France manager Didier Deschamps has expressed his admiration of Tottenham midfielder Moussa Sissoko.
The 28-year-old arrived at Spurs from Newcastle in the summer of 2016 for £30 million.
Despite receiving a lot of criticism from corners of the Tottenham support, Mauricio Pochettino uses Sissoko fairly often.
He struggled during his first season at the club, failing to score a single goal in any competition.
The Frenchman has lacked consistency again this term, but his performances have arguably been better than last season.
Spurs signed him on the back of an impressive Euro 2016 campaign in which Sissoko was part of the France team that reached the final.
Sissoko was one of the standout players in the tournament, and he still has plenty of admirers in his home country, including his national team manager.
Deschamps told SFR Sport: “I like him, he is not my teacher’s pet, but I would say that Moussa is the prototype of a soldier, he has gone from Toulouse to working under Pochettino, even if with the latter it was initially a little difficult.
“He does not complain, whether he plays 2 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes or starts the match… He is very well liked by his team-mates and feared by his opponents.”
Some Tottenham fans still question Sissoko’s inclusion whenever he is selected by Mauricio Pochettino.
Perhaps Deschamps’ words give some sort of indication as to why Pochettino persists with the midfielder.
if he is that good could we do a swap deal for Bale with Madrid ? good luck with that then
I don’t mind Sissoko but his price tag was ridiculous and he hasn’t justified his wages. Those are the problems. Half the fee and half the wages would seem about right and then we could accept him as a decent squad player but for 30m you expect a player to be capable of positively influencing games on a regular basis, which Sissoko doesn’t do.
As for the Bale thing, Bernard, do you really want a crocked player whose wages we can’t afford? I’m a big fan of his from his time at Spurs but that Bale hasn’t been around for a couple of seasons now.