It’s fair to say that Tanguy Ndombélé’s time at Tottenham hasn’t been the best, with him spending the last year and a half away on loan.
The French midfielder arrived at Spurs in a €60m transfer from Lyon, but despite some good spells here and there, he never managed to become a regular under the various managers who worked with him.
He never got on with Antonio Conte, which is why he ended up on loan at Napoli from Tottenham this season, and he has given an interview to So Foot about it all.
We covered some of it earlier on in the day, about his future and relationship with the aforementioned Italian, but there was a bit more about how he felt following his meteoric rise in football which culminated with the transfer to Tottenham.
He said: “It went very, very, very quickly, and I didn’t have time to take stock of certain things. When it happens like that, you subconsciously tell yourself everything will be easy, you think all will be fine… Then it catches up with you. I ended up being injured, for example. When it happens after a big transfer, the way people look at you changes quickly. In that period, I think I listened a lot to certain people, and that didn’t help me.”
Asked who he listened to, he said: “The critics, people at the club, at Tottenham… There are certain things that should have happened differently. It has not always been my fault, but I’m the player, so I’m the one the finger gets pointed at. It’s part of it. At Tottenham, I think my beginnings, with my physical niggles, complicated everything that followed. Despite that, the fans have always been behind me.”
Since arriving at Tottenham, the 26-year-old has made just 91 appearances in the space of three and a half years, scoring 10 goals and assisting another nine.
His season at Napoli has seen him play a rotation role more often than not, but he has still managed to make 34 appearances in all competitions this season.
