Mauricio Pochettino has explained why Tottenham Hotspur’s most expensive signing of the summer was not part of the matchday squad against Chelsea on Saturday.
Tottenham’s unbeaten streak in the Premier League came to a bitter end as they lost 2-1 to London rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. It rounded off a terrible week for Spurs, in which they were also eliminated from the Champions League.
The stress of two elite competitions proved to be too much for Pochettino’s men, despite some notable arrivals in the summer. Mauricio Pochettino has now fired a warning at their most expensive signing of the summer Moussa Sissoko, who was left out of the squad for the Chelsea game even though he was fit to play.
“He was at home, he wasn’t here,” said Pochettino, according to the Daily Mail. “He needs to work hard and to show in future that he deserves to be on the team.”
In January this year, the Argentine had stated that if Tottenham were to spend £25m-£30m on a player, then they would expect the player to perform like Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar do for their respective clubs.
Pochettino had also said that such a player would have to start performing immediately, and the club couldn’t afford to wait for him to adapt and find form.
French midfielder Moussa Sissoko joined Tottenham from Newcastle United for £30 million, after a very impressive outing with France at Euro 2016. The 27-year-old was inconsistent at best for Newcastle during his time at the club, but his performances with France caught the eye of many of Europe’s top clubs.
La Liga giants Real Madrid were consistently tipped as favourites to sign the 27-year-old, while even the likes of Inter Milan, Chelsea and Liverpool were rumoured to be interested in the Frenchman.
Sissoko ended up making an unexpected move to Tottenham Hotspur instead. However, it now looks like this could be the worst transfer of the summer. The former Newcastle midfielder has made ten appearances for Spurs in the Premier League and Champions League, but has failed to have any sort of impact.
If his performances don’t improve, Tottenham could ship him out of the club sooner rather than later.
