Tottenham Hotspur doing major business late on transfer deadline day is hardly a surprise these days, but when the club agreed to part with £30 million – in instalments – to draft in Moussa Sissoko from Newcastle, the response was mixed, to say the least.
It’s never really a good sign when the selling club are holding street parties to celebrate the deal, and Tottenham fans were left feeling like they’d just bought a second hand car from a salesman who cackled in their face when the agreements were signed.
Throw in to the mix the last minute Everton u-turn, in which Sissoko stands accused of bailing on Ronald Koeman without notice to covertly sign for Spurs while the Merseyside club stood around an airfield unaware that they’d been jilted, and the whole situation doesn’t ever really begin to feel like a victory of recruitment.
That said, Tottenham fans have a reasonably good record of backing their major signings, even when the moves don’t immediately appear to be a success.
Luka Modric took a long time to settle before blossoming in to one of the greatest midfielders to ever grace the Premier League, but fans backed him throughout his transformation from diminutive left-wing ball player to metronomic central midfield genius.
Roberto Soldado, while never truly giving an accurate representation of himself in a Spurs shirt, still to this day enjoys cult hero status, with fans regularly engaging with him on social media.
In recent years both Erik Lamela and Hueng-Min Son have taken their time to settle before showing the true extent of their talents, but – for the large part – were encouraged to persevere, regardless of how out of form they appeared to be.
Very rarely do players fail to benefit from the hope and time afforded to them by those wanting to see them make a success of themselves the most, but for Moussa Sissoko, he has the misfortune of having his reputation precede him.
An attitude that was regularly boiled down to being selfish and uninterested married with an ego that feels well above its station, Sissoko spent the summer putting himself inside the shop window as best he could with the French national side, with both player and agent never turning down an opportunity to link themselves with a move to Real Madrid or PSG, having seemingly decided that both Newcastle and the Championship were beneath them.
By the time he joined Spurs, the move stank of desperation from both sides, with Tottenham keen to add another body in to a small squad and Sissoko doing everything in his power to avoid ever having to face the Newcastle fans again.
Where the main friction of the move has existed, and a large reason as to why Tottenham fans are far more prepared to rubbish Sissoko sooner than any player than has come before him, is because at the most basic level, the transfer never really made any sense.
Despite publicly calling for a more direct attacker to be introduced to the side, Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t really jump out as the sort of coach who’d want to spend his time trying to keep Sissoko motivated and interested enough to give his all for the cause, and that’s the exact mindset and attitude that’s been collectively adopted across the club, taking a significant portion of the credit for turning the club around in the post-Sherwood ditch they found themselves in. Moussa Sissoko has presented himself as the antithesis of what has made Tottenham the team they are under Pochettino, and he’s done nothing since arriving at the club to make anyone think any different.
His biggest contribution to date has been a somewhat contentious red card for violent conduct, and all that really achieved was Spurs fans asking the FA if there was any way in which the ban could be extended.
The one place Tottenham fans want to see Sissoko behaving like the headline show, believing his own hype and acting like he belongs at Real Madrid is when he’s on the field, but to date, his performances and yielded zero tangible return.
While he might occasionally attempt to knock the ball past a full-back and beat him around the outside, the rest of the time – as harsh as it sounds – Sissoko is little more than an empty shirt. Having already begun his Tottenham career at a deserved disadvantage, all he’s succeeded in doing thus far is to reinforce the negative impression of himself that Newcastle fans were only happy to share, creating an evil bigger hill for himself to climb in the eyes of the supporters.
While it’s understandable to feel some sympathy for Sissoko – the red card especially was much more to do with clumsiness than malice – it’s hard to ignore that this is a broken relationship of his own making. Tottenham fans only have a preconceived notion of the man he is because of how he behaved during his time at Newcastle, and that was only amplified by his constant search for headlines in the summer and the reported antics he and his agent underwent to get him to Tottenham on transfer deadline day while another club were unfairly left in the dark having had their agreement silently shat on.
For all we know, Sissoko could be the victim of some seriously poor leadership from those in his inner circle, but as Tottenham showed in selling Nabil Bentaleb during the same window as the Frenchman was brought in, that sort of disruptive influence from an entourage rarely ends well.
It is important to remember, however, that Sissoko remains an incredibly talented and able footballer, and that’s a large reason as to why so many find his lack of engagement frustrating. Theoretically in his prime at 27, he has every physical attribute required to be a success in this Tottenham side, and it wouldn’t be the first time somebody has needed a little bit of time to get used to what Mauricio Pochettino demands before truly finding their feet.
His talent is clearly no mystery to him, either, with his performances for France amongst the best for his country across the entirety of Euro 2016, and those showings offered some initial hope for Tottenham fans looking to see that level of play down the right hand side of their own team. There’s every chance that Sissoko could have a the penny drop before its too late during his time at Spurs, after all, talent isn’t the issue, but he shouldn’t be expecting a helping hand from those in the stands if he doesn’t offer something to begin with.
In the middle of a tough period, it’s only natural that things start to get a little bit hostile amongst the fans and questions begin to be asked of those representing them on the field. While most in the Tottenham squad are in credit with the fanbase and can afford to hit a bump in the road without becoming a serious cause for concern, Sissoko has set a precedent for himself that’s continued in to his time at Spurs, and that’s only going to get worse the longer he fails to perform or show some tangible level of commitment or understanding on the field. While this could quickly descend in to the realms of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, it’s hard to argue that Moussa Sissoko is anything other than a victim of his own reputation, which should be cause for concern enough for the player to buck his ideas up. If not, then this is a poor show that’s only going to get worse, and nobody can deny Newcastle fans their opportunity to say that they told you so if this does come to its seemingly inevitable conclusion.