While his performances on the pitch for Lyon have been about as consistent as his Tottenham ones, Tanguy Ndombélé is at least enjoying himself back in France.
Branded lazy one week only to rescue a draw for the Ligue 1 side in the Europa League the next, the midfielder is still trying to recapture his old self at his former club, which is what Spurs were hoping he would do by sending him back there in January on loan.
There is a €60m option to buy attached to that deal, which Lyon are highly unlikely to trigger anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean Tottenham can’t benefit from all this.
Foot Mercato have a long article on Ndombélé and his time in France so far this year, looking at the various ups and downs he’s gone through, highlighting the old relationships he’s rekindled and the new ones he’s created.
He immediately became someone to look up to for various players, and he ‘advises youngsters like Castello Lukeba or Malo Gusto’.
He also ‘found an old friend like Moussa Dembélé’, who pushed for his return, and the Tottenham midfielder is on a ‘commando mission’ to help Lyon as best he can.
Unable to play against Strasbourg, the player will ‘do everything’ to face West Ham in the return Europa League fixture.
The website then explain that Lyon ‘will not trigger his important option to buy’, meaning Ndombélé ‘will return to Tottenham this summer’.
Down their end, Spurs are ‘following very closely’ what is currently going on at Lyon, and they aren’t the only ones, because Foot Mercato say teams outside of the Premier League are also keeping an eye on him.
Thus, there is money to be made here if they like what they see, as Antonio Conte made it rather clear he isn’t interested in using the Frenchman at Tottenham anytime soon.
