Bad buy: Spurs were bled £48M by 6 ft 1 disappointment, he was worse than Hojbjerg

Following the summertime hiring of Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham Hotspur has improved. To get the team to the level needed to compete at the top against Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool, work still has to be done.

In addition, last season’s problems ended dreams of participating in Europe this year, and club record scorer Harry Kane chose to join Bayern Munich in the Premier League, highlighting the need for radical change.

Even though the team’s performance has fluctuated during the season, Tottenham is progressing and has received a number of new players.

The most well-known player in the club who may go soon is Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, a center-midfielder. However, there is still debris to sort through.

Hojbjerg’s future with the Spurs

When Hojbjerg came from Southampton, Tottenham realized they had struck gold. The Dane, who joined for a mere £15 million after submitting a transfer request, was the ideal fit for then-manager Jose Mourinho due to his hard work and leadership in the engine room.

However, the tide has turned in N17, and Spurs, under the direction of the ambitious Postecoglou, no longer see Hojbjerg as the focal point of their strategies. This season, the player has started only six Premier League games, typically because there aren’t enough regular choices available.

Although he is not a bad player—according to FBref, he ranked in the top 20% of midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues and competitions for pass completion over the previous year, as well as the top 11% for progressive passes per 90—he is not nimble or creative enough in possession to fit Spurs’ current style of play.

As a result, there have been several rumors about his sale over the last eight months or so. Manchester United expressed interest in him last summer, and more recently, he was strongly connected to a transfer away in January. However, no deal came to pass, and the 28-year-old turned down serious offers from Lyon.

Hojbjerg, who is calm and combative, seems set to leave Tottenham, but he’s not the worst midfield player the club has had in recent memory. Moussa Sissoko, who played 202 games for the Lilywhites, is unlikely to be remembered with much affection.

Moussa Sissoko joining Spurs

In 2016, Tottenham paid £30 million to acquire the 6’1″ Frenchman from Newcastle United for a five-year contract. Despite the club’s relegation, Sissoko made an impression at St. James’ Park, which encouraged him to pursue a move.

The midfielder made only eight Premier League appearances, failed to score, and only contributed three assists in his debut season with Spurs, which he said was “the worst season of my career”.

Even more, pundit Chris Sutton criticized Sissoko as a “bad buy” shortly after his signing, bemoaning the “disappointment” and raising the issue of whether money would have been better used on a player with a different profile.

Though his strength and athleticism were always key components of his play, he was able to make up for it throughout his tenure at the team by emerging as a significant contributor under both Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino.

Even if he did not endure the constant suffering of, say, Tanguy Ndombele, he was still rather expensive. Over the course of his five campaigns in north London, he earned a solid wage of £80k per week, indicating that, including the original transfer, his total spend was £50.8m.

Considering that he never proved to be one of the greatest players in the Premier League for his position throughout his tenure at the club, this hardly represented the best value for money as chairman Daniel Levy attempted to establish Tottenham at the forefront of European football.

He can hardly be considered one of Levy’s best acquisitions considering that he was only sold to Watford in 2021 for £2.5 million, bringing the total amount spent on him to £48.3 million net. He had fallen out of favor under Nuno Espirito Santo, and Spurs finished sixth and seventh in his final two years at the club.

In contrast, Hojbjerg has performed well all season long, whereas Sissoko, in his last season wearing Tottenham uniforms, was unable to average more than 1.0 in any defensive category.

In addition, he was ineffective offensively, with only three goals and two assists in his last two stints with the team.

Of course, neither Hojbjerg nor Sissoko are truly defined by their goals and assists; rather, Hojbjerg’s impending departure is primarily due to the fact that he is not a good fit for the system, while Sissoko failed to maintain any real consistency after making a poor start to his career in London.

The Danish international has averaged 1.0 tackles, 3.5 ball recoveries, and 89% completion rate in the Premier League this season. However, a game average of 0.2 crucial passes hardly smacks of creativity and enthusiasm that Postecoglou would find endearing.

All of this may go into the same general category since neither player has been able to consistently produce outstanding performances, which is necessary to be successful at Tottenham.

In the end, Sissoko was a part of a disappointing decline following the glory days of Pochettino’s reign. Supporters will now hope for a sustained change of direction that could finally bring some silverware to a club desperate for such success. Sissoko’s work rate would have made him, at his peak, an attractive option for Postecoglou.

Some may argue that he was somewhat successful at Tottenham, regaining his position after some early problems, but it doesn’t make up for the high salary and price tag that broke the team.

It’s reasonable to argue that money might have been better spent elsewhere for far better outcomes, considering that Chelsea paid £32 million for N’Golo Kante and Liverpool paid £36 million for Sadio Mane during the same transfer window.

Tottenham will now hope to have moved on from their turbulent history in the market, but only time will tell whether Postecoglou’s budding enterprise will eventually provide silver-coated results or wither away.

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