Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho causes controversy after calling out club-record signing

Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho causes controversy after being perceived to have called out club-record signing Tanguy Ndombele.

The French international was a notable omission from Spurs’ squad that faced Brighton earlier on Boxing Day leaving Spurs fans confused.

Mourinho, who helped steer Spurs to a 2-1 win over the Seagulls, explained his reasoning as to why the midfielder was dropped.

The former Chelsea boss explained the situation, stating that Ndombele was not injured but was indeed not ready to play against Graham Potter’s side.

The 56-year-old continued, saying that Ndombele told him a day prior to the game that he wanted to not play due to fears of aggravating a previous injury that he has suffered from.

The 22-year-old midfielder featured in the Lilywhites’ previous game where he came on as a second-half substitute in a 2-0 home defeat to rivals Chelsea.

Ndombele joined Spurs in the summer on the back of an incredible breakthrough campaign with Olympique Lyonnais the season prior where he excelled in both Ligue 1 and the Champions League.

The Frenchman was heavily touted by top European clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich but opted to join the North London side.

Daniel Levy helped then-manager Mauricio Pochettino snap the all-action midfielder for a hefty £54m, which broke the club-record transfer fee set by the arrival of defender Davinson Sanchez back in 2017.

Despite being the most expensive signing in the club’s history, the midfielder has failed to earn the trust of Mourinho thus far.

The Portuguese manager has used Ndombele’s talent sparingly, having only let the midfielder start a single game.

Ndombele has only featured 4 times under the controversial manager, which is a stark contrast to under Pochettino where he was a regular.

Despite Mourinho’s slight bitterness and disappointment in Ndombele’s request, the Frenchman had just cause having already suffered a hamstring injury.

Spurs fans will not be best pleased with their manager coming out and somewhat throwing the club’s record signing under the bus especially considering his recent history at other clubs.

Mourinho has been notorious for falling out with his players and staff in his last two tenures as a manager which were at Premier League rivals Manchester United and Chelsea.

Despite this, the Portuguese has delivered some great results, as per usual, having helped Spurs climb from the bottom half of the table to just being three points away from 4th placed Chelsea.