Jose Mourinho has admitted that he is happy with the development of Tanguy Ndombele, even though the Frenchman can be better.
Ndombele offers a fine example of how to get back into Jose Mourinho’s good books.
The Frenchman joined Spurs from Lyon last summer in a club-record deal and he was expected to become one of the club’s main men.
However, he didn’t exactly start his time in north London well and when Mourinho became the club’s manager, there was even more pressure on him to perform better.
Because of the demands placed on him by Mourinho, the player and his manager fell out.
The midfielder was widely tipped to leave Spurs in the last transfer window, but he has stayed and he seems to have turned his career around.
Speaking about the midfielder recently, Mourinho admitted that he might have gone about trying to get the best out of the midfielder the wrong way before now. He then admitted that he is happy with the player he has become.
He said as quoted by Football London: “I like my relationship with the players to not depend on the fact that they’re playing or not playing, but sometimes there are players that by their personalities who change their relations, not just with the coach but with other people in the group.
“That was not the case with Tanguy. The case with Tanguy was probably myself not being happy at all with what he was giving us and my way to show it is obviously fighting a lot against that state of mind.
“In this moment, I’m happy. I still think he can do better. His potential is huge. So is he doing well? Yes. Am I happy with him? Yes, I’m happy with him but I still think that he can do more. He can be fitter, he can give us 90 minutes without problems. He can be better than he is.
“Of course he’s happy because he’s playing, I’m happy because he’s doing important things. I see the future probably better because as I was saying his potential is great, but I have to try to educate players, I have to try to give my best.
“I’m not here to be their best friend, I’m here to be their coach above all and I will never be different to what I am. So when I’m not happy I’m not happy. At this moment I’m very happy with him.”
I don’t get it, all this hype about Ndombele, no better or worse than Sissoko, when apart from scoring on his debut and displaying some flashy Johan Cruyff turns, whats he actually done to justify his expensive price tag? Hence the reason the jury is still out for me!