Not every transfer goes to plan, and in the case of Tottenham’s Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, that’s exactly what happened.
The 22-year-old winger, who arrived at White Hart Lane following a very long and drawn out saga, has only played 330 minutes of football this season, and is yet to earn Mauricio Pochettino’s full trust.
This, however, hasn’t put him off, and, in fact, he feels he’s learned a lot over the past nine months or so, playing alongside some great footballers on a daily basis.
Among those are Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen.
He said: “As soon as you arrive, you understand one thing: they’re hungry. Everyone is focused on work. From the morning in the gym to the evening in the physio room. I’ll use an example: Harry Kane. You see straight away why he’s one of the best goalscorers in England.
“Every day, he’s first at training. And he just shoots at the goal, and free-kicks. Again and again. I call him ‘the sniper”. He’s incredible. Eriksen too. It’s through these examples that you really see what you can bring. I used to only focus on my talent. Where I want to go, talent isn’t enough. Work, listening, everything is there.”
Explaining that you ‘always need to be at 200%’, N’Koudou admits it was a big shock going from France to England and the difference in what is expected of you between the two leagues.
Not ready to give up yet, the player is continuously learning, and if that means a year on the sidelines to come back stronger next season and have the impact he wanted to have this year, so be it.
And one thing is certain, he wants to stay.
