Fabio Paratici may have already repeated Tottenham's £63m mistake at Hotspur Way - opinion

It is easy to see why Tottenham Hotspur decided to splash a considerable amount of money on the signing of Pape Matar Sarr last summer – €18m (£15m), to be exact – as the defensive midfielder highly impressed in his breakthrough campaign with FC Metz last season.

Indeed, over his 22 Ligue 1 appearances last time out, the £18m-rated youngster bagged three goals, as well as made an average of 1.2 interceptions, two tackles, completed 36 passes and won 5.1 duels per game.

These returns saw the 19-year-old earn an extremely impressive seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.03, ranking him as Metz’s sixth-best performer in the top flight of French football – playing a key role in his side securing a very respectable 10th place finish in the division.

However, following his summer switch to Spurs – who subsequently loaned the Senegal international back to the Ligue 1 side – Sarr’s form has rather worryingly faltered.

Indeed, over his 24 Ligue 1 outings in the current campaign – only 15 of which have come as starts – the £11k-per-week youngster has so far scored one goal, registered one assist and created one big chance for his teammates, in addition to making an average of 0.6 interceptions, 1.2 tackles, 25.8 passes and winning 3.7 duels per fixture – all of which are down on the same metrics the previous season.

These returns have seen the player who Fabio Paratici dubbed “one of the most talented in Europe” and a “great signing” average a disappointing SofaScore match rating of 6.70, ranking him as Metz’s joint 18th-best player in the league this time out.

As such, while there is undoubtedly still a great deal of time in which the young midfielder can improve, considering his drop off in performance this year, in addition to