Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has received a sly dig from former player Steven Bergwijn following his electric start to life at Ajax since completing a £26.4million move to the Eredivisie champions this summer.
Bergwijn was one of a number of Spurs stars who got the axe this summer after failing to impress Conte last season and subsequently fell out of favour under the Italian, yet has flourished so far this campaign.
And following his double for Ajax in their 4-0 victory over Cambuur on Saturday, taking his total for the season to six goals in five league games, Bergwijn has taken a swipe at Conte for his lack of game time last season.
Speaking to Dutch outlet Algemeen Dagblad after the game at the weekend, the Netherlands international said: "I’ve always had the ability to score. But if you don’t play, it’s hard to show that.
"I’m not working on that [being the top scorer this season]. I don’t have a certain number of goals in my head that I should achieve. The most important thing is to continue like this. I look at the complete picture and just want to win."
Bergwijn also scored on his competitive debut for Ajax in their 5-3 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the Johan Cruyff Shield on July 30, meaning that he actually has seven goals in six games so far this season since his arrival.
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His blistering start to the 2022/23 campaign clearly shows that there is genuine quality on offer for the 24-year-old, yet he believes that he simply did not get enough opportunities to showcase his talents during his time in north London, and especially under Conte.
31 goals and 41 assists in 149 games for PSV is exactly why Tottenham signed him on a five-year deal for a reported £26.7m in January 2020, but just eight goals and 10 assists in 83 appearances for Spurs ended up seeing him flogged back to his homeland this summer.
Bergwijn struggled to hold down a regular starting spot under Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo before Conte’s arrival, but once the Italian got Harry Kane and Son Heung-min firing again, as well as bringing in Dejan Kulusevski in January, any hopes of a kickstart to his Spurs career were quickly over.
Tottenham’s front three turned into one of the most deadliest in Europe last season and it became almost an impossible task for Bergwijn to dislodge any of the trio, while Richarlison’s arrival a week before his own departure was effectively the end for the Dutchman.
But Bergwijn isn’t the only one to have found the grass to be greener since leaving north London this summer, with Giovani Lo Celso, Tanguy Ndombele and even Joe Rodon enjoying positive starts to their careers at Villarreal, Napoli and Rennes, respectively.
Lo Celso got off the mark for Villarreal on Sunday, Ndombele is preparing for Champions League football this week and Rodon has started five games so far this season. Elsewhere, Sergio Reguilon and Harry Winks will also be hoping for similar success following temporary switches to Atletico Madrid and Sampdoria this summer.
