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Player Watch - Tanguy Ndombele

Roberts84

Well-Known Member
Nov 20, 2006
1,672
2,315
When our other left wing options were Jamie O'Hara and Dos Santos it is hardly such a big decision.

Yes he couldn't play left wing but it was a different team, with a different style. Ndombele could play, but at the moment I just don't see why you would play him ahead of options. Ok, some people have issues with Dele but he has actually scored 8 goals and assisted 4 this season and is a way more proven, reliable and, yes, more disciplined. Meanwhile, Lamela has looked like a man on a mission this season and is clearly pushing Dele quite hard for that starting position. Ndombele has never played in the hole and I am not sure how well he would do there.

Ndombele is still a useful option to have, and I am sure we would have seen him come on as a CM were we having to chase a game. He is genuinely a game changing player. But, we are actually looking very solid and compact right now, and these last two games we actually have looked like a Jose team. Ndombele, hasn't shown himself to be that player yet.

But he shouldn't stress, quality and dedication wins out in the end. Lamela didn't get a look in in his first season. Sissoko looked like a massive waste of money in his first two. Dembele, what a player, was actually only used as an impact sub in his first season with Pochettino before learning what Poch wanted out of him.

More. Eriksen barely played in the first 4 months of his time at spurs before really pushing on around christmas. Lloris also had to wait to get into the team. Danny Rose had to fight from being considered a player who could never make it as a top quality left back and became the best in the league. Trippier had to play second fiddle for two seasons before establishing himself towards the end of the first. Gareth Bale was a curse and took years to really break through, Assou Ekotto was a liability before he adapted to the league so well he became a fan favorite. Son had a difficult first season were he came in and out of the side and Lamela, Dele and Eriksen were first choice.

That's the thing, he is a young player who needs to adapt to his managers needs, as well as those of the league. If he can takes his time he could easily become another Son, Dembele or Sissoko. But you become that by being patient and working on your game. If he wants to leave to get more games, fair enough, we should explain the situation and tell him to stay put, rumours are Son was pretty keen on going after his first season. If he doesn't accept that and still pushes for an exit. Good riddance, it's as simple of that, because he wouldn't have the mentality required for us moving forward. It would be understandable if he was 27 and at the peak of his career, but he is 23. We didn't sign him for this season. We signed him for the next 5.
Excellent post. It’s easy to forget that of Dembele was strongly linked with a move to Sunderland in Poch’s first season and was very much an enigma and no one knew where best to play him. I remember beating Newcastle away, I think 4-0 and he played attacking right. It’s largely down to Ndombele as to how his career goes at spurs. Show patience and work hard and he’ll be ok, if not good luck somewhere else
 
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synththfc

Well-Known Member
Aug 24, 2017
3,740
26,716
Positive news from Le10Sport:



I've looked for the article that says this, but I can't find it. IF someone can find it, please link me, however, Ricky Sacks has priors for just peddling bullshit and not actually doing his own research so it wouldn't shock me if this is that.
 

brasil_spur

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2006
12,669
16,715
Since when was a spurs tracksuit and a black beanie much of a statement anyway?
Exactly, I've literally sat in the main boardroom as an external business partner of THFC at Lilywhite House with "corporate" THFC staff and they were all wearing trackies and t-shirts.

In fact last time I saw DL at LH he was wearing jeans and a polo shirt.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,353
87,819
Exactly, I've literally sat in the main boardroom as an external business partner of THFC at Lilywhite House with "corporate" THFC staff and they were all wearing trackies and t-shirts.

In fact last time I saw DL at LH he was wearing jeans and a polo shirt.
Mans an OG
 

nferno

Waiting for England to finally win the Euros-2024?
Jan 7, 2007
7,014
10,012
Exactly, I've literally sat in the main boardroom as an external business partner of THFC at Lilywhite House with "corporate" THFC staff and they were all wearing trackies and t-shirts.

In fact last time I saw DL at LH he was wearing jeans and a polo shirt.

Reminds me of this classic from when he went to Croatia to sign modders

1593257282233.jpeg
 

fridgemagnet

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2009
2,410
2,864


How is Ally making assumption 1) based on a 5 minute Twitter clip?

There's some very odd soundbites that come out of football.London they often seem to contradict themselves every second or third article about the same subject. So if he's a chosen mouth piece for the club to feed info as I've seen suggested then it explains a lot as Spurs are probably one of the worst clubs for being able to control a narrative/getting ahead of a story. Somewhere else they need to massively improve IMHO communications and press/ragtops.

