Nuno Espirito Santo has handed Tottenham midfielder Tanguy Ndombele his first start of the season against Rennes.
Spurs open their Europa Conference League group campaign against the French side this evening and Nuno has opted with Ndombele in midfield, alongside Oliver Skipp.
The French midfielder, who signed for Tottenham in the summer of 2019 for around £54million from Lyon, was rumoured to want to leave Spurs over the summer transfer window and was somewhat frozen out by Nuno in the opening weeks of the 2021/22 season.
However, the 24-year-old has come into the side for tonight's clash with Rennes and Spurs supporters, when taking to Twitter, have shared their delight.
Here is the full line-up Nuno has gone with for the trip to France this evening: Pierluigi Gollini, Matt Doherty, Japhet Tanganga, Joe Rodon, Ben Davies, Skipp, Ndombele, Bryan Gil, Lucas Moura, Steven Bergwijn, Harry Kane.
It's a strong side for Spurs, who look to get off to a perfect start in the newly-formed European competition, but all the attention from Tottenham fans is on Ndombele and how he performs in his first start of the season.
Nuno, when speaking in the summer transfer window when speculation over Ndombele's future was constant, raised the issue of motivation being behind the reason why he was not being selected for action.
"What happened in the past I can't even think about, I don't mention out of respect," the Spurs boss said on his midfielder.
"What I can tell you is that Tanguy is with us, he works but we have to speak honestly and to take the best out of Tanguy [it] has to come from himself.
"I don't want to go much further than that but it has to come from himself.
"We already had a chance to talk but it must come from himself. I said it before, my job here is not to convince players to play for Tottenham Hotspur, it is to prepare players to play for Tottenham Hotspur."
