Spurs wasted £36.4m on “special” Poch flop who scored just three goals

He might not have been able to win any trophies during his time at the club, but Mauricio Pochettino has to go down as one of Tottenham Hotspur’s best managers in the modern era.

The Argentine may have sullied his image among the fans somewhat by taking the Chelsea job last season, but during his time in North London he helped transform the Lilywhites into one of the best teams in the country, and he did so with minimal backing from the board as well.

However, for all the gems he uncovered and youth players he nurtured, Pochettino was guilty of signing his fair share of flops when he was given the cash to splash by Daniel Levy and Co, including one who was finally moved on in the summer after costing the club millions.

Pochettino’s worst signings

So before we get to the player in question, let’s look at a couple of Pochettino’s worst signings at Spurs, and when it comes to numero uno, there can only really be one answer: Tanguy Ndombele.

The French midfielder joined the Lilywhites for a whopping £63m in the summer of 2019, but to say he failed to deliver on the promise many believed he had would be a significant understatement.

Over the following five years, the former Lyon ace would make just 91 appearances for the North Londoners, in which he scored ten goals and provided nine assists while going out on loan three times before finally joining OGC Nice for free this July.

Now, the 27-year-old may be the worst signing made under the Argentine, but there were a fair few other flops, including Vincent Janssen, who joined the club from AZ Alkmaar in 2016 for around £18m after racking up an outrageously impressive haul of 32 goals and seven assists in 49 games the campaign prior.

So, it would be fair to say that, due to his incredible output, there was a level of expectation that the Dutchman would be able to help out the team in attack, but as his inclusion in this article might give away, that did not happen.

Throughout his tenure with the Lilywhites, the Heesch-born forward could only muster up six goals and four assists in 42 games, going on loan to Fenerbahçe for one season and then being sold for a loss to Mexican outfit Monterrey in July 2019.

Unfortunately for Pochettino, though, in the same summer he sold Janssen and signed Ndombele, he picked up another attacking talent that ultimately proved an expensive flop for Spurs.

The cost of Ryan Sessegnon’s Spurs stint

Yes, the player in question is 24-year-old Ryan Sessegnon, who joined Spurs for a whopping £25m from Fulham in the summer of 2019, and while that was a lot of money to spend on a then 19-year-old, it was easy to understand at the time.

For example, in the season prior, the “special” teen, as dubbed by former Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic, scored two goals and provided six assists in 35 Premier League games for the Cottagers, while the campaign before that saw him rack up a sensational haul of 16 goals and eight assists across 52 games for the then Championship side.

Moreover, due to his playing as a left-back and left-winger, there were unavoidable comparisons to former Spurs star Gareth Bale at the time, with former football.london writer Ryan O’Donovan claimed that he could see the Englishman ‘being exactly like Gareth Bale’ in the future.

Unfortunately, that has not happened, and instead, the Roehampton-born gem suffered injury setback after injury setback in North London, and while he enjoyed a relatively fruitful loan spell with Hoffenheim in the 20/21 season, he was sidelined for a whopping 798 days between June 2019 and May 2024.

However, while these setbacks certainly played a part in his failed tenure at the club, the former U21 international also underwhelmed when he was on the pitch, as in his 57 games for the club, most of which came in left-midfield, he scored just three goals and provided four assists.

In all, the dynamic talent’s time in N17 was a disaster, and when you consider his £25m transfer fee and the £11.4m in wages he earned from the four seasons he was in England, he cost the club at least £36.4m depending on how the financial side of his loan spell was negotiated.

That breaks down to £638k-per-appearance, £12.1m-per-goal, £9.1m-per-assist, and £5.2m-per-goal-involvement, which can hardly be described as value for money.

Ultimately, Pochettino was responsible for his fair share of poor signings during his time at Spurs. Still, for the fee he cost, the money he earned in wages, and the incredibly lacklustre output he produced, Sessessgon has to be considered one of his worst, even if injuries played a significant role in his failed stint at the club.