Tottenham Hotspur Fan View: Sissoko Out, Honda In?

That didn’t take long. Reports this week suggesting that Italian leviathans Juventus and Inter Milan are both eager to take Moussa Sissoko off to Serie A, a whole three months after signing for Spurs.

Things aren’t going too swimmingly for Sissoko at White Hart Lane, it’s fair to say. And if you think no reasoned mortal would ever write-off a player after just 10 muddled appearances, well, guess again. Some Spurs fans have already seen enough.

Alas, Sissoko’s lifecycle at Tottenham began in minus credit, after he declared his deep-rooted and untamed love for their North London rivals. Rarely a wise gambit, even if the damning remarks were voiced before he’d even signed.

Beautiful Arsenal…the club of my heart. For some, it’s the Great Modern Love Story. For the rest of you emotionless robots, it’s just not on.

It also won’t have escaped the notice of those connected to Tottenham, that Moussa Sissoko literally stopped trying in his last fateful season at Newcastle. When the North East club desperately needed their blue chip earners to get stuck in, to help prevent the undignified slope into the Championship, where was Sissoko? Planning an escape route, naturally:

‘The club will not want to let me go’, he told us in January. ‘Like every player I dream of winning titles and matches in the biggest clubs. I will think about my future after the Euros’

Focused on the job at hand, as ever.

There were more iffy goings-on when Sissoko did finally make his debut in Europe’s elite club competition, after insisting that is was the only stage for him. The Frenchman looked so far out of his depth someone should’ve called for the lifeguard.

It wasn’t just a one-off, either. He went on to produce a string of inept performances in Spurs’ disastrous Champions League campaign. Here’s the grand sum of his efforts against Bayer Leverkusen last month.

The real question is: has Pochettino had enough? Has his patience been pushed to the point that he’d consider offering the club’s record singing out in January? His words after the Chelsea game don’t exactly make encouraging reading:

“If you sign a player and you expect something and you do not find what you expect… of course he needs to work hard and show in the future he deserves to be involved in the team.”

Elsewhere, there’s been some murmuring in the press this week that Japanese midfielder Keisuke Honda might be available in January; the 30-year-old is currently out of favour at Milan, having only made two appearances for Vincenzo Montella’s lot this season.

Some would suggest that it’s about six years too late for Tottenham. One of the underrated stars of World Cup 2010, Honda would’ve been an ideal purchase heading into Spurs’ maiden Champions League campaign in 2010/11. They ended up signing some unknown Dutchman instead. Can’t remember his name.