Ndombélé admits he had ‘lost the taste for football’ in soon to be aired interview

[Buggsy61]

I think he will definitely do better in France but is finished with us.
During the All or Nothing documentary it was clear that he was relying on Sissoko and Aurier his French compatriots to help him settle. With those two leaving in the summer I must admit I was a bit worried, and so it has come to pass.
He has so much talent and loved watching the flashes of brilliance, but he just lacks the fire in his belly that all the really top players have.

 

[dontcallme]

Didn't lose the taste for his 200k p/w and his private yacht in the French Riviera though I notice...

I think this is kind of the point. Football becoming such a huge global sport has created a bad culture of young people earning excessive money and getting the fame and power that go with that. A kid that just loved the game suddenly becomes a multi-millionaire and before you know it their appetite and interest in playing football dwindles and they just want to enjoy their money.

We can blame the individuals all we want, with merit of course, but it's going to keep on happening.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

No shit!

I mean you’d never have thought that watching him play….

 

[Japhet]

Didn't lose the taste for his 200k p/w and his private yacht in the French Riviera though I notice...

I doubt he ever had a taste for hard work, or ever will for that matter. The slightest bit of effort seemed like a massive chore to him. Absolute waste of a quite extraordinary talent.

 

[cider spurs]

'Lost taste'

Hope he hasn't got covid.

 

[Jules77]

Conte's comments from earlier today are worth reading. He goes to town on our transfers in recent years and while he doesn't mention Tanguy specifically, he makes a general comment about the difficulty of the PL being such that comparing it to another league would be akin to trying to compare to a different sport. He is bang on and this is why the biggest criticism on the TN fiasco is with the club for taking him in the first place. He was never going to survive in this league given the mismatch between his fitness history and the extremely high demands of the league. Poch really landed us in the shit with that one if as rumours have it, it was him that pushed hard for Tanguy.

That comment was in his answer to a question specifically about Gil, I think?

 

[Roberts84]

Conte's comments from earlier today are worth reading. He goes to town on our transfers in recent years and while he doesn't mention Tanguy specifically, he makes a general comment about the difficulty of the PL being such that comparing it to another league would be akin to trying to compare to a different sport. He is bang on and this is why the biggest criticism on the TN fiasco is with the club for taking him in the first place. He was never going to survive in this league given the mismatch between his fitness history and the extremely high demands of the league. Poch really landed us in the shit with that one if as rumours have it, it was him that pushed hard for Tanguy.

Have you got a link to Conte's comments?

 

[barry]

But not the taste for burgers

But then again, most opinions on here were based on an impressive YouTube reel and it is easy to get carried away on those. You'd have hoped the club did the right due diligence before deciding to spunk £55m on a record signing. The giveaway sign is that unlike Diaz in this window, no one else was seriously in for him.

If only transfers were that easy. There's probably a litany of expensive duds.

 

[Smokinhotspur]

That comment was in his answer to a question specifically about Gil, I think?

Ah OK, saw it on the skysports website yesterday so they my have only taken an extract from a longer interview. I still see those comments as relevant to Tanguy as well albeit there are additional factors to consider in his case in terms of lack of application and desire

 

[Smokinhotspur]

But not the taste for burgers

If only transfers were that easy. There's probably a litany of expensive

But not the taste for burgers

If only transfers were that easy. There's probably a litany of expensive duds.

No one is saying transfers are easy and we all know that despite the best scouting sometimes they just don't work out for various reasons. In Tanguy's specific case though we basically decided to gamble £55m on a central midfielder that cannot run. No sensible club does that and this is the type of thing Conte is being so vocal about in terms of not repeating glaring mistakes of the past

 

[yankspurs]

Unfortunately he never had the appetite. The fitness worries were always there even before we signed him. He isnt cut out for the top levels of football, unfortunately. All the talent in the world but his desire has never matched.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

It was obvious to most of us he’d had lost that appetite to play for us.

"Lost" is probably not the right word, as he seemed to lack appetite from the outset.

 

[jay2040]

"Lost" is probably not the right word, as he seemed to lack appetite from the outset.

Agree. Never seemed to.have that passion or desire . Apprecaite new country and all that though just let us down and great indicator that past performance means fuck all!

 

[nailsy]

Footballers like him are pathetic really. You get this gift to play football for a living and you act like a privileged twat. If clubs at least had the right to implement performance related pay, this sort of BS would end overnight.

We do have performance related pay. It's done through bonuses for League position, competitions won, goals scored etc. When we were giving players lower weekly wages and higher bonuses it was blamed as the reason that we couldn't attract top players.

 

[hellava_tough]

But not the taste for burgers

If only transfers were that easy. There's probably a litany of expensive duds.

I know this is somewhat subjective, but I'd argue that most transfers (certainly most of Spurs' transfers) aren't expensive in terms of value, even the 'duds'.

A club usually recoups a large portion of the initial transfer fee when selling the player. Added to this, a player usually provides an amount of value to the club, by virtue of the fact that he's playing for them during the course of his contract.

The problem with Tanguy is that there was a huge transfer fee, massive wages and not a lot of on-pitch value. I mean, let's face it, Winks and Sissoko have been more useful to the squad during the time Tanguy has been with us.

And there could also be a problem with recouping the initial transfer fee.

Once he finally goes, we'll be able to review the 'bill'.

 

[JacoZA]

I think Ndombele is the classic case of a gifted individual who has gotten by on mostly talent and little graft for most of their life, and then the first time they really have to put in the work in a situation that is challenging they fail to perform. He's never developed the required work ethic to succeed in that kind of situation. And this self-limiting behaviour is so ingrained that pep talks from Levy/Jose/etc. only deliver short-term improvements, before he falls back to his default.

He has also likely created an idea in his mind that also "protects" him from this truth; for example, he might see himself as simply being the kind of player who doesn't work with rigid tactics. In truth, he could shine in any team, but he'd need to admit to himself that his behaviour is a problem. A gifted underachiever in the true sense of the term. I hope he realizes this before it's too late for him.