Whilst the Frenchman’s excellent performances at Euro 2016 raised interest from various European super clubs, many Newcastle fans would have been bemused at the sky high potential transfer fee’s banded around for Moussa Sissoko given his disappearing act last season.
Mauricio Pochettino, not exactly seen as a fool in the transfer stakes, spent £30m acquiring the powerful midfielder in a bid to turbo charge their Premier League ambitions. Only thing is, Sissoko has hardly contributed to his sides cause since signing months prior, much to his managers frustration.
Whilst the former Toulouse youngster’s early Spurs career has been blighted by a three-game ban for an elbow aimed at Bournemouth’s Harry Arter, eyebrows were raised when Sissoko failed to make the match day squad for the weekends derby against high flying Chelsea.
Quizzed on the his missing Frenchman, the Argentine coach commented;
“Football is not about money, It is about players being better, and that they show on the training ground that they are better than another team-mate and that they deserve to be involved or not. In my opinion, I need to take the decisions and I believe that the players that started in the game [on Saturday] and the players on the bench deserved to be involved in the game. There’s nothing else to [read into] it.
“It’s not frustrating for me. It’s about football. We can see in football different things that happen. You sign a player and then you expect something, and you don’t find what you expected … If another deserved to be involved, like maybe [Georges-Kévin] Nkoudou or Josh Onomah, or [Vincent] Janssen, then why not? Just because we pay money [for someone], do they deserve to play? Sissoko needs to work hard and to show in future that he deserves to be on the team.”
Signed by Newcastle United in 2013 for a lowly £1.5 million, Moussa Sissoko quickly gained the adulation of the St James’s Park faithful with a string of blinding performances. However, like many of his fellow teammates, the midfielder gained a reputation as a player only willing to try in order to get a bigger and better move. Undeniably a talented and effective player on the pitch, the Le Blanc-Mesnil born French international became inconsistent and unfocused for much of the previous campaign, a rotten season which saw Newcastle United relegated from the Premier League.
(Via the Guardian)