Tottenham defender Matt Doherty has revealed that he “didn’t come close to leaving” the club despite transfer links away from North London in January.
Spurs signed Doherty from Wolverhampton Wanderers in August 2020 for £14.7 million, according to the Guardian, and after failing to live up to expectations last season, Spurs went ahead and signed Emerson Royal in the summer, putting the Irishman’s future in doubt.
The full-back was linked with a move back to Wolves as part of a swap deal for Adama Traore in January, according to The Athletic, but the move never came to fruition.
Doherty’s season has been stop-start so far and has only started eight league games during this campaign – all of which have come under Antonio Conte.
The full-back has now started the last six league games in a row and claims that the players and himself are enjoying life under the Italian, by saying after yesterday’s match with Newcastle United via the Daily Star: “We are going into games thinking we are going to win, we really have a high level of confidence now, to the point where we just can’t wait to play the next game.”
Doherty also spoke about the rumours of him leaving during the January window and stated that he never thought about leaving. The Irishman said: “I didn’t come close to leaving. I never had a conversation, nothing was ever said to me. From my point of view, I was led to believe that I wasn’t going anywhere.
“I don’t know if that’s the case. That is what my point of view was. You have thoughts at times that it wasn’t working out. I just decided that I wanted to train hard and I wanted to play here. Why would I want to go anywhere apart from Tottenham?
“I thought if I keep training hard and doing what the manager wants the opportunity would come and it would be up to me to grasp it and at the moment I seem to be doing that well.”
Doherty was magnificent yesterday against Newcastle and was involved in two of Tottenham’s goals, scoring one himself. Conte seems to have taken a liking to the full-back in recent weeks, due to his attacking threat and versatility. In this form, there is no doubt the full-back will have a future at the club.