Unwanted by Antonio Conte at Tottenham last season, Tanguy Ndombélé had to find himself a new club in January.
It was always going to be a loan, and while Paris Saint-Germain were said to be keen, the player eventually returned to his former club, Lyon, for a half-campaign.
It didn’t really go to plan, with the club knocked out by West Ham United in the Europa League before finishing the season in eighth, missing out entirely on European football.
Ndombélé has since returned to Tottenham, where he will now be part of the group for preseason, giving him a chance to convince Conte that he can play a role at Spurs going forward.
In fact, the player touched on that in an interview with Média Carré on Instagram, where he was asked if he can be happy at the London club.
He replied: “Yes, I think it’s possible to be happy at Tottenham. Regardless of where you can go, you can be happy or unhappy. We’ll see how things go during preseason. I’m not putting any more pressure on myself than that.”
As for what he wanted this summer: “I think that question… (laughs) is rather complicated and personal at the same time, but what I want is to be happy, take pleasure in what I do, play, win, that’s all I want.”
The Tottenham player was then asked to assess how his short return to Lyon went: “It’s complicated, mitigated. Four months go by very, very quickly. I don’t regret it, even if we struggled. The most difficult thing to digest was getting eliminated by West Ham, but that’s part of the life of a footballer, there’s a need to know how to get back up when things don’t go well.”
We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds at Spurs for Ndombélé, but unless he can be very convincing, it seems unlikely that Conte will be waiting, arms wide open, with a place in his squad for him.
