Tanguy Ndombele reveals role Daniel Levy played in Tottenham stay
By Tom Gott
Tanguy Ndombele has confessed that a meeting with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy inspired him to get his career back on track.
It hasn't always been smooth sailing for the Frenchman since his £54m move from Lyon in 2019, with rumours of a move away from the club surfacing regularly in the past two years because of some inconsistent form.
During his first season, in which he managed two goals and four assists in 29 appearances, Ndombele held a meeting with Levy to discuss why things weren't going his way, in which the chairman gave a defiant speech about dealing with adversity.
“If a chairman is seeing something that he is not happy with it’s normal that he wants to speak to the player about that,” Ndombele said (via the Telegraph). “It was a good meeting, I listened to what he had to say and he listened to me too. Perhaps if I’m still at Tottenham today it’s thanks to that meeting.”
Levy had to fight and convince Ndombele to keep working at Tottenham after a debut season in which he felt unsupported by manager Jose Mourinho. The boss hauled Ndombele off at half-time in a 1-1 draw with Burnley and publicly blasted him for not working hard enough, and while many felt that was a poor decision from Mourinho, the Frenchman revealed he actually appreciated that.
“I am quite happy for people to tell the truth like that about me,” Ndombele admitted. “That type of management, I’m fine with. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It is true that it was hard at the start with Mourinho but then, over time, we got on much better and the relationship worked much better.
“With any manager, if I don’t like how I’m treated, I’ll say so. At the end of the day each manager is going to have their own style.
“Jose Mourinho is someone who has a hard style of management, but he’s always about the club. But Nuno [Espirito Santo] is a really nice guy but he’s a bit quieter and keeps himself to himself. They’re two very different people.”
The exit rumours came back in force during this past summer, but Ndombele is ready to put the past behind him and work towards achieving success with Spurs.
“What went through the summer is something that is for me,” Ndombele concluded. “Right now I’m focused on what is ahead of me and focused on playing for this club and fighting hard. I feel really ready with my football and that is all that I’m concentrating on and I’m now looking ahead.”