Tanguy Ndombele was relaxing at his apartment in Hadley Wood, north London. It was 7 April 2020, the coronavirus crisis had taken grip, the United Kingdom was in lockdown and Ndombele did not expect any visitors. And, certainly, not the visitor he got. It was José Mourinho, his manager at Tottenham, summoning him outside for an impromptu fitness session on the common.
“On a scale of one to 10, how surprised was I?” Ndombele says. “Honestly? Ten. I asked why I should have to run and he said I just had to do it. So it was nothing, really. Afterwards he congratulated me and said that I’d run well.”
It was a sensitive time, heavy on paranoia and introspection. Ndombele and Mourinho were condemned for breaking the lockdown rule that stipulated only members of a single household could exercise together. But, on a more micro level, it was a sensitive time in their relationship.
One month previously, Mourinho had substituted Ndombele at half-time against Burnley at Turf Moor and, after the 1-1 draw, publicly rebuked him for a perceived lack of effort. It was not the first time that Mourinho had given vent to his frustration over Ndombele’s professional attitude. So, there they were on Hadley Common, Mourinho cracking the whip, Ndombele with nowhere to hide, even when everybody had been told to hide away.
The positive reading was that Mourinho’s desire to work with Ndombele showed he had not given up on him; it could be a turning point for the midfielder who became Spurs’ record signing when he joined from Lyon in July 2019 for close to £60m. But the truth was that things would get far worse for Ndombele before they got better.
For better, read this season, when Ndombele has had excellent moments and driving performances, even if he has been unable to arrest a slide for the team that, before Sunday’s visit of Burnley, show five defeats in six Premier League games.
For worse, remember what happened after football’s restart last June, when Mourinho gave Ndombele 64 minutes of action in six matches before the player injured himself and missed the final three fixtures. It meant that, across the campaign, Ndombele had suffered more injury lay-offs (five) than he had completed 90 minutes of games (four).
“Was it the most important moment [in terms of Mourinho]?” Ndombele says, of the workout on the common. “I don’t think so. It was right in the middle of the hardest time for me. The match against Burnley … it wasn’t a nice time. The coach came out and said what he had to say afterwards and it’s not nice to hear those things. But the hardest moment was the restart.”
Ndombele had suffered a jarring culture shock during his first pre-season at Spurs under the then manager, Mauricio Pochettino, whose punishing sessions are notorious. “It was incredibly tough,” Ndombele says. “I was even calling home to my friends in France saying I wanted to come back. Undoubtedly, it had a role to play in the injuries I got. My body needed to get used to that sort of work and it was the shock of it to begin with that had a role to play in the fitness problems I had.”
Ndombele really wanted to get out by the end of the season but it was a non-starter for the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy. On one hand, there was no market for a high-earning record signing at a low ebb and on the other, despite everything, Ndombele had shown glimpses of his tantalising potential. Levy had seen it and so had Mourinho.
“To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know how close I was to leaving,” Ndombele says. “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. He looked me in the eyes and said to me: ‘The problem is that you’re stubborn.’”
It is put to Ndombele that he might not have wanted to go before he was able to show his true level in English football. “Of course, yeah, that’s something that motivates me all the time, to improve,” he says. “But you’ve got to remember that I really didn’t feel good so perhaps, sure, after the event I look back and think I wouldn’t have wanted to leave and want to prove myself here. But at the time, if you’re not feeling good, those sort of thoughts are quite far away from your mind.”
This is Ndombele’s first in-depth UK interview, which he gives as part of a promotional push for IWC Schaffhausen, Spurs’ official watch partner. The 24-year-old is nonchalant, gloriously matter-of-fact, enigmatic. He tells the story of how he dyed his hair blue and went on holiday after his eye-catching 2018-19 season with Lyon because, well, why not? He then got the call to say he had to come to London. His move to Spurs was on. “They said: ‘You’ve got to come, it’s now or never,’” Ndombele says. “I said: ‘I’ve dyed my hair, my hair is blue.’ And they said: ‘You’ve got to come anyway.’ As it happened, it was fine. They said I could keep my hat on so that’s how I look in the [signing] photos.”
What shines through is Ndombele’s inner steel. It was forged in the suburbs of Paris, where he grew up, and during an unconventional journey to the top that featured rejection by Guingamp at 17 and then two seasons in the Amiens reserve team, playing in French football’s fifth tier. “It all made me more resilient,” Ndombele says. “Leaving Guingamp was a really hard moment but I said I’m just not going to let this go. I’ve worked hard to get to where I am today. And without a doubt, last season made me stronger mentally.”
Ndombele admits that to get the best out of him, people ought to use the carrot rather than the stick and it begs the question as to what he thinks of Mourinho’s confrontational leadership. “If you know Mourinho then you understand how he behaves,” Ndombele says. “I wouldn’t call it confrontation. He’s just got a certain way of sending his messages and it all depends on how you receive those messages.
“How did his public criticisms make me feel? Quite simply, I needed to fight for myself. Of course, it’s never nice when you hear those things about you. But the most important thing is to work really hard, fight and turn the situation around. Thankfully, that’s something I’ve managed to do.
“For me, the hardest thing was getting used to my new life here – new language, new teammates, new league. The change of manager [from Pochettino to Mourinho] wasn’t the most challenging thing. The arrival of a new manager is hard at first, but over time we’ve gotten to know each other and now we have a good relationship.”
Ndombele’s second pre-season at Spurs was difficult for different reasons. It was short because of the late finish to last season and he also contracted coronavirus towards the end of August. Did he suffer with it? “No, not too much,” he says.
One consequence was that Ndombele missed out on a France call-up for the September internationals. He had been a non-playing member of Didier Deschamps’ squad in the previous two camps – in October and November 2019 – and he has not since got back in. All six of his caps came in 2018-19.
Without fitness, there can be no performance. But Ndombele has found that as the matches have come thick and fast – and he has avoided injury – he has been able to build durability. He has started in 20 of Spurs’ 24 league games. Last season, the number was 12 out of 38. “The fact that I’m playing matches at such a high rate makes it easier for my conditioning,” he says. “There’s nothing in particular that I’ve changed with regards to my lifestyle or the way I was preparing before.”
Did Ndombele feel that he made errors last season? “I wouldn’t say that I made particular errors,” he replies. “Everybody has to take their own responsibility for what goes on in a season and there were things that went on at the club that people know about and things that went on at the club that people don’t know about.
“It’s always like that. If people don’t know about what went on, then it’s because they shouldn’t know about those things. I’m able to look back now and see what were the aspects of my contribution that I needed to work on.”
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What Ndombele most wants is the platform to express himself, to try things and, if they do not come off, keep on trying them. He is the rarest of talents: unpredictable, even a little unorthodox, but capable of improvisation that touches the sphere of genius. His goal at Sheffield United last month was a case in point, an outside of the boot lob from the most awkward of positions, but it is the smaller details, too – the sharp turns and spins, the bursts that ignite moves.
“I’m someone who plays on instinct,” Ndombele says. “I never ask myself too many questions on the field. Thankfully, things come quickly into my head. You try stuff and taking a risk is part of the job. Sometimes that’s not easy but if you go for something risky and it helps the team then that’s great. I think all teams need players who are ready to take risks.”
