While the Morgan Gibbs-White pursuit looks like becoming a saga, Tottenham Hotspur have relatively decisively wrapped up a move for Mohammed Kudus.
Arriving as their first major signing since Thomas Frank’s appointment as head coach, Kudus slides across London from West Ham United in a £55m deal.
After an underwhelming 2024/25, what impact will the 24-year-old attacking midfielder have in Fantasy Premier League (FPL)?
We’ll take a look during this Moving Target piece, including data and images from our Premium Members Area.
HISTORY
At Nordsjaelland, the Ghanaian impressed Ajax enough for the Dutch giants to make a move in 2020.
While an early meniscus injury kept Kudus out for several months, he went on to win consecutive Eredivisie titles before catching attention with his 2022/23 breakthrough.
It wasn’t just his 11 league goals. He netted four times in a Champions League group featuring Liverpool, Napoli and Rangers.
| SEASON | CLUB | DIVISION | STARTS (SUB) | GOALS | ASSISTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | West Ham | Premier League | 31 (1) | 5 | 4 |
| 2023/24 | West Ham | Premier League | 27 (6) | 8 | 9 |
| 2022/23 | Ajax | Eredivisie | 19 (11) | 11 | 4 |
| 2021/22 | Ajax | Eredivisie | 4 (12) | 1 | 1 |
| 2020/21 | Ajax | Eredivisie | 8 (9) | 4 | 3 |
| 2019/20 | FC Nordsjaelland | Danish Superliga | 22 (3) | 11 | 1 |
He even found time to score a goodbye hat-trick versus Ludogorets in August 2023, before sealing the switch to England.
From the initial £100m received for Declan Rice, West Ham dedicated a larger chunk to Kudus than to other incomings. Fans quickly discovered why.
Season one peaked with a 10-match winter spell of five goals and four assists, while he scored another five during their run to the Europa League quarter-finals. One of them – an incredible solo effort versus Freiburg – was nominated for FIFA’s end-of-year Puskas Award.
The spectacular strikes didn’t end there either, as acrobatic moments stunned Brentford and Manchester City. As for FPL, a brace against Wolverhampton Wanderers brought in a 16-point haul, later racking up 12 at Newcastle United.
However, in 2024/25, no double-digit tallies took place. Only once did Kudus exceed seven points. Accusations of the attacking midfielder not putting in the graft became more frequent from the Hammers’ faithful.
And after putting West Ham 1-0 up at *checks notes* Spurs last October, he was sent off and given a five-match ban for hitting Micky van de Ven‘s face.
Luckily, there’s already an uploaded video of the new teammates definitely shaking hands. But these rival teams aren’t usually as friendly with each other.
COMPARING HIS TWO FPL SEASONS
With the early 00s flurry of Frederic Kanoute, Jermain Defoe and Michael Carrick long gone, it’s very rare for them to do business together. This is the first time since 2011, when the recently-relegated Hammers sold Scott Parker and loaned in David Bentley.
Is it, therefore, a huge red flag that West Ham were willing to sell Kudus to Spurs for far below his £85m domestic release clause? Or is it deemed a necessary sacrifice that allows Graham Potter’s overhaul to take place?
Playing a similar amount of league minutes in both campaigns (2,521, then 2,591), the latest one brought a big drop from 17 attacking returns.
Part of this can be explained by managerial upheaval and the team dropping down to 14th – still higher than Spurs – but looking at Kudus’ underlying data tells a different story.
| 2024/25 | 2023/24 | |
|---|---|---|
| FPL points | 106 | 137 |
| Goals + assists | 9 | 17 |
| Attempts | 75 | 67 |
| Shots on target | 21 | 17 |
| Big chances | 10 | 6 |
| Penalty area touches | 142 | 116 |
| Chances created | 31 | 28 |
| Big chances created | 4 | 5 |
| Expected goals (xG) | 6.90 | 5.14 |
| Expected goal involvement (xGI) | 9.60 | 8.81 |
Using our Members Area to compare, he was actually better in season two.
The first was a huge overachievement for expected goal involvement (xGI, +8.19). This time had him more productive in most areas, such as chances created, expected goals (xG) and touches in the box.
Above: Statsbomb shows that several low xG Kudus shots became goals in 2023/24
Furthermore, Kudus ended with a greater number of shots than Chris Wood, Luis Diaz and Jean-Philippe Mateta, a higher number on target than Morgan Rogers, more big chances than Matheus Cunha and an xGI tally that bettered Anthony Elanga.
Despite this, he didn’t finish among the best 45 FPL midfielders.
Though what both seasons have in common is this strong dribbler being the league’s number one for attempted take-ons.
Above: Players ranked by total attempted take-ons during 2023/24 (left) and 2024/25 (right)
Using his low centre of gravity, Kudus is a superb ball carrier and can attract lots of fouls. That’s potentially good news for Spurs’ set-piece takers.
WHERE KUDUS FITS IN AT SPURS
It should fit in well with Frank’s preferred style of quick and direct attacks. So it’s just a question of where he’ll be deployed.
“I’m a very direct winger, strong, very good at taking players on and creating chances, so there is a lot of flair in my game. I like to entertain the fans as well.” – Mohammed Kudus to the Spurs website
The left-footed attacker prefers the right flank, but the untouchable presence of Jarrod Bowen forced Kudus to showcase his versatility once Potter came in and applied a wing-back system.
Above: A graphic from Sky Sports showing the many positions of Kudus
He’s spoken of the frustrations this brings, but has been professional about it.
“When you play in a certain position for a long period of time, it becomes natural. The movements are natural. But being versatile is good for the coach, especially with the injuries. I can play a number of positions and I don’t mind that and I don’t mind doing a job for the team to get the three points.” – Mohammed Kudus to Sky Sports
Right now, his new side employs Dominic Solanke, Son Heung-min, Brennan Johnson, Mathys Tel, Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison. We might soon be able to add Gibbs-White to the mix, too.
Until several of these names depart, our resident Spurs fan, Sam Bonfield, thinks there’s lots of uncertainty about Kudus’ main position. She spoke about this on one of our recent videos.
“What we seem to have is a lot of players who can play a bit of everywhere. Even Tel, he can play on the left or the centre-forward position. Now that’s great, it’s helpful because it gives you better backups. I just don’t know that Kudus is the thing that we’re missing.” – Sam Bonfield from FPLFamily
“You would expect that Johnson would be out on the right. The left is more contentious because I’m not convinced that Son is still going to be at Spurs next season. Even if he is, I’m not convinced he’s going to get the same level of minutes.
“We’ve just signed Tel full-time, maybe he wants to give [Maddison] more game time, so maybe he puts Johnson on the left.” – Sam Bonfield from FPLFamily
Frank surely has a position in mind. While Potter inherited Kudus, Spurs have actively gone out and bought him for £55m. And West Ham didn’t really have a striker, whereas the Lilywhites do.
Perhaps Frank intends to play Kudus on the right, as his next Bryan Mbeumo. But that’s Johnson’s best position – he was the club’s leading player for goals (11) and FPL points (137).
WILL KUDUS BE WORTH BUYING IN FPL?
Either way, Spurs fans can be hopeful that their new signing will be a success. Not needing Premier League adaptation is good, as are the two seasons of underlying stats.
Because, as excellent as his 2023/24 was, numbers say he was even more threatening in 2024/25. Sometimes players just fit better in a different team.
Tottenham’s campaign begins at home to Burnley and the early fixtures are generally attractive.
But competition for places is currently strong. Although Frank won’t ignore the league like Ange Postecoglou did near the end, there’ll still be rotation once the Champions League gets underway after Gameweek 4.
- READ MORE: When are the FPL Blank and Double Gameweeks in 2025/26?
- READ MORE: All Tottenham 2025/26 Premier League fixtures + key dates
Sam reckons a better, more reliable Spurs attacker will emerge for investment.
“I don’t think he comes in as the best Spurs attacker to own. I’d still rather go for Solanke. And depending upon who we see playing in the Damsgaard role during friendlies and the Super Cup, I’d rather have them. If it’s Kulu or if it’s Madders, he’ll be high on my wishlist.” – Sam Bonfield from FPLFamily
“It doesn’t make me feel lots of joy, as a Spurs fan. And as an FPL manager, I’m very lukewarm to this one. Whereas last summer, when we got Solanke, I ripped my FPL team up to bring him into it.” – Sam Bonfield from FPLFamily
Initially priced at £6.5m both times, this high-profile move probably keeps him there for 2025/26, rather than dropping to £6.0m.
As exciting as Kudus can be, we need lineup answers from their final friendly and upcoming European Super Cup encounter.