I don't know his/that sites full background though so I may be being overly harsh.
 

Tottenhamboy85

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
2,501
7,877
How is Ally making assumption 1) based on a 5 minute Twitter clip?

There's some very odd soundbites that come out of football.London they often seem to contradict themselves every second or third article about the same subject. So if he's a chosen mouth piece for the club to feed info as I've seen suggested then it explains a lot as Spurs are probably one of the worst clubs for being able to control a narrative/getting ahead of a story. Somewhere else they need to massively improve IMHO communications and press/ragtops.

I don't know his/that sites full background though so I may be being overly harsh.
Did you not see this part?

 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,353
87,819
How is Ally making assumption 1) based on a 5 minute Twitter clip?

There's some very odd soundbites that come out of football.London they often seem to contradict themselves every second or third article about the same subject. So if he's a chosen mouth piece for the club to feed info as I've seen suggested then it explains a lot as Spurs are probably one of the worst clubs for being able to control a narrative/getting ahead of a story. Somewhere else they need to massively improve IMHO communications and press/ragtops.

I don't know his/that sites full background though so I may be being overly harsh.
wonka_sarcastic_meme1.jpg
 

thebenjamin

Well-Known Member
Jul 1, 2008
12,164
38,545
A player doesn’t have to play like Dele to play in Dele’s position, though. We’d certainly lose work rate and off the ball movement if Ndombele took that ‘position’ but might gain other aspects. Won’t know if we don’t try.

Once of the central requirements of the 10 position in modern football is to work your bollocks off closing down the opposition's midfield playmaker.

It's no longer swanning about without a care in the world until someone else gets you the ball like the 1980s. In fact the amount of mobility and work rate required in terms of sprints to close down, get into the box, run beyond Kane etc, are if anything less suited to Ndombele than sitting in cm in front of the defense.

I get a bit confused when people suggest playing Ndombele at 10 - to do so would considerably exacerbate his weaknesses.
 

fridgemagnet

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2009
2,410
2,864
Did you not see this part?



Thank you, no I didn't, I'm really not a twitterati so didn't know it was a two part thread. thanks for pointing it out to me.


:D TBH you know what I realise after the fact that it's obvious but there's been that many conflicting opinions from F.L (it's not just them in fairness) that when you see something that makes your eyebrows go "WTF" sometimes it's easy to make a fool out of an idiot.

I made a mistake.
Thanks.

Signed An Idiot.
 

Gilzeanking

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2005
6,093
5,019
Oh Lordy The Athletic has more negative info on NDombele vs Jose and players stating he isn't training at 100%.

Anyone subscribe to The Athletic ?
 

Pochemon94

Well-Known Member
Aug 6, 2019
1,609
4,371
I just went onto the athletic and didn't see anything new other than an article about if Dier should get a new contract
 

he is you know!

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2012
1,837
3,500
Oh Lordy The Athletic has more negative info on NDombele vs Jose and players stating he isn't training at 100%.

Anyone subscribe to The Athletic ?

It's not a new story, it was posted on Thursday.

From public criticism to a lockdown-busting training session in the park, the seemingly tempestuous relationship between Jose Mourinho and Tanguy Ndombele has surely been one of the most fascinating sub-plots of this elongated Premier League season.

The demanding manager and the seemingly laid-back creative genius always felt like being an uneasy marriage, and so it has proved. The latest instalment in their ongoing saga saw reports circulating on Tuesday night of a training ground bust-up the previous day. Mourinho dismissed the claims in his press conference following the 2-0 win over West Ham while elsewhere, reports have varied. Some who are close to the situation say there was a conversation in which Ndombele made clear that he felt fit to play but not the heated argument that has been described in some quarters.

Either way, what was undeniable was that for the second game running, Tottenham’s ludicrously talented and record £55 million signing watched on from the bench, despite Mourinho having five substitutions available.

Ndombele has completed 90 minutes just once for Mourinho and in his last appearance against Burnley on March 7, was hauled off at half-time and told publicly that “he has to give us more than he is giving us”. Prior to that, Mourinho twice questioned Ndombele’s fitness in public, describing him in January as “always injured”.

Since then, the Premier League was halted, the pair broke lockdown rules to train together on Hadley Common and prior to the restart, Mourinho said he was pleased with how Ndombele was training. And yet, he still hasn’t played a minute since that Burnley game.

So, what’s going on? The reality is that the relationship between the two is strained — as one well-placed observer put it: the coach doesn’t understand the player and the player doesn’t understand the coach. Mourinho’s aim has always been to try and help Ndombele but as yet, the kind of reaction he was after has not been forthcoming.

Some dressing-room sources, including a few who were previously sympathetic to Ndombele, believe this is down to a distinct lack of effort on the Frenchman’s part in training. Others at the club felt that Mourinho’s public criticism of the midfielder earlier in the season were unfair. He remains a divisive issue.


Ndombele himself is not understood to have protested about those injury criticisms or his lack of playing time. A naturally quiet character, he has been disappointed not to be playing but it is not in his nature to seek confrontation.

Thankfully, he at least finally feels free of the niggles that afflicted him earlier on in the season but, having not played any football for almost four months, is not thought to be ready to play a full 90 minutes. As it stands, Giovani Lo Celso, Moussa Sissoko and Harry Winks are all ahead of him in the pecking order to play central midfield, while Dele Alli’s return from suspension blocks off his route to starting further forward.

Clearly, it’s a situation that cannot go on for too much longer — the record signing warming the bench. Should Ndombele continue not to play, then he will look to leave at the end of the season.

Spurs’ current position is that they do not want to sell the player but in the current climate, it’s impossible to imagine them paying wages of £200,000 a week for a player who is not getting minutes. As for a possible destinations, Paris Saint-Germain have made enquiries about the player, while Barcelona are understood to have contacted Spurs about a possible move. Barca’s financial troubles mean they couldn’t afford anything like the fee Spurs paid last summer but a loan with a fee and an option or obligation to buy has been mooted — if they can shift other central midfielders in their squad.

For the moment, though, despite a growing feeling that Ndombele will leave in the summer, any move remains hypothetical. His focus remains on forcing his way into the Spurs team, rather than out of the club. He’s very unlikely to start next week against Sheffield United but the following week, Spurs play three games in seven days and he will surely get his chance in one of them. Then, it’ll be up to Ndombele to show Mourinho that he is capable of the kind of application the head coach demands, and should Ndombele start getting minutes, then the situation could quickly change. Whether Ndombele’s more instinctive, mercurial style will ever be exactly what Mourinho wants from a central midfielder is open to question.

As for Ndombele himself, he is understood to feel settled in London and is enjoying living in the city, and so has no immediate desire to leave. He also loves the stadium and is said to admire the club’s owner Daniel Levy. He is not yet fluent in English but gets on well with his team-mates and is especially close with Dele Alli and Moussa Sissoko, who has taken him under his wing.

Generally, though, he is not someone who enjoys long conversations and has never been someone to especially relish talking to the media. This reticence, compared with Mourinho’s comfort in the spotlight, may also explain why the dynamic has appeared as though the manager has been swinging punches, with Ndombele sitting back and taking the punishment.

It’s worth remembering though that Mauricio Pochettino could be similarly forthright about Ndombele while he was still in charge earlier on in the season. Ahead of the campaign starting, Pochettino said his new signing was not yet ready for the Premier League, before saying in October that Ndombele could take two years to get used to his methods.

And eight months on, here we are — with a new manager but Ndombele seemingly no closer to finding his feet at Spurs. The club are desperate for the move to be a success to justify its vast expense but at the moment, there is no place for him in the team.

Given Lo Celso’s increasingly impressive form and the Frenchman’s own inconsistency, it makes sense that Ndombele is not playing. But then you think about the shimmies, the feints, the last-minute rabona crosses and long to see him on the pitch.

It’s a frustration shared by almost everyone associated with the club — including Pascal Chimbonda, a former Tottenham and France player, who was also accused of being lazy. “When you see him play, you see he has quality,” Chimbonda tells The Athletic. “But in your head, you think he doesn’t do enough on the pitch — that’s why people think he’s lazy.

“People don’t like guys who are too laid-back and when you play for Mourinho, if you don’t give everything, he will take you out of the team. He needs to step up and prove everyone wrong, and that he’s worth the money.

“If I spoke to him, I would tell him, ‘It’s time to step up. Prove you’re the player we signed — the same as when you were at Lyon, and do the same thing’ because we don’t yet see where all his talent is. Where is it hiding? Prove that we were right to sign you and then people will shut their mouth.”

(Photo: Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
 
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