Speaking recently on the Football Writers Podcast, Seb Stafford-Bloor warned that it would be ‘a very serious mistake’ if Tottenham Hotspur were to loan Ryan Sessegnon out this summer.
Since joining Spurs from Fulham in what was a £24.3 million move last year, the 20-year-old has so far failed to establish himself in the Tottenham first team, featuring just 12 times across all competitions throughout the club’s 2019/20 campaign.
As a result of this lack of game time, Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho is said to be considering whether or not to send the winger out on loan this summer, with The Guardian reporting that Ajax would be interested should the player become available.
However, in recent comments made while speaking on the Football Writers Podcast, Stafford-Bloor stated his belief that sending Sessegnon away from the club would not be a good idea.
He said: “I think it’s important to understand what Sessegnon is. He’s a component within a side. He’s a very, very smart footballer, he is someone that reads the play very well, he’s someone that moves to the right positions at the right time.
“At Spurs, he’s had so little opportunity to rediscover his equilibrium. Literally, in terms of minutes on the pitch, he hasn’t had an opportunity to play consistently with the cornerstone pieces of Tottenham’s side – with [Harry] Kane, [Heung-min] Son, [Toby] Alderweireld, any of the full-backs – so he’s in this situation where without being an individualist player, it’s very difficult for someone like him whose confidence has taken a hit and whose ego has been bruised, it’s going to be very difficult for someone like him to make his case from the outside.
“The solution in this situation is always ‘well just loan them out somewhere and help him rediscover himself’. And it’s not the solution. That’s just out of sight, out of mind. If you want a player like Sessegnon to succeed at a club like Spurs, he has to stay at Spurs and you have to integrate him.
“I remember seeing him with the England age-group teams, and he’s a fantastic footballer. He’s a very impressive individual. And he will succeed if the conditions around him are adjusted to suit him and I think it would be a very serious mistake for Spurs to bounce him out because it doesn’t serve their long-term interests. It’s the fast way to ensuring that he won’t succeed at the club.”
TIF Thoughts…
As such, it would certainly appear as if Stafford-Bloor believes that it is crucial that Sessegnon remains at Spurs, rather than being loaned out and essentially being forgotten about.
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And, with The Guardian reporting that ‘Tottenham believe Sessegnon has a bright future at the club’, it would seem that Stafford-Bloor feels this will only be the case if the 20-year-old is integrated into the Spurs team, rather than being left to his own devices away from the club.