Georges-Kevin N’Koudou recently joined Besiktas on a four-year deal, ending his three-year stay at Tottenham. The 24-year-old made 27 appearances in all competitions for Spurs, scoring and creating three goals, and racked up less than 600 minutes of playing time.
N’Koudou started only four games in three years for the Lilywhites, none of which came in the Premier League. Under Mauricio Pochettino, he found himself behind Christian Eriksen, Heung-min Son, Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura in the pecking order.
The former French u21 international hasn’t had much luck with injuries either. As per Alasdair Gold of Football.London, N’Koudou picked up a knock at the start of 2017/18 and found too many established players ahead of him. Even last season’s loan spell at AS Monaco saw him pick up a thigh injury in February that ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign.
Mediocre performances in training also contributed to his eventual departure. The wide-man had to become a more positionally versatile player, as Pochettino doesn’t have traditional wingers in his team, but N’Koudou failed to show his manager enough effort on the training ground.
Asa result, Tottenham were left with no choice but to sell the player. They were finally handing some luck this summer with N’Koudou impressing in pre-season. He was also given a rare appearance in Spurs’ Premier League opener to drum up interest.
The plan worked as Besiktas agreed to pay £4.6m for the 24-year-old’s signature and accepted Tottenham having a 50% future sale clause. Time will tell if N’Koudou can live up to his billing or fades away into obscurity, however.