‘He’s a midfielder’ – Conte on Ndombele’s role in the Spurs squad and his future

Antonio Conte gave a rather cryptic answer when asked about Tanguy Ndombele’s role within the Spurs squad and his future at the club today. 

In the pre-match press conference ahead of Watford vs Spurs, Conte claimed he has been paying the same amount of attention to every member of his squad since joining.

However, he refused to confirm whether Ndombele would leave in January, instead insisting he needed to speak with the club before commenting on the futures of players.

Despite this, Conte was very quick to confirm that Harry Winks would definitely be staying in North London past the January window as he feels he can trust the midfielder.

When asked about Ndombele’s role in the squad, he simply answered: “He is a midfielder.”

The contrast in these two answers, and Tanguy’s lack of game time since Conte joined, seems rather telling for the Frenchman who has often lacked consistency and work rate in a Spurs shirt.

Conte said (Football London): “He’s a midfielder and I think he’s a midfielder.

“I pay the same attention to every player and in every single session I pay great attention to every single player.

“My concentration is not only 12, 13 or 14 players. Then there are players that understand and players who need more time or find it difficult to understand the situation.”

On whether Ndombele could leave in January, he added: “But I repeat before to speak about the transfer market, it’s better for me and the club to speak together and then we’ll have the situation more clearer than now. To speak about players now whether they can come or go is not right and it’s not honest.”

Spurs Web Opinion:

Ndombele hasn’t been able to make it work under Pochettino, Mourinho, Mason, Nuno or Conte. That is perhaps the best indication of all. Some players simply don’t have the mindset to graft in the Premier League and I fear that may be the case here.

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