£200k-a-week Spurs ace says he considered leaving in summer, Daniel Levy intervened

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Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Tanguy Ndombele has admitted to Canal Plus that he considered leaving the club in the summer, but Spurs chairman Daniel Levy made it clear he wanted to keep him.

The 23-year-old arrived at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to much fanfare last summer in a club record deal, Spurs having reportedly agreed an initial fee of around £55million with Lyon.

Ndombele’s early days at Tottenham weren’t exactly smooth sailing amid injuries and loss of form, and his end-of-season tally last term saw him made 21 Premier League appearances, with just 12 starts.

Indeed, in Spurs’ meeting with Burnley in early March, he was hauled off at half-time by Jose Mourinho as the North Londoners laboured to a 1-1 draw, and was criticised by the Portuguese.

Fast-forward eight months and Ndombele is now a first-team regular once again, having made 10 appearances in all competitions including six Premier League starts.

However, things could have been different, as the France international did have some doubts over his future during the summer.

“Did I think about going to Inter? I asked myself whether I should leave or not but the president told me he wanted to keep me,” he told Canal Plus, as translated by Sempre Inter.

“This season is going pretty well, even with the manager… everyone has put their ego aside. There are things I didn’t agree on, just as the coach didn’t agree on anything else. I made mistakes, but today it’s okay.

“Sometimes you can talk and argue with the manager, but you have to leave everything behind and move on. How did I convince Mourinho? I had to play more. I was able to show him that I am motivated, it is important.”

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Ndombele is a talented player, his exploits with Lyon leading to Spurs spending a lot of money on him, and he didn’t suddenly become bad overnight.

A change of club and country, the change of manager at Tottenham and the player’s injuries and loss of form will all have played their part.

Some players hit the ground running when changing clubs and/or countries but others will take a while longer, and need a bit more man-management to really get up the gears.

The £200,000-a-week ace is now showing the kind of form that led to Spurs splashing out on him, and no doubt there will be much more to come from him.