Spurs might regret splurging £30m on Moussa Sissoko but who else will be disappointed with their star player’s contributions?
Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy
2016 was a bad year for betting. Leicester City and Portugal parading into the night, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester revolution failing to get off the ground and two-faced Chelsea defying expectation at every available opportunity.
And it’s fair to say a couple of the league’s brightest talents haven’t quite fulfilled their resolutions.
Jamie Vardy
Premier League champion and Player of the Year to boot, it feels rather harsh to label Jamie Vardy, the Hollywood story himself, anything other than a roaring, almost clichéd success this calendar year.
Yet, if you take away the awards and the accolades, the bare facts are these; Vardy has only scored 14 Premier League goals across the last 12 months, comfortably less than Jermain Defoe, Alexis Sanchez, Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero.
While Vardy’s 2015 etched his name into the history books on the back of 13 goals in 11 consecutive games, a run of precisely no goals in exactly the same amount of fixtures has rather taken the shine of his 2016. Although a clinical hat-trick against Manchester City wasn’t a bad way to get back on track.
Ross Barkley
In the case of Ross Barkley, the questions do not concern his quality. Yet, three years after exploding onto the scene and sending Roberto Martinez into a frenzy, the ‘next Gazza’ has looked more like, well, almost every other unfulfilled talent weighed down by the mounting pressure of expectation.
2016 was supposed to be Barkley’s year. However, the 23-year-old did not lead England to relative glory this summer. He didn’t even make the pitch at Euro 2016.
And the proceeding months have followed largely in the same vein; almost complete anonymity. Dropped and publically lambasted by Everton manager Ronald Koeman for his alleged lack of commitment, Barkley’s career is at a crossroads.
Yohan Cabaye
Alan Pardew hardly played down Crystal Palace’s then club-record signing of Yohan Cabaye in the summer of 2015. In fact, any attempt to do so would have seemed churlish. After all, he was a staple in a star-studded French side, flanking Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi in between helping PSG to a domestic clean sweep.
Yet, the creative, clinical playmaker who graced the turf at St James’ Park and spearheaded Newcastle’s fifth placed finish in 2012 has looked an entirely different beast at Selhurst Park. One in an almost permanent state of hibernation.
The fact Pardew, his manager at Newcastle no less, dropped the 30-year-old during the opening weeks of the season while attempting to introduce a more possession-based approach spoke volumes. After all, the style seemed destined to get the best out of Cabaye. Instead, Palace fans are now beginning to question what he even brings to the side.
John Stones
When you spend a British record transfer fee on a defender, at the very least you’d be expecting him not to gift goals to the opposition on a near weekly basis. Yet, if Stones’ inadvertent assist for Vardy’s hat-trick goal against City at the King Power was his only headline-hogging mistake of the year, we could probably owe him a pardon.
As it is, Stones’ 2016 has only asked more questions than it has answered. There was the identical, underhit backpass against Southampton after all. And his error-strewn performance in Everton’s 4-0 Merseyside derby humiliation against Liverpool.
There’s no questioning that Stones is something special, but those edges remain as rough as ever even under the diamond-shaping Pep Guardiola.
Moussa Sissoko
They can’t say they weren’t warned. How Newcastle United kept a straight face when flogging Moussa Sissoko to Tottenham for £30 million, per the BBC, remains a mystery.
Even the accusations that Sissoko can only perform in the glare of the spotlight are now under severe inspection. After all, Spurs’ glut of televised fixtures are hardly bringing out the best in a player who spent the majority of the last year angling shamelessly for a move away from St James’ only to then contribute heavily to their relegation via a succession of subpar performances.
It’s fair to say Spurs are certainly more used to seeing the 3pm, Saturday afternoon Sissoko rather than the rampaging bull that seized the Euro 2016 final by its horns.
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