Ex-Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has already told midfielder Tanguy Ndombele what he needs to do to succeed at Tottenham Hotspur amid talks linking the Frenchman with a move away from the club this summer.
Ndombele signed for the north Londoners in the summer of 2019 for a reported club record fee of around €60million (£56million) from Lyon.
However the latest reports have linked the the Tottenham outcast to a Ligue 1 return with the club that he made his name at.
Nuno Espirito-Santo's side were reported to have entered the race to sign Arsenal target Houssem Aouar by offering Ndombele in a swap deal.
Tottenham's No.28 has not settled well into life in the Premier League, with reports coming out last summer that Ndombele was looking to leave after only one year due to a falling out with now ex-manager Mourinho.
"To be perfectly honest with you I don't know how close I was to leaving," Ndombele said in an interview earlier this year. "What I know is that I did want to leave. I spoke about this with people at the club and particularly with the chairman.
"The chairman said he didn't want me to leave and definitely that's something that really helped."
It was actually Mourinho who was the first of the two to leave the club, and the 24-year-old wasn't afraid to describe Mourinho's approach to man management which created the tension between the two.
"If you know Jose Mourinho then you understand how he behaves," explained the Frenchman.
"I wouldn’t call it confrontation, but he’s just got a certain way of sending his messages and it actually all depends on how you receive those messages he sends."
One of those said messages that will still be in the back of Ndombele's mind is Mourinho's advice on what the midfielder needs to do in order to succeed in English football and more specifically at Spurs, after a rather turbulent start to his life in London.
"He didn't start the pre-season with us," Mourinho said shortly after the start of the 2020/21 season. "When you saw him 45 minutes against Watford it was easy to understand and say he’s not in the best condition, but he trained only two days before that match.
"This week he did not go to the national team and trained every day. Is his condition better today than it was last week? Yes his condition is better and he is working very, very hard.
"So the point now is - can he keep that commitment and desire? If he does it, he has incredible potential.”
A type of potential which hasn't be fulfilled yet in the Spurs colours.
So far, the French midfielder has featured in a total of 75 matches in all competitions across his two year stay at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, contributing a total of 16 goal contributions.
