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Tanguy Ndombele has pinpointed the Tottenham crisis meeting which saved his Spurs career and has opened up on Jose Mourinho’s style of leadership.

Ndombele has made five Premier League starts this season and the last three have seen him thrust into an attacking midfield role. Two of those games ended in victories, most notably for Ndombele, the win over Newcastle.

The Frenchman scored and had his best game for Spurs for a while, but his time at the club has not always run so smoothly.

Ndombele was a Mauricio Pochettino signing in the summer of 2019 and he remains the club’s record signing at £65m. However, he struggled to get to grips with life at the club and when Jose Mourinho arrived in November 2019 things did not get any easier for the 24-year-old.

In scenes captured in the Amazon documentary All Or Nothing, chairman Daniel Levy held talks with Ndombele towards the end of the 2019-20 season.

Ndombele said: “If a chairman is seeing something that he is not happy with, it’s normal that he wants to speak to the player about that.

“It was a good meeting, I listened to what he had to say and he listened to me, too.

“Yeah, perhaps if I’m still at Tottenham today it’s thanks to that meeting.”

Levy referenced Moussa Sissoko in the chat. And said that Sissoko had also struggled in his early days at Tottenham, but had come through.

Ndombele said via a number of newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph: “I’m a fighter. I’ve always fought. I’m here today because I fought.

“I have never given up in football or in life.”

Now, with the hardest times hopefully behind him, Ndombele has started to show the potential that Leve signed.

Speaking about the 3-2 win over Newcastle Ndombele said: “I’m not sure if it was my best performance. But it was true that it was a good match for me against Newcastle and a good match for the team.

“It was because of the good preparation of the coach and the team that put me in a position to play like that.”

Nuno Espirito Santo has managed to get more from the player, although Ndombele insists he had no problem with the tougher approach  that former boss Mourinho endorsed.

Ndombele added: “I am quite happy for people to tell the truth like that about me.

“That type of management I’m fine with. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

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‘If I don’t like how I’m treated, I’ll say so’

“It is true that it was hard at the start with Mourinho. But then, over time, we got on much better and the relationship worked much better.

“With any manager, if I don’t like how I’m treated, I’ll say so.

“At the end of the day, each manager is going to have their own style. They’re two very different people.

“Jose Mourinho is someone who has a hard style of management but he’s always about the club.

“Nuno is a really nice guy but he’s a bit quieter and keeps himself to himself.”

Tottenham skipper Hugo Lloris said Ndombele needed a run of games to find a consistent level of performance.

And Ndombele agreed: “I think that Hugo’s right.

“At the end of the day, you need to play matches and get into the rhythm to find your form.

“When you don’t, when you miss matches, it always takes a bit longer and it is difficult to get that back.

“But I will always do my best to get up to speed and be 100 per cent as soon as I can.”

READ MORE: Alarm bells ringing as pundit comes to grim conclusion on Kane, Tottenham

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