According to The Sun, Tottenham have placed Tanguy Ndombele on the transfer list and are willing to sell him for the right price. Whether suitors can match the £54m we paid last summer remains to be seen, however.
Jose Mourinho has lost faith in Ndombele and wants the 23-year-old out of North London, but Daniel Levy sanctioned a club-record deal to sign him last summer and won’t want to take a big hit from a sale.
According to Sky Sports (h/t Tottenham News), our owner is prepared to keep the French international if a sale can’t be agreed, so Mourinho may have keep him in the first-team next season.
Mourinho has given up on Ndombele
Ndombele made 14/17 appearances under Mauricio Pochettino (883/1530 minutes) but struggled for consistency and found himself quickly out of the picture when Mourinho replaced the former – 15/35 appearances and 563/3150 minutes.
As per reports in France, Ndombele told Mourinho that he doesn’t want to play under him, leading to mediation sessions with players and staff to restore the relationship. The pair are believed to have argued about Ndombele’s physical condition, and an individual training session with Mourinho did little to earn him a reprieve.
Is there any chance we’ll sell him?
Nope. We signed Ndombele for £54m and agreed a six-year deal worth £200k-per-week/£10.4m-a-year, so what club has the money to match that post-Covid? The 23-year-old’s stock is low right now too, so he’s hardly proven he’s worth the outlay. Liverpool, Barcelona and Inter Milan have been linked with Ndombele, but it’s hard to see any of the trio agreeing a deal with us.
The French international has five years remaining on his contract, so we’re under no obligation to accept a cut-price for him. A loan move with a buying option may be a solution next season, but it would be premature to completely give up on Ndombele.
Summary
So much was expected of the 23-year-old upon his 2019-move from Olympique Lyonnais, but he’s failed to live up to the type. Ndombele should be in our first-team squad for the 2020/21 campaign, so his future’s in his hands if he’s willing to stay.
Its the old story. It doesn’t matter how much talent a player has if his attitude is wrong. This doesn’t go down well with some of our fans who believe talent is everything. But it never has been and never will be. I can remember Sam Allardyce once saying he spent more time assessing a player’s character than his ability, maybe we need to do the same.