Friday 2 September 2016 11:45, UK
Newcastle fans weren’t always impressed with Moussa Sissoko but Tottenham's £30m signing has shown that he has the tools to make a difference, writes Adam Bate.
The disbelief is more than understandable. Moussa Sissoko to Tottenham for £30m. The same price that Chelsea paid for Leicester's title catalyst N'Golo Kante forked out instead for a player whose below-par efforts for Newcastle contributed to the team's relegation.
This is a player who didn't score a goal until April last season and did even less to prevent them going in at the other end. Sissoko has always been quick to talk of Champions League ambitions but he couldn't - or wouldn't - prevent his side slipping into the Championship.
Newcastle fans won't forget that player who let derbies against Sunderland pass him by, and nor should they. But the wider footballing world will have noted the events of Euro 2016 too. This is the Sissoko who Tottenham fans will be hoping has arrived.
"I have been in football for 40 years and I still get things wrong," said Arsene Wenger after witnessing his countryman's barnstorming semi-final display against world champions Germany in Marseille. "It is true that Moussa Sissoko has been remarkable."
France team-mate Blaise Matuidi described him as "a machine" and opponents struggled to cope with the sheer adventure of his running. The only players in the last eight to successfully dribble the ball more regularly than Sissoko were Eden Hazard, Gareth Bale and Kingsley Coman.
In the final, he briefly threatened to be the star before Portugal ruined the script. But Sissoko had more than justified his presence in the team ahead of Kante and others. "He was the man of the match, for me, in the final," said Thierry Henry. "I love his desire."
Desire isn't the word that'll spring to mind on Tyneside, so surely Spurs have been duped? The sting of the slap in Geordie faces set to be eased by the comfort of receiving £30m for a man who could barely play at full tilt for 90 minutes let alone a full Premier League season.
Well, maybe not. Firstly, Newcastle cannot absolve themselves of blame for Sissoko's underperformance. His displays were a symptom rather than the cause of their problems. Steve Black was brought in to improve the mentality at the club but admits it was tough.
"One of the biggest things in sport is developing a culture," Black told the Daily Mail. He added: "If you look at the skills in the Newcastle squad and did tests comparing them to the other teams in the country, you wouldn't pick them out and say they're not very good."
Sissoko is a prime example of this, something highlighted upon Rafa Benitez's arrival. The Spaniard oversaw a huge upturn in Sissoko's performances after taking over in March, putting him at the heart of things and giving him the responsibility of the captaincy.
"Since I came here, the only thing I can say is that he's been really good in terms of his work on the pitch," said Benitez. "He is a good player, a great player and if he is performing and working as hard as he has been working, the others have to follow him."
Under Benitez, with a Euro 2016 place and a summer transfer on his mind, Sissoko was a man transformed. Against Swansea, in his first game as captain, he scored his first goal in almost a year and clocked season-best numbers for distance covered and sprints.
In fact, the four games in which he outran his team-mates were all during Benitez's period in charge. With the captaincy, Sissoko's sprints stats improved by more than 10 per cent and he ran an extra kilometre per 90 minutes. Newcastle were also unbeaten in those six games.
All of which will be no consolation to their fans, but it also indicates why Sissoko's earlier efforts might just be irrelevant to his new club. If Pochettino gets the player who helped overwhelm Spurs 5-1 at St James' Park on the final weekend then they have a real asset.
"I like to run forward, I like power and I have a lot of energy which I can bring to the team," said Sissoko upon joining. These are precisely the sort of qualities that Pochettino appears to feel Tottenham are lacking, despite their impressing progress under the Argentine.
The point was emphasised by Sadio Mane - clocked as the fastest man on the pitch at 34.7 kilometres per hour - when Liverpool outplayed Spurs last time out. The pressing and power shown by Jurgen Klopp's men was exactly what Pochettino likes to see from his own side.
"We need someone who has characteristics like we saw from Liverpool, like Sadio Mane, the type of player that can break the defensive line," said Pochettino. "We need a player who is more direct, more aggressive offensively." Can Sissoko be that player?
Over the past 12 months, we've seen the worst and the best of him. But Sissoko has shown he can raise his game when the motivation is there. Pochettino is betting £30m that his coaching, coupled with Champions League football, can sustain that motivation at Spurs.
