Tanguy Ndombele was all set to be one of the biggest stars in the Premier League when Tottenham signed him from Lyon in 2019 for a then club record fee that could have reached £65million.
It all started with blue hair dye, the then 22-year-old having to wear a cap in his unveiling photos at the north London club because he had been unexpectedly whisked to Hotspur Way to complete the transfer while having been on holiday with a bright new look.
Ndombele was one of the most naturally gifted footballers to pull on a Spurs shirt, able to do things with the ball that few others could. Superstars like Gareth Bale, despite those the Welshman has played with during his career, would later namecheck the midfielder as being one of the most jaw-dropping players he had trained with.
However, natural talent is only part of a footballer's journey and the warning signs had been there throughout Ndombele's early career with inconsistencies over his application and desire, released by the renowned Guingamp academy as coaches there stated he simply did not want it as much as everyone else. There were signs that Tottenham ignored, or at least hoped were in the past or they could fix.
Even in his first Spurs pre-