Yves Bissouma's Potential Move to Ajax: A Risky Gamble

Yves Bissouma is closing in on a move to Ajax, and the deal is not just making noise in Amsterdam. England is watching too – and not quietly.

The Mali international spent the last four years on the books at Tottenham Hotspur, a stay that never quite lived up to its early promise. Nobody across the Channel is questioning his talent. The concerns lie elsewhere.

British outlets have revisited a familiar file on Bissouma in recent days: a gifted midfielder whose off‑field issues repeatedly dragged him away from the pitch. talkSPORT journalist Jack Johnson underlined why Spurs were happy to let his contract run down.

“That his contract was not extended at Spurs did not come as a surprise,” he wrote. It was not just the knee injury that disrupted his final season. The bigger problem, Johnson stressed, was “the various problems he had off the pitch”. After several late arrivals, then-manager Thomas Frank eventually dropped him from the squad for what was described as a “lack of discipline”.

The pressure finally told when a social media video surfaced. talkSPORT recalled how the incident that led to his suspension was “directly linked” to footage he himself had posted, showing him using nitrous oxide. Even after that punishment, he was reportedly filmed a second time with a nitrous oxide balloon.

The Mirror added a darker layer to the story. Bissouma later explained that a burglary at his home had shaken him badly and left a deep mark on his mental health. He spoke of anxiety, panic, depression and paranoia in the aftermath, and said that was how he ended up turning to nitrous oxide.

English media acknowledge that trauma, but they still frame Ajax’s move as a gamble. The Sun delivered a blunt warning: Ajax, it wrote, will need to monitor Bissouma far more closely than his previous clubs did “in order to prevent a repeat of that situation”.

That scepticism is not limited to Britain. On Dutch television show Vandaag Inside on Monday evening, Valentijn Driessen echoed the doubts around the transfer and did not hold back. He described Bissouma as “some Malian who is more into nitrous oxide than he is present at training. Nitrous oxide for recreational use, and for a footballer at that!”

Driessen then turned his fire on Ajax’s recruitment logic, dragging Jordi Cruyff and Noa Lang into the debate. “Jordi Cruyff did not want Noa Lang because he was supposedly a difficult footballer,” he said. “But if you bring this one in… then you really are bringing in trouble.”

Behind the noise, the move itself is close. Bissouma is reportedly already in Amsterdam for his medical. If all goes to plan, he will sign a deal running until mid-2027, with an option for a further year.

Ajax know exactly what kind of player they are getting on the ball. The question now is whether they can manage everything that comes with him off it.