Ndombele, 24, joined Mauricio Pochettino’s side at the time in July 2019 for a club-record fee of €60million (£56million) and has since struggled to adapt to English football. Jose Mourinho then replaced Pochettino, and the Portuguese was apparently willing to get rid of the 24-year-old last summer after a fall out, but Daniel Levy rejected his wishes at the time, giving the benefit of the doubt to the midfielder.
Tanguy Ndombele said: “To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know how close I was to leaving. What I know is that I did want to leave. I spoke about this with people at the club and, particularly, with the chairman. He said he didn’t want me to leave and, definitely, that’s something that helped. [Jose Mourinho] looked me in the eyes and said to me: ‘The problem is that you’re stubborn.'”
