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Keown on Sissoko transfer “Wouldn’t have thought it was money they can afford to waste”

8 years ago
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Martin Keown wonders if the cash that Tottenham splashed out on Moussa Sissoko ‘was money they can afford to waste’, especially taking into account how much their new stadium is costing.

The former Arsenal player also believes that £30m is an ‘awful lot of money’ for a midfielder who has been anything but consistent in the past three years.

Martin Keown is on the same page as most Newcastle fans, Moussa Sissoko looking like a world beater when he first arrived from Toulouse in January 2013.

However, since then you would find it hard to get into double figures to find Newcastle matches where Sissoko showed anything close to the form of those early games against the likes of Aston Villa, Chelsea and Southampton. Newcastle winning four from six after the midfielder’s arrival, a run of results which effectively kept Newcastle up that season.

However, the rot might have set in even earlier with Sissoko, as those early performances/results covered up the fact that after that early burst – both the French midfielder and Newcastle fell away and finished the 2012/13 season with only two wins from the final nine Premier League game – the two wins being fortunate single goal margin victories over Fulham and QPR.

From a Spurs point of view, Martin Keown also points out that in Mousa Dembele they already have a similar player, one of the major reasons why they competed for the title last season.

Interesting for Newcastle fans to see exactly how much time Moussa Sissoko gets on the pitch, bearing in mind the previous experiences of players such as Demba Ba, Loic Remy and Yohan Cabaye who thought they were better off elsewhere, than at St James Park.

Martin Keown speaking to The Mail:

“I think it’s an awful lot of money for a player who struggled for consistency in his three years at Newcastle.

“Though having said that, I was surprised by how well he played for France at Euro 2016 and it’ll be interesting to see how Mauricio Pochettino can make it work.

“The Argentine seems to develop players well. Paying £30million for any player is very uncharacteristic of Tottenham, and given that they’re in the process of building a new stadium, I wouldn’t have thought it was money they can afford to waste.

“He is also quite a similar player to Mousa Dembele, who was excellent last season, so the whole deal seems a bit unnecessary to me.’

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