John Wenham wants ‘this’ 29-year-old to be the first player to be axed under De Zerbi at Tottenham.
Yves Bissouma should be released when his contract expires at the end of the season, with analyst John Wenham making clear the Mali international represents one of the easiest decisions Roberto De Zerbi and Tottenham will need to make in what promises to be a significant summer overhaul.
Bissouma’s deal runs out in the summer, and the club have shown no inclination to offer him fresh terms. That reluctance is entirely understandable given a tenure at Tottenham that has been defined as much by off-field controversy as any meaningful contribution on it.
He was nearly sold to Galatasaray last summer for around six million euros, only for the deal to collapse, and Wenham believes Spurs should not waste any further energy chasing that kind of modest windfall when a clean break is the simpler and more sensible outcome.
Yves Bissouma and his Poor relationship with managers
The midfielder’s record of antagonising managers has been a consistent thread throughout his time in north London. Ange Postecoglou made a deliberate effort to position Bissouma as a leader within the squad, only for that investment of trust to be undermined by a series of incidents, including being filmed inhaling nitrous oxide on multiple occasions and a persistent problem with punctuality at training. The pattern has repeated itself under every manager the club has employed since his arrival. Wenham told TottenhamNews exclusively:
“I’m still of the opinion that Yves Bissouma should be leaving Tottenham in seven weeks’ time when his contract is up and just being released on a free, that’s an easy decision to make. It’s not long until he upsets the managers because he turns up late. Ange made a big deal of trying to make him a leader, and then he filmed himself doing balloons and that sort of stuff. We just need to cut ties with Bissouma, have a fresh start. He’s an easy one, first one out the door in the summer because his contract’s up. Clean slate.”
Wenham also addressed a piece of confusion circulating among some supporters, with speculation that Bissouma might receive a new lease of life under De Zerbi, given the pair’s shared connection to Brighton. The assumption, however, is factually incorrect.
Bissouma departed the Amex Stadium in June 2022 when he joined Tottenham, and De Zerbi was not appointed Brighton manager until September of that same year. The two never worked together, and any suggestion that a pre-existing relationship might influence De Zerbi’s thinking on Bissouma’s future is based on a straightforward misreading of the timeline.
With De Zerbi now in place and a wholesale rebuild planned for the summer, the Bissouma situation is one of the few genuinely uncomplicated decisions on the agenda. His contract expires, his renewal has not been discussed, and his history at the club speaks for itself.