Tottenham Hotspur actively looking to offload Tanguy Ndombele before the window closes

Recently I suggested that there’s very little chance that Tanguy Ndombele will leave Tottenham Hotspur, despite making it clear that he would like to do so. That may have been premature. Reports are emerging out of the French media that suggest that Spurs are actively trying to find a solution to Tanguy’s desire to depart the club. The latest comes from Julien Maynard, a Telefoot reporter that says there IS interest in Tanguy, including from one club in Spain.

Run those tweets through the Google machine and you get this:

Tottenham are discussing with several clubs about Tanguy Ndombele, but they have not yet received any offers.

The preference is for a departure (sale or loan) but it’s complicated. The player doesn’t rule anything out. There are two clubs interested. The most serious is from a club in Spain.

This comes after prior rumors emerged from Sky Germany that Tottenham turned down an offer from Bayern Munich that included Corentin Tolisso plus €20m.

When asked about Ndombele, Tottenham head coach Nuno Espirito Santo was pretty forthright that he’s in communication with Tanguy, but that he doesn’t feel it’s his job to convince a Spurs player to actually play for the team.

“What happened in the past [with Tanguy] I can’t even think about, I don’t mention out of respect. What I can tell you is that Tanguy is with us, he works but we have to speak honestly and to take the best out of Tanguy has to come from himself. It has to come from himself. I don’t want to go much further than that but it has to come from himself.

“My job here is not to convince players to play for Tottenham Hotspur, it is to prepare players to play for Tottenham Hotspur.”

It still seems unlikely that a permanent deal for Ndombele, Tottenham’s record signing, can be reached with such little time in the window, but a loan with a purchase option may be a possibility. If he doesn’t move, it will be up to Nuno and Tanguy to come to some sort of understanding by which he can be reintegrated into the team until the next sale opportunity comes along. What’s become clear now is that while Tanguy has continued to train with the club since returning (take note, Harry), he’s ready for a change and that this is driven by the player and not Nuno.

This sucks. I’ve been a huge Ndombele backer since the very beginning and what’s maybe the worst part is that this situation will be used by people who have long dabbled in problematic tropes with regards to Tanguy as proof that they were correct all along about him being “lazy” and “uncommitted.” The truth is we don’t know, and may never know the full picture that has contributed to Ndombele’s unhappiness, although we know parts of it. All we really do know is that it hasn’t worked out, and for a player who is so incredibly talented and has so much promise, that’s a crying shame.