Tanguy Ndombele isn’t having the best of first seasons in England and the Frenchman’s long-term career might be away from Tottenham.
This is because his relationship with Jose Mourinho remains rocky, well, if the reports of a rift are true (ESPN).
He was signed for a record fee by former manager Mauricio Pochettino and although he still wasn’t exactly playing at his brilliant best under the Argentinean, he was being given chances to play.
Since the arrival of Mourinho, he has been heavily criticised by the Portuguese boss and it seems that their relationship problem isn’t going away anytime soon.
Speaking on the state of things with the midfielder, Tottenham correspondent for The Athletic, Charlie Eccleshare, told The Athletic’s Ornstein & Chapman Podcast that the midfielder might be offered a chance to play for the club again in the coming week due to the large number of fixtures the team has to play.
However, Eccleshare didn’t give any encouragement over the players future and highlighted the problems that the 23-year-old faces.
He said: “The latest what I’m hearing is they don’t really get one another, they’re very different personalities, their approaches are very different. [Tanguy] Ndombele is quite a shy person who doesn’t really seek confrontation particularly, whereas [Jose] Mourinho likes to challenge his players.
“Ndombele, at the moment, is not responding massively well. There are dressing room concerns that Ndombele hasn’t been training as hard as maybe he should have done. He views himself as being fit and he’s told Mourinho that he feels fit to play, but he’s played the 90 minutes once under Mourinho and the last game he started was away at Burnley shortly before the lockdown and he got hooked at half time, so it doesn’t look good.
“Spurs play three games in a week next week. I suspect he’ll get to play in one of those and get his chance. But Mourinho just doesn’t trust him at the moment. He hasn’t played a minute since the football restarted and when you think that there are five subs available and he’s your record signing, that’s pretty damning.”
There is no doubt that Ndombele is a talented individual but if he does not take the opportunities that are about to be presented to him then he could easily be offloaded this summer.
If the window of opportunity is going to be “very small”, traditionally at Spurs that means he might get 2 minutes in one of the three games to show what he can do and overturn a losing team.
I’d be really disappointed if we don’t see him play again. All it takes to get the fans on side is a couple of good performances where he shows he wants to work hard for his team mates. I would not mind one bit this guy proving me wrong if Spurs were to benefit.
Well let’s put it this way – this time next year 1 of them won’t be at Spurs