Spurs won't have to pay £30m for Sissoko

TRANSFER TALK


Moussa Sissoko was signed on transfer deadline day for a daft £30 million (€35.72m - AUS$50.64m - US$37.72m), but Daniel Levy is not a daft man and the contract that was signed didn't set £30 million as a hard and fast figure. Tottenham will only have to pay £30 million if Sissoko remains for the full term of his contract.

We bid £16 million (€19.05m - AUS$27.01m - US$20.12m) for him (which is all he was worth in reality) and only agreed a deal if we don't have to pay more if he doesn't stay. Newcastle United got their PR story, in theory getting £30 million for him to appease their fans and we back that up by telling the press we have agreed to the full fee. That was all correct, but clauses actually turned the deal into something different.

We paid an initial £17 million (€20.24m - AUS$28.70m - US$21.38m) and are paying £6 million (€7.14m - AUS$10.13m - US$7.54m) a season only if we keep him, if we don't then the fee isn't payable, unlike most transfer fees when an instalment is set in stone whether you sell the player or not.

The Evening Standard wrote about this at the time with Tom Collomosse the reporter writing:

Sissoko was valued at £30 million and Tottenham finally agreed to meet that price, although the structure of the payments means Newcastle would receive the full fee — in five installments of £6m — only if he stays for the duration of his five-year contract.

It is worth reminding ourselves of this amid Juventus interest, as we could send him out of loan with a purchase option of £17 million and not make a loss on him. With a loan fee that fee could perhaps be reduced a little more. Certainly we want clubs interested in him so Perhaps we will see Everton come in for him in January.

If Tom Collomosse is right then Mauricio Pochettino suggesting he is struggling to settle may well be a subtle way of telling clubs he is available, if not in January, then in the summer.

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