SHARE

Deciding to cash in on Bruno Guimarães when Newcastle United came knocking for the Brazilian midfielder, Lyon then had the task to replace him.

One of their first moves was to sign Romain Faivre from Stade Brestois, but that wasn’t quite the like for like signing many expected, which is when Tanguy Ndombélé came into the picture.

Pushed to one side at Tottenham by Antonio Conte, the midfielder was struggling to get any game time at Spurs, and so an exit in January was touted.

Ndombélé was holding out for a move to Paris Saint-Germain, but when that didn’t materialise and the option to return to Lyon, the team Tottenham initially bought him from, came about, he went for it.

A deal was struck towards the end of the transfer window, claimed to be a loan with an option to make the move permanent at €65m, although whether that will be triggered remains to be seen.

Either way, the decision to bring back the Tottenham player has been lauded in France, with L’Equipe’s Olivier Bossard praising Jean-Michel Aulas’ team on Monday on L’Equipe de Greg.

He said: “I find that rather great. We were wondering how the recruitment cell at Lyon were going to react after Juninho’s departure. Here they’ve managed to pull off Tanguy Ndombélé, who is a France international and who Paris Saint-Germain wanted. That’s not nothing. It means something. I think everyone wins in that deal.

“Lyon lose Guimarães, and they manage to replace him straight away with Ndombélé. At equal form, I find Ndombélé better than Guimarães. He’s a player who has a rare volume, very strong technically and he’s a player who will bring the verticality that Peter Bosz is asking for for a while, whether it be with a pass or carrying the ball. He’s going to need to get himself back, eventually for the summer and for the World Cup. I think everyone’s a winner and the deal is really perfect”.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR