Tottenham Hotspur may have agreed a deal with Newcastle United that all of a sudden sounds much more reasonable value for money.
Moussa Sissoko celebrates scoring for Newcastle United
Tottenham Hotspur’s signing of Newcastle United’s Moussa Sissoko was one of the sensational stories of transfer deadline day, and according to a report in the Evening Standard it may be better value for the club than originally appeared to be the case.
With the player being released from France duty to complete a move away from St James’s Park, various stories throughout the day saw the 27-year-old linked with moves with Spurs, then Everton, a number of other clubs, before it looked like the Newcastle United star would end up signing for the Toffees.
Spurs swopped in though, seemingly at the last minute, matching Everton’s reported bid of £30 million and stealing Sissoko from under the noses of their Premier League rivals.
That is an amount in or around Tottenham’s record outlay for a player, but the Standard report suggests it is a deal carefully structured to be much better value money for Spurs than seems at first glance.
The Standard says that Sissoko will cost five payments of £6 million – bringing it up to a grand total of £30 million. But Spurs will only have to pay all five payments if the midfielder remains at the club for the duration of his five-year deal.
This means that if Sissoko struggles this year and Tottenham decide to sell him next summer, they will not and will not have to pay the full £30 million amount.
The report doesn’t state when the payments will be due, but if it is once a year – for each year of his contract – it certainly looks a much more reasonable deal, though it is unlikely the transfer agreement will allow Sissoko to leave in 2017 with Spurs only paying £12 million for his services.
But it certainly seems as if Sissoko will have to stay at White Hart Lane until he is 32 for the club to pay the five instalments.
Whether this is the case or not, it certainly seems that Daniel Levy has put in something of a failsafe clause in the deal. Only if Sissoko proves he is good enough to stay at Spurs for five years will the club end up paying the full amount for him.
And if Sissoko is still at White Hart Lane in 2021, he will have surely have proven himself a quality addition and great value for money.
France’s Moussa Sissoko in action with Switzerland’s Admir Mehmedi
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