Moussa Sissoko has admitted he considered leaving the Spurs at the end of last season but Mauricio Pochettino convinced him to stay.
Sissoko was, in all senses of the word, a flop after joining from Newcastle for a then club record £30million. Didier Deschamps (France Manager) dropped him from his squad in March, which further threw his club future into doubt ahead of next summer’s World Cup in Russia
However, in a somewhat miraculous turnaround, the 28-year-old has improved ten fold this season, to the point of featuring in every Premier League match so far culminating in scoring his first goal for the club in Saturday’s 4-0 win at Huddersfield.
This week,the often maligned, Sissoko revealed that his club manager Mauricio Pochettino persuaded him not to leave during the club’s post-season trip to Hong Kong.
The Frenchman explained “I thought about it at the end of last season with my agent and we decided that the best thing was to stay here with a year until the World Cup, even though I didn’t play too much last season,”
He continued “I’m not the first nor the last player to have a difficult first season at a new club and we thought everything was in place for me to flourish at Tottenham. Today, I tell myself, of course, that it was the right choice.
“My relationship with Pochettino is the simple one between coach and player. He talks to me to explain things on the pitch, to explain how to play. Sometimes there are discussions about things outside of football. We have quite a simple interaction, like with most of the players. The small discussion took place at the end of last season during a tournament in Hong Kong.
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“I wanted to know more about my future and about how things would go in the new season. We had a talk, everything was clear for me and for him. After that, we made the choice to stay at Tottenham.”
Sissoko opened his Spurs account at the John Smith’s Stadium with a close-range, deflected finish on his 44th appearance for the club and he was both relieved & proud to prove his doubters wrong.
“I felt relief, a release. It was a moment of enormous joy, because I’d been waiting for that goal for a while,” Sissoko added, in an interview with FootMercato. “It’s also linked to a difficult last season. However, I never give up. People often say that you learn most in difficult periods.
“Those difficult times allowed me to ask myself the right questions, think about it, work even more and bounce back. Today, things have turned around.
“You’re always proud when you manage to contradict the things that have been said about you.”
Sissoko’s form has earned him a recall to the France squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Bulgaria and Belarus over the next week, and he added: “I’ve been rewarded for my work, my efforts and my desire not to give up on anything.
So the often derided Sissoko has turned his career around. He’s played an important role while Mousa Dembele has struggled with injury and after a tough start to his Tottenham career he’s starting to show why we shelled out so much cash for him.
What do you guys think, will the France international keep it up for the long arduous season ahead or is this the best we will see of him. Let us know your thoughts.
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