Ryan Sessegnon joined Hoffenheim on a season-long loan after falling down the pecking order and may have a task on his hands to win back a place in the Tottenham side.
The 20-year-old finds himself behind Ben Davies and new-boy Sergio Reguilon in the pecking order, so he’s opted for a move away to get more playing time, but has Jose Mourinho betrayed him?
Sessegnon was meant to be in our first-team
Sessegnon has only made 12 appearances in all competitions since joining from Fulham last summer, scoring one goal with one assist. He racked up less than 800 minutes of playing time, hadn’t featured in the Premier League since January and only made the matchday once this season, but he was expected to play a more important role under Mourinho.
In May, Jose told Football.London: “I think Ryan is absolutely fantastic. (He) can learn progressively and even develop physically. Ryan has lots of similarities with Ashley (Cole).” In August, The Athletic revealed Jose rejected loan offers from Barcelona and Celtic to keep Sessegnon in North London. But a month later, it appeared there was no room for him in the squad.
The 20-year-old was left out of our 1-0 defeat to Everton (September 13), was an unused substitute in our Europa League win over Lokomotiv Plovdiv (September 17), was left out of our 5-2 win over Southampton (September 20), Europa League win over Shkendija (September 24), 1-1 draw with Newcastle United (September 27), EFL Cup win over Chelsea (September 29), 7-2 win over Maccabi Haifa (October 1) and 6-1 win over Manchester United (October 4).
Will he get much playing time at Hoffenheim?
He should do, as Konstantinos Stafylidis is currently injured. Robert Skov and Pavel Kaderábek have shared responsibility, but neither player are natural left-backs. Joshua Brenet can operate in a makeshift role, but he’s been subsidiary this season.
Sessegnon has an opportunity to nail down a regular starting place under Sebastian Hoeneß, so that should do wonders for his development. Here’s hoping he can get consistent playing time in Germany, so he can fight for a place back at Tottenham next season.
In other news, Tottenham’s interesting plan to sign Arkadiusz Milik was Daniel Levy in a nutshell