Ok, balls on the line for if Sissoko will be a hit or miss

[eViL]

Balls on the line, no equivocating (and to me that means no fence sitting) = HIT.

Not because I have oodles of faith in Sissoko. But because I believe that if Poch wants him and Lloris vouch for him, they must believe they can turn him into the player he surely could be. If Poch can turn him around like he turned Dembélé around, given Sissoko's skill set and the positions he can cover, we could have a very effective player on our hands.

Some Newcastle fans saying he was under poor managers who didn't seem to know where or how to play him - and they ain't wrong. Always good for France and good once FSW took over at St James's. And surely the torpor that was over that club (except on last day ) couldn't have just been down to him...surely

So, yeah, hit for me.



True story: My brotha (elder...tosser) went to Uni in Newcastle. He married a local lass and had a family. He was a season ticket holder at the Mags since 1991, until a couple of years ago because he's moved back down. I've been to a few games with him, and watched them on TV a lot, just out of interest - and to feed my secret hatred by wanting them to lose while equally secretly wanting the Mackems to do better than them

Anyway, since he moved back down here, unless they clashed with us, I have watched quite a lot of their games with him - not least because he isn't that tech savvy so relies on me to get streams for him. So, actually, I probably have watched quite a bit more of them than most Spurs fans.

I remember the season before last. It was quite a big game, United I think, and televised, so he didn't need me to get a stream, but turned up to watch it anyway. He walked in a bit late, so asked me how it was going. I said that Sissoko looked absolutely unplayable and was biatching United. His response was that yes he can do that...once in every ten games or so. That was long before there was any serious talk of him leaving or joining us - so he wasn't being bitter or petty. The more I watched them, the more I could see why the Geordies say he goes missing, etc.

Top info.

I've got to compare that sort of form against that of the team he was playing for though. Pardew's teams are notorious for looking unplayable for 10 games and then go on absolutely barren runs for the remainder of the top flight season until he's fired or he goes and buys about 8 new players in one go.

And enough said about Maclaren the better I guess.

I guess the jury is out; I personally think he's exactly what we've been missing so far this season.

 

[Japhet]

I have no idea how Sissoko will pan out and really don't know why we bought him. The glaring gap in our squad, apart from competition for Eriksen, is competition for Dembele, but it's not really Sissoko's position. As a right sided midfielder we already have Lamela and Son so it would seem that his preferred role is already well covered. To cover Dembele, we already had Bentaleb who may have had an attitude issue but at his age and with his ability I'd have thought it was fixable. He would have been far, far better with Dier or Wanyama next to him instead of Mason from a defensive weakness perspective. Will Sissoko, Son, Lamela, Wanyama, Dier or whoever be any happier on the bench than Bentaleb was. I doubt it. Poch also prefers to play inverted wingers so Sissoko's favoured position isn't part of our remit. Sure, he has plenty of energy and pace, but so did Aaron Lennon who also had no end product. I'm very confused by this one.

 

[RicOfPeace]

He can. Just look at a clip I posted on previous page, actually he has very good crosses/passes with him.

No disrespect but anyone can be made to look good in edited videos showing there best bits i mean Wilson Palacios played a few good passes for us but was he a very good passer? I think we both know he was terrible at keeping possession brilliant at winning it.

 

[ItsBoris]

If he's as good as his Euros performances suggest then he'll be a hit.

 

[sweetness]

I'll be bloody ecstatic if I'm wrong on this one and he turns out to be a hit.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

One aspect of the Sissoko situation that I'd speculate on is that Poch has seen the form we've been in since Chelsea and realised the squad has got itself into a less favourable frame of mind . Kane , Alli ,Eriksen (without any Euros) have all been way under par now since that day , including the Euro matches .
I reckon he's seen something missing in the squad mentality atm and this fed into his decision to press Levy for Sissoko .

Sissoko the player just relegated, who avoided relegation narrowly the previous year and managed to lose to a Portugal team sans Ronaldo at home in the final of the euro's?

Hmmm...doesnt exactly scream "winner" to me ?

 

[robin09]

One things for sure, hit or miss, Levy will sell him for a profit one day.

 

[Shadydan]

Sissoko the player just relegated, who avoided relegation narrowly the previous year and managed to lose to a Portugal team sans Ronaldo at home in the final of the euro's?

Hmmm...doesnt exactly scream "winner" to me ?

Quite an impressive feat playing those matches all by himself.

 

[King of Otters]

I feel that we're in danger of putting together a team of try hards who want to kick the defensive door down, but are incapable of picking the lock when that tactic fails to produce results. For that reason I, like many others, would have loved to see Isco come in, a player capable of picking the lock, of getting his head up when it matters and producing the perfect through ball.

