Journalist Julien Laurens believes that Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Tanguy Ndombele no longer wishes to play for Jose Mourinho and that he will leave the club this summer.
The Frenchman signed for Tottenham back in July 2019 from the French side Lyon in a deal reportedly worth £54m (via Transfermarkt.co.uk). Since joining the North London club, he has made 21 appearances in the Premier League, scoring twice and providing his teammates with two assists.
Since the start of February, Ndombele has played just 206 minutes of football in the English top-flight and his average performance rating in the competition, according to WhoScored.com, stands at 6.71/10 which you could argue to be somewhat underwhelming given the size of the fee the Lilywhites paid to bring him to the club.
Speaking on a recent episode of the Gab and Juls show on ESPN FC, Laurens said: “Ndombele is injured, which is an injury that suits him well at this time of the season because he doesn’t want to be there, he doesn’t want to play for Mourinho anymore.
“I don’t know how this will be resolved, I would think he will leave the club this summer, going on loan somewhere or whatever. But after such a big investment on him a year ago, to see his year at the club is incredible really, because I think he has [a] very special talent but he needs to mature and I just don’t think that his relationship with Mourinho could be fixed anytime soon, anyway.”
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Jose Mourinho has never shied away from the 23-year-old’s fitness issues but judging by Laurens’ comments we can assume that the relationship between the pair has broken down. According to Transfermarkt.co.uk, Ndombele’s current value stands at £46.8m and Laurens believes the player could leave the club but whether the club will be able to recuperate anything close to the £54m they spent on him remains to be seen.
He also mentioned the possibility of the player leaving on loan which given the likely impact of the recent global pandemic on the upcoming transfer window, it could be argued that would be a more realistic solution.