Jose Mourinho has performed somewhat of a U-turn on Tottenham midfielder Tanguy Ndombele as he now looks set to stay at the club despite previous struggles.
The 23-year-old struggled to impress the Portuguese tactician last season, and was openly criticised by both the coach and pundits at times for his performances.
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However, after playing a key role in his side’s comeback win over Lokomotiv Plovdiv in their Europa League qualifying clash on Thursday evening, it sounds as though Mourinho is now seeing what he wants from the French international.
“Tanguy is in a process of evolution,” Mourinho said, as quoted by Sky Sports. “Last season, he wasn’t. Last season, he was stuck in a situation where I couldn’t see evolution.
“In this moment, he’s training very, very well. He’s recovering from his injury, he’s recovering physically and today he gave us what we needed in this last 30 minutes.
“In this moment, I believe in Tanguy. I never doubted his quality. Never. I doubted in some moments his motivation and commitment and professional attitude.
“In this moment, I believe in him. Today we made this decision together to not start the game because he also feels that he needs a bit more but in this moment I think that Tanguy can do well for us.”
Having arrived for such a huge fee, Tottenham will no doubt be eager to see Ndombele kick on and become a fundamental figure in the side and a driving force for Mourinho in the heart of the line-up.
During his struggles last season and over the summer, speculation had suggested that he might even be on his way out of the club with the likes of Barcelona and Inter paired with an interest.
However, based on his comments above, it sounds as though Mourinho is seeing what he needs to see from his midfield ace now, and he’ll hope that there is plenty more to come from him as it seems more than likely now that he’ll stay in north London this season at least.