Premier League legend Paolo di Canio believes Napoli boss Luciano Spaletti will have to work miracles if he wants to make Tanguy Ndombele’s loan spell from Tottenham Hotspur a success, speaking to Il Mattino.
It’s an accusation we’ve heard before.
Ndombele, for all his undoubted technical ability, lacks the drive and the determination to really thrive at the very highest level. That’s the usual line, anyway.
It’s surely no coincidence that successive Spurs managers – three if you count Ryan Mason – appear to have lost patience with the club’s second-most expensive signing, the famously unyielding Antonio Conte farming Ndombele out to Serie A after a hit-and-miss spell at former club Lyon.
So far, however, the France international has played less than an hour of football in Napoli colours. He didn’t even get off the bench during the 4-1 Champions League thumping of Liverpool.
Is Tanguy Ndombele destined to end up back at Tottenham again?
And Di Canio certainly isn’t the first – or the last, probably – to publicly cast doubt on Ndombele’s work ethic. Or a lack thereof.
“I’ll just say one thing; if Spalletti works a miracle with (Ndombele), I’ll take off my hat and congratulate him,” quips the former West Ham hero, parroting Jose Mourinho’s criticism of one of football’s most frustrating figures.
“Out of habit, this guy doesn’t want to sacrifice himself without the ball.
“He’s not a playmaker. At most, he can play as a mezzala. I don’t expect Luciano to make him walk on the water. But if he did at least make him swim, it would be a resounding success “.
Former Napoli coach – and Paolo’s near-namesake – Luigi De Canio hasn’t exactly been thrilled by Ndombele’s attitude either.
“I noticed a grimace from Ndombele; a gesture from him that I really didn’t like,” De Canio explains.
“The player was gloomy. He responded to a request from the coach in training, as if to say: ‘I can’t do more than this.’ I saw him a bit indolent. Someone in that physical state and with that attitude, he certainly wouldn’t play with me.”
Per Fabrizio Romano, there is a £25 million option-to-buy clause in Ndombele’s Napoli contract. One the Partenopei, as things stand, seem very unlikely to trigger.
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