The Pochettino freezing out conspiracy theory

Dan Kilpatrich has come up with an odd theory which fails to take into account that a player must show on the training ground that he deserves a starting spot ahead of another player competing for his place.

I have no doubt Dan would want a settled team, yet his theory requires the complete opposite.

Sissoko's demise supports my theory that Poch likes to have one player sidelined & frozen out as a constant example to the others.

As soon as Wimmer has come back into contention, Sissoko has been sidelined. Examples of Fazio, Townsend, Bentaleb & others too.

By his own admission Moussa Sissoko has not been as fit as the other players, he missed pre-season training and has been playing catch-up. We have seen countless times that a lack of pre-season training can have effects for an entire season. It shouldn't and it is up to Sissoko to ensure that doesn't happen, but it has certainly affected his play so far.

I do agree with Dan's no excuse approach though, Sissoko has to take responsibility and work to improve his game. he isn't consistent enough and the root cause of that is a motivation issue.

Fazio simply made too many mistakes and it was decided to sell him. because of the wages he was on freezing a player out forces him to move, rather than sit in the traditional Tottenham way as deadwood collecting a wage. Remember Emmanuel Adebayor, he had to be forced to leave.

Andros Townsend simply didn't follow instructions, he didn't have the game mentally and played for himself rather than the team while Nabil Bentaleb was injured and didn't show any sort of form when he did play. The mistakes were still in his game and Eric Dier was simply a better player. Mousa Dembele was having a fantastic season so there was simply no room for Bentaleb. His wage demands and the length of the negotiations possibly mean that the Algerian isolated himself. He needed game time to bring out his talent, but chasing the title we had to play our best pairing. That is the way it is at a top club, doubt it had anything to do with example setting.

As for Kevin Wimmer, well why would you pick him if Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen are available. If anyone can name me a top quality left-footed back pairing I'd be impressed, the ideal is a right-foot and a left-footed centre-back. Wimmer is in the squad to cover for Vertonghen, not Alderweireld.

It is merely circumstances rather than any conspiracy theory.