from scratch and Simons will need to make a strong impression quickly to secure a central role going forward.
