Nuno Espirito Santo has insisted that it is not his job to convince Tanguy Ndombele to stay at Tottenham amid reports the midfielder wants to leave the club.
Ndombele was not in Tottenham’s matchday squad for the games against Manchester City or Pacos De Ferriera.
Multiple sources (Football Insider and Charlie Eccleshare) have claimed the 24-year-old has informed Nuno that he wants to leave the club.
Spurs have reportedly held talks with Lyon, Juventus and Bayern Munich over swapping the Frenchman for Houssem Aouar, Weston McKennie and Corentin Tolisso respectively.
Ndombele has certainly endured a difficult couple of seasons since his club-record move to Spurs in 2019. While Nuno refused to get into the midfielder’s struggles over the last two seasons, he did hint the former Lyon man has to show more desire to be part of his plans.
When asked about Ndombele, the Spurs boss told Football.London: “What happened in the past I can’t even think about, I don’t mention out of respect.
“What I can tell you is that Tanguy is with us, he works but we have to speak honestly and to take the best out of Tanguy has to come from himself.
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“It has to come from himself. I don’t want to go much further than that but it has to come from himself.”
When asked about the midfielder’s rumoured desire to leave Spurs, Nuno insisted that it was not his job to convince anyone to play for the club.
The 48-year-old added: “First of all I must speak to Tanguy before even addressing you. We already had a chance to talk but it must come from himself.
“I said it before – my job here is not to convince players to play for Tottenham Hotspur, it is to prepare players to play for Tottenham Hotspur.”
Spurs Web Opinion
This seems to be a pretty clear admission from Nuno that Ndombele wants out of Spurs and is not willing to do the necessary work to be part of his plans. While the midfielder’s talent is there for all to see, it is time certainly time for us to cut our losses.
His wages are significant and could free up funds for other targets, however, Daniel Levy is likely to want to recoup the vast majority of the fee he paid Lyon, which could prove to be a problem.
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