Is this the end of the road for Moussa Sissoko at Tottenham?

This is somewhat old news, but I haven’t written about it yet because, well, I’ve been a little busy lately, did you know? But we kind of need to talk about it. The print edition of L’Equipe reported on Thursday that all is not well between Tottenham Hotspur and Moussa Sissoko.

To which I reply: duh.

The article in L’Equipe still hasn’t hit their website, which is dumb, and paysites are bad, but the Newcastle Chronicle has the scoop, saying that Sissoko’s representatives are ready to have “showdown talks” with Tottenham officials in the upcoming weeks to determine if the French international has a future.

Actually, I say “French international” but that’s technically not true anymore either after Didier Deschamps didn’t name Sissoko to the France national team for this week’s internationals.

We all know the story with Sissoko: he was a £30m deadline day transfer from Newcastle, but Toon fans pretty much hated him, thinking that he didn’t try hard and wasn’t effective in their relegation campaign last season. And, well, he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire at Spurs, either. Pochettino barely plays him, and his cameos haven’t exactly proven himself to be a player worthy of playing for a Champions League caliber team, despite him snubbing Everton on deadline day to sign with Spurs because he wanted to play at the highest levels of football.

L’Equipe is suggesting that Spurs are willing to let him go for as low as £17m, which would be a huge transfer market hit, but would also get his absurd wages off of Spurs books. The French daily goes farther to suggest that Sissoko and Pochettino are at loggerheads, and Sissoko wants to leave Spurs unless Pochettino leaves the club first.

Look, I’ll be honest: I really wanted Sissoko to succeed. And while L’Equipe isn’t always 100% accurate, Sissoko’s lack of playing time and his mostly shambolic performances for Spurs make me think that there’s something to this story. It will not shock me in the slightest if Sissoko is shipped off to China, UAE, or whoever will have him at the earliest possible opportunity this summer.

It angers me that we made a £30m mistake that seemed fairly obvious right from the beginning, and that doesn’t speak highly of Pochettino’s scouting and talent identification ability. But it could also just be an expensive mistake, one that Poch will learn from and hopefully correct in the future. He better. With Lamela possibly dead and Sissoko possibly out, Spurs should be in the market for a new attacking midfielder as they head to Wembley Stadium next season.