Every time Moussa Sissoko speaks to the French press, one topic is constantly brought up: his early days at Tottenham.
Arriving from Newcastle for a hefty fee (at the time), the France international struggled to convince Mauricio Pochettino at first, but, two years down the line, he is now a first-team regular under the Argentine, and showed why once again against Manchester City in the Champions League.
However, he still doesn’t feel he’s at the top of his game, and believes there’s still more to come, as he spoke to RMC Sport in an interview on their show Team Duga.
He said: “I feel like I’m getting better. My arrival wasn’t easy at Tottenham because of many things. I needed a time to adapt, maybe a bit more than I first thought, but I needed to have a thick skin and continue to work hard through the tough times, because there were quite a few.
“I didn’t have a particular chat with the manager. He spoke to me like every player. I’m the one who told myself that I needed to do more. The others were probably better and I probably wasn’t doing enough. I double my efforts and tried to learn.”
A fairly candid admission, but the 29-year-old appears to have put all that behind him now, having started 75% of his team’s Premier League games this season, during which he has helped out with two assists.
Often used as a wide midfielder in the past, Sissoko has now found a spot for himself in the middle of the pitch since Mousa Dembélé’s exit to China, and, as he explained, it’s a role he much prefers.
And it shows.
