Tottenham Break The Bank To Sign Ndombele

Breaking the bank to make a new signing is never a particularly easy thing to do, contrary to popular belief. It takes a lot of resolve and guts, because you never quite know what is going to happen one way or the other. Perhaps your risk will pay off and you’ll get a world class player on your hands, or on the other end of the spectrum, they may wind up flopping.

Tottenham Hotspur have been forced to take that risk, though, as reported by The Independent and BBC, as they have spent a record £53.8 million in order to bring Tanguy Ndombele to North London from Lyon.

Moving on up

At the age of just 22 this is certainly a signing for the future, with the deal being set to last until 2025. In addition to this, there is a belief that the figure for the transfer could eventually rise to as high as £62.8 million. The previous transfer record for Spurs came back in 2017, when they paid £42 million in order to secure the signing of Davinson Sanchez.

Ndombele was a leading factor in guiding Lyon to third place in Ligue 1 last season, and made quite the impact during the club’s two games against Manchester City in the Champions League.

Tottenham issued the following release in the wake of the signing being confirmed.

“We are delighted to announce the signing of Tanguy Ndombele from Olympique Lyonnais.

The France international central midfielder has signed a contract with the Club until 2025.

Make a statement

Ndombele, 22, started his professional career at French side Amiens in Ligue 2, before moving to Olympique Lyonnais on loan in August, 2017, and permanently in the summer of 2018.

He made 96 appearances in total for the Ligue 1 side and registered 16 assists.

Having represented France at Under-21 level 10 times, Ndombele made his senior international debut in October, 2018, and has played for his country on six occasions.”

In the eyes of a lot of fans, there’s still a long way to go before this can be viewed as a successful transfer, and there’s no doubting how much pressure there is on the shoulders of Ndombele. Still, even with that being the case, he seems to be handling the situation pretty well.

This is an opportunity for both him and Spurs to prove that they belong at the highest level of the game, and we’re really interested to see how it all unfolds.

Coming off the back of a Champions League final defeat is never going to be easy, but all Spurs need to do is look at how much the defeat to Real Madrid benefitted Liverpool last year. We aren’t suggesting that the same thing is going to happen, but Tottenham haters need to realise that they’re at this level for a reason – and the reason is simple: they’re very good.

Spurs will now continue to try and prepare themselves for the new season in the best way that they can, with Mauricio Pochettino seemingly planning on being even busier than he already has been during the summer transfer window.