It's not Sissoko's fault that he isn't Isco, and perhaps it isn't our fault at all that we couldn't make that signing happen, but I remain dissapointed that we have ended up blowing our load on a player who is going to contribute to more blood and thunder bluster, but little in the way of actual final third quality.

If he proves me wrong, great, but I think he'll flop.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Quite an impressive feat playing those matches all by himself.

No more impressive than if he single handedly raises the collective winning mentality of our team.

 

[Gilzeanking]

Sissoko the player just relegated, who avoided relegation narrowly the previous year and managed to lose to a Portugal team sans Ronaldo at home in the final of the euro's?

Hmmm...doesnt exactly scream "winner" to me ?

I'm not saying winner , but I am saying the squad , in Poch's opinion , may have needed a shakeup ...or a wakeup . On a basic level ....where the fuck is our press ? . Looking good for most of last season , its largely gone now. As I say Kane Alli Eriksen are all in some funk or other . Kane was saying how he was fretting poolside through the summer about his mistakes , not good.

Then , to cap it all we don't look great this year eh. All I'm saying is that I reckon these issues may have encouraged Poch to press Levy recently for Sissoko to mix things up a bit .

 

[lukespurs7]

I think he's exactly what we need. Pace,power and directness. Lamela, Eriksen, Son etc can all sensibly keep the ball and do the intricate passes, Sissoko, Dembele and hopefully N'kodou will provide us with the pace and power we've missed for both counter attacks and to break down deep defences.

I don't think he has an attitude problem he is just ambitious and Newcastle was a sinking ship, everyone of their players looked shit especially under that whally mclaren.

Hugo has endorsed him and I can't imagine Potch didn't ask Hugo before we sanctioned a £30mil bid.

For me he was a very good signing and only just 27 so we can get a good 5 yrs out of him.

 

[Ossie'sAardvark]

We paid 10m more simply because of Everton. Newcastle would have caved in at 20-25m if the bidding war hadn't started so thank you City for paying 50m for Stones.

That's what I've been telling myself...I may be out of touch fee wise. But if another club comes in with the money that's wanted, that's the price. I reckon he'll do well at Spurs, it's just to ,what extent.

 

[Luka Van der Bale]

This is my fear, but still I voted yes. I really don't want us to have paid £30m for a flop. Mainly because we are not Chelsea or Man C and cannot afford to do that. When we pay those sums for players, they simply have to succeed.

This isn't really true anymore. A 30m signing to us is of course a decent chunk. But it's far from a game changing amount. Also in modern football, if he flops we could easily flog him to China for a very small loss. 30m is no risk to our financial health going forward.

 

[Yid-ol]

Sissoko the player just relegated, who avoided relegation narrowly the previous year and managed to lose to a Portugal team sans Ronaldo at home in the final of the euro's?

Hmmm...doesnt exactly scream "winner" to me ?

And we have a good number of the English team that couldn't even get past Iceland...

 

[E.L.Strict]

For me last season we lacked pace and guile. I think that pace helps us more in big matches and on big pitches like at Wembley, whereas guile helps us against weaker teams, especially in those frustrating matches at WHL.

So I'm going to say

Big Games/CL - HIT
Other games - MISS

 

[Luka Van der Bale]

As someone who voted Miss in this thread and is basically on the same page as you re: Sissoko, I would be very surprised if Sissoko ends up being a better player for us than Lennon was, regardless of people's various opinions of Lennon's merits/lack thereof. (I liked but not loved Lennon, for what it's worth.)

I'd bet that Lennon ends up more fondly remembered than Sissoko in 10 years time when they're both retired and we're looking back.

Bit different tbf. Lennon spent 9 years with us, breaking through as a teenager and spent essentially his whole prime with us. Sissoko is already 27. Not really a fair comparison.

 

[mckenz]

Voting yes mainly because

1 - I want him to so Spurs do well
2 - He's different to what we've got so we can change focus in a game
3 - Steve McClaren could make Messi look bad in one of his teams

 

[E17yid]

Somewhere in between.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I'm not saying winner , but I am saying the squad , in Poch's opinion , may have needed a shakeup ...or a wakeup . On a basic level ....where the fuck is our press ? . Looking good for most of last season , its largely gone now. As I say Kane Alli Eriksen are all in some funk or other . Kane was saying how he was fretting poolside through the summer about his mistakes , not good.

Then , to cap it all we don't look great this year eh. All I'm saying is that I reckon these issues may have encouraged Poch to press Levy recently for Sissoko to mix things up a bit .

I'm completely with you in theory, just not in Poch's solution idea.

I think it needed a fresh brain not more strong legs.