Tottenham player claims Mourinho said something about him he didn’t like hearing

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Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Tanguy Ndombele has admitted to Sky Sports that he didn’t like hearing Jose Mourinho’s criticism of him last season.

Mourinho showed Ndombele some tough love last term, as the Frenchman struggled in his first season at Spurs.

Ndombele’s display against Burnley drew particularly stinging criticism after he was hooked off at half-time.

But, in a show of progress, Ndombele was selected to start again for Spurs at Turf Moor on Monday night and he put in an excellent display in a 1-0 victory.

Ndombele seems to have won Mourinho’s trust now, but he insists that his up-turn in form isn’t down to the Tottenham boss’s public criticism.

“His words didn’t hurt me. They didn’t necessarily motivate me either,” he said.

“It was just something that I assimilated and took on board. Of course it’s not something that you like to hear, those sort of words, but that was last season and we are looking to the future.”

Many Spurs supporters questioned Mourinho’s management of Ndombele, but it seems to have worked.

Ndombele looks far fitter this season and he has now become a hugely important member of Spurs’s midfield.

All of a sudden he is living up to his billing of being Tottenham’s record signing, and there is great excitement about the player the 23-year-old could develop into in North London.