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Soccer News of Wednesday, 24 June 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Mourinho speaks on rift with Tottenham midfielder Ndombele

Jose Mourinho, Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho, Tottenham Hotspur manager

Tottenham Hotspur manager, Jose Mourinho has dismissed media reports of a rift between him and the club's midfielder, Tanguy Ndombele.

Ndombele who joined Tottenham in a club-record of £55 million deal last summer is reported to have told Mourinho that he never wants to play for his team again.

The Frenchman was benched during Tottenham's 2-0 win against West Ham and has not featured for the club since the English Premier League restart.

During the coronavirus lockdown period, Mourinho had flouted the order to enable Ndombele to have extra training sessions.

However, both men have fallen out and are said to no longer be in talking terms.

Sky Sports quoted Mourinho speaking on the issue: “No. There is nothing.

“I try to do the best for my team. I cannot start with 12 or 13 players, and sometimes I apologise to the ones I cannot pick.

“On the bench was Tanguy, (Ryan) Sessegnon, Toby (Alderweireld), (Jan) Vertonghen, Gedson (Fernandes) and they didn’t play. That’s football.

“I had attacking players on the bench, (Erik) Lamela and (Steven) Bergwijn. Two great players to bring on and then (Harry) Winks to give us more consistency.

“This situation of the five changes, some people may be thinking 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 were enough.”