Jose Mourinho and Tanguy Ndombele
Jose Mourinho has batted away suggestions of a fallout with Tanguy Ndombele, insisting there is no rift between himself and the Tottenham midfielder.
The club’s record signing, who Mourinho met during lockdown to help install his GPS equipment, has not played in either of Spurs’ two games of the Premier League restart.
He did not even warm up during the 2-0 win over West Ham, which came thanks to a Tomas Soucek own goal and Harry Kane’s 137th goal in 200 league appearances for the club.
Reports emerged in France not long after full-time that Ndombele had told Mourinho he no longer wanted to play for the club, but Mourinho has quashed those.
Speaking after their victory, Mourinho said, “No rift. On the bench was Tanguy, (Ryan) Sessegnon, Toby (Alderweireld), (Jan) Vertonghen, Gedson (Fernandes) and they didn’t play.
“That’s football. For me there’s nothing. I had attacking players on the bench, Lamela and Bergwijn. Two great players to bring on and then Winks to give us more consistency.
“This situation of the five changes, some people maybe think that you have to use all five changes. You don’t have to do it. You have the chances to do it.
“I felt that the team was fine. I never believed that 2-0 was a completely safe result because they were trying everything and one goal could change the state of mind and give them the motivation in the final minutes so I decided to keep the team stable and three changes was enough.
“You know, it’s not just him. I try to do the best for my team. I cannot start the game with 12 or 13 players, I try to do the best for the team.
“Sometimes I apologise to my players that are not my first choice because I feel their work in training deserves something more than I give but I have to do my job the best I can and I felt for these two matches I didn’t need him.”
While Ndombele is struggling for minutes, that is not a problem for Kane, who shirked off scrutiny over his performance against Manchester United on Friday with a trademark goal, coolly slotting past Lukasz Fabianski.