Mauricio Pochettino has told Kieran Trippier to be grateful to Tottenham for turning him into a World Cup star.
Trippier was sold by Spurs to Atletico Madrid for £20million in the summer and accused Pochettino and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy of giving him the cold shoulder and not giving him a straight answer.
But Spurs boss Pochettino said: “Look, what happened happened and we need to move on and he needs to think of Atletico Madrid and be happy there.
“But I keep very good memories from him. We signed him from Burnley when they were relegated, bought him for £4m.
“He was worried about whether he would play or not play, I said to him: ‘Don’t worry, we are going to provide the best platform for performance’ and a year and a half later he was in the starting XI, he reached the national team then played the World Cup. And now he’s with Atletico Madrid.
“He was in the second division when we signed him. We all feel proud to help him to achieve his dream and to reach a level that he wasn’t there at before he arrived at Tottenham.
“That talks very highly about Tottenham, talks very highly about him, and we are more than happy that he is enjoying the new experience in Spain. I hope he has a good life there.”
Pochettino revealed that Harry Kane told him that Trippier tried to send him a text message to broker peace but the Spurs boss has changed his phone number and it did not get through.”
Meanwhile, Tottenham’s on-loan midfielder Giovani Lo Celso is out until November after getting injured while on international duty with Argentina.
It is a blow for Spurs with a deal in place that they have to sign him permanently if they qualify for the Champions League.
Pochettino said: “Always it’s a sad situation, very disappointed. For Giovani, the first months here was to adapt to a new club and new football. Everything he was doing in a very good way. We are all so disappointed because now we need to wait for him.
“In the same way we need to be positive, it’s not another way to take it, but we need to be positive and try to provide him with good quality training and recovery. In the moment that he’s ready, to be strong and start to help the team again.”
