Reported former Tottenham Hotspur target Jean Seri produced an awful display in Fulham's shock 2-1 FA Cup third round defeat at home to Oldham Athletic at Craven Cottage on Sunday, and Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino will surely be ecstatic that he didn't splash out on the 27-year-old.

What's the word, then?

Well, Spurs were heavily linked with a move for the Ivory Coast international leading up to the 2018 summer transfer window as it was thought that Pochettino wanted to strengthen his midfield options.

The former Nice man was certainly highly regarded having come close to joining Barcelona previously, and there was certainly more than a few eyebrows raised when he joined newly-promoted Fulham last summer for a club-record £25m fee.

After a promising start the 27-year-old has struggled for form for the lowly Premier League club in recent months and was even benched by Claudio Ranieri for the defeat to Arsenal last time out, and he hardly did his reputation any good against the fourth-tier team on Sunday.

Why will Spurs be delighted?

Seri became renowned for his box-to-box play during his time with Nice, where he did a fine job protecting the defence, winning the ball back as well as breaking forward to score and assist.

However, the African midfielder hasn't looked the same player he was in France having scored one goal and provided two assists in 23 appearances in all competitions for Fulham so far this term, proving he is nowhere near good enough to be a starter at Tottenham.

Pochettino wouldn't have been able to believe his eyes that he was watching the same player – who scored a 2/10 rating by Football London – he was once understood to be keen to bring to north London, as he completely failed to impose himself against the League Two club.

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