Johnson proving doubters wrong at Spurs
Wales forward Brennan Johnson has "proved people wrong" with his performances for Tottenham, says club and country teammate Ben Davies. Johnson capped an impressive season by scoring the Europa League final winner against Manchester United last month to earn Spurs their first trophy since 2008.The goal was Johnson's 20th of the campaign for club and country, a goal-scoring tally which Davies says is a fitting riposte to criticism the forward received in the early stages of his Spurs career following a £45m move from Nottingham Forest."Brennan's shown this year that he's a top, top player and proven a lot of people wrong," said Davies, who's preparing for Wales' June World Cup qualifiers. Johnson struggled for consistency when he first moved to north London, scoring just five goals for Spurs in 2023-24, prompting criticism from fans on social media that even led the player to deactivate his Instagram account.But Davies believes the 24-year-old's form in 2024-25 - which included scoring in seven successive games for club and country at one point - proves he does have the calibre to thrive at Spurs.
Similarly, Davies believes Johnson can re-produce his club form on the international stage, having scored just five Wales goals since making his senior debut in 2020, and struggled at times to live up to predictions he could become the country's key player following Gareth Bale's retirement. "I hope so," said Davies when asked if Wales fans will now see the best of Johnson in a red shirt. "We've got full confidence in him in this Wales squad that he can replicate his form from his club here."He works hard, he trains hard, we love having him round the place, and I feel like we've got the best Brennan we can at the moment."Davies, who along with Johnson is preparing for Wales' World Cup qualifiers against Liechtenstein on 6 June and Belgium three days later, says there's "no update" on his future at Spurs with his current contract expiring at the end of June.The 32-year-old played a prominent role in Spurs' run to the Europa League final, but he was an unused substitute in Bilbao as Johnson stole the limelight to end Spurs' 17-year wait for a trophy. "It was obviously a great feeling (to win the trophy)," said Davies. "It's always a huge honour to win anything, but it's a tournament I played a lot of games in and it was really nice to get over the line."We had a couple of days celebrating before we had another (Premier League) game. But that's football - you just keep going on that merry-go-round."
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