As West Ham United faced Lyon in the Europa League on Thursday night, a lot of London eyes will have been cast on Tanguy Ndombélé.
After all, the midfielder is a well known entity in the English capital, currently on loan with the Ligue 1 side from Tottenham, where he failed to get along with Antonio Conte.
A return to his former side was arranged in January for the rest of the season, with many expecting him to settle in quickly and end up back to his old self.
That hasn’t been the case, with the player recently branded ‘lazy’ alongside the rest of the team for their performance against Angers, meaning this game, with a lot of eyes on him, seemed almost crucial for his future.
The game ended in a 1-1 draw despite Lyon having a numerical advantage for half the game following Aaron Cresswell’s red card, and it was Ndombélé who saved his side, scoring the equaliser in the 66th minute after Jarrod Bowen’s goal 14 minutes earlier.
The Spurs loanee’s performance didn’t go unnoticed either, with Le Progrès highlighting the midfielder on Friday, sensing he ‘tasted English football once again with a brilliance that won’t have left Tottenham unmoved’.
In fact, for his ninth game of the season for Lyon, he looked like an ‘essential piston’ in Peter Bosz’s side, as the manager praised him after the game.
He said: “He scored that goal, of course. He played his best game for us after the one against Nice. He was very good, and dominated the first half where he took a lot of balls. It was really a good game from him.”
As for the Tottenham midfielder, he felt he and his teammates could have ended up with more from the game, speaking to RMC Sport, relayed by Le Progrès.
He said: “To be honest, we aren’t going to spit on it, at 10 against 11, we could have hoped for better. From the moment we conceded that goal, we knew it would be hard.
“I got the ball in the middle, saw the hole, passed it to Tetê, he crossed it hard in front of goal. The ball lingered and I pushed it into the back of the net.”
When it comes to his future at Tottenham, it’s rather simple: Ndombélé is loaned to Lyon until the end of the campaign with an option to buy of around €60m or so.
That fee is simply too big for the Ligue 1 side to trigger unless they find a lot of money down the back of a long forgotten sofa, meaning there’s a strong chance he will return to Spurs in the summer.
From that point onwards, it’s up to him, Antonio Conte, Fabio Paratici and Daniel Levy to work out what’s best for everyone at Tottenham.
