Tanguy Ndombele
3 min read
Tanguy Ndombele
This is the second post of the day and there may well be two posts tomorrow as well.
The morning edition will be Tottenham Talk on Wednesday 11th Aug - Lautaro Martinez and there may well be a second at 5pm GMT which is the round-up post, unless I move it to Thursday morning.
Anyway, on with today and the trouble with Frenchmen.
This was the belief at the time but since then I understand the Man City bid was £100m INCLUDING players, not in addition to.
The players being offered are on high wages and therefore not players we want, as we are being prudent with the wage bill in preparation for the coming years.
Spurs are releasing older players, Alderweireld, Lamela, Sissoko for instance and replacing them with younger players on lower wages.
That allows us to give annual increments for signing a contract extension and means if a player flops as Tanguy Ndombele has, that his wages don't become a noose around our neck trying to get rid of him.
The Frenchman downed tools when he arrived, downed tools defensively last season and has downed tools in pre-season using the birth of his child as an excuse it would seem.
I wrote 2 years ago that he had a mentality problem, he was displaying signs of having a losing mentality, not a winning mentality.
A winning mentality takes responsibility for a situation and does everything to rectify it, a losing mentality blames others, as Ndombele did.
This was the belief at the time but since then I understand the Man City bid was £100m INCLUDING players, not in addition to.
The players being offered are on high wages and therefore not players we want, as we are being prudent with the wage bill in preparation for the coming years.
Spurs are releasing older players, Alderweireld, Lamela, Sissoko for instance and replacing them with younger players on lower wages.
That allows us to give annual increments for signing a contract extension and means if a player flops as Tanguy Ndombele has, that his wages don't become a noose around our neck trying to get rid of him.
The Frenchman downed tools when he arrived, downed tools defensively last season and has downed tools in pre-season using the birth of his child as an excuse it would seem.
I wrote 2 years ago that he had a mentality problem, he was displaying signs of having a losing mentality, not a winning mentality.
A winning mentality takes responsibility for a situation and does everything to rectify it, a losing mentality blames others, as Ndombele did.
You don't seem to see him smile much in pictures, he doesn't seem to be a happy chap like Sonny.
Remember Étienne Capoue, now at Villarreal?
He came from France and felt, as he revealed when he left us, that he was entitled to a place, that he shouldn't have to fight for it.
This is the trouble with French football, there is no genuine competition for places as the clubs can't afford the strength in depth required.
It might be the league closest physically to the Premier League, but players know they are starting every week, they come through not having to fight if their talent sets them apart.
That creates the wrong mentality.
They then bring that ingrained mentality to the Premier League and suddenly find there is a player in their position who is equal to them and have to battle them in training and on the pitch to get game time.
For some, not all, the ingrained mentality kicks in and they down tools, sulk, as basically Ndombele has done with us.
If he is not fit, what use is he to another team?
If a player doesn't have to fight for a place in France, how do you mentally assess them for that challenge?
None of our scouts are psychologists or sports psychologists, they aren't trained to make that assessment, they are amateurs in that respect, probably with very little knowledge of the subject.
Basically, all we do is take a gamble, on Ndombele's case a near £60m gamble that Pochettinio revealed we couldn't afford to get wrong.
Well, if Spurs can't afford to get mentally assessing a player wrong, why are we guessing, why are we not using experts to give us as much insight as possible.
If you are lashing out £60m, you do every check possible, leave no stone unturned, yet football clubs including Tottenham Hotspur do just that, because that's the way it's always been.
Time moves on and in this respect the game has not moved with it.
It is so frustrating.
Remember Étienne Capoue, now at Villarreal?
He came from France and felt, as he revealed when he left us, that he was entitled to a place, that he shouldn't have to fight for it.
This is the trouble with French football, there is no genuine competition for places as the clubs can't afford the strength in depth required.
It might be the league closest physically to the Premier League, but players know they are starting every week, they come through not having to fight if their talent sets them apart.
That creates the wrong mentality.
They then bring that ingrained mentality to the Premier League and suddenly find there is a player in their position who is equal to them and have to battle them in training and on the pitch to get game time.
For some, not all, the ingrained mentality kicks in and they down tools, sulk, as basically Ndombele has done with us.
If he is not fit, what use is he to another team?
If a player doesn't have to fight for a place in France, how do you mentally assess them for that challenge?
None of our scouts are psychologists or sports psychologists, they aren't trained to make that assessment, they are amateurs in that respect, probably with very little knowledge of the subject.
Basically, all we do is take a gamble, on Ndombele's case a near £60m gamble that Pochettinio revealed we couldn't afford to get wrong.
Well, if Spurs can't afford to get mentally assessing a player wrong, why are we guessing, why are we not using experts to give us as much insight as possible.
If you are lashing out £60m, you do every check possible, leave no stone unturned, yet football clubs including Tottenham Hotspur do just that, because that's the way it's always been.
Time moves on and in this respect the game has not moved with it.
It is so frustrating.
Well that's it folks.
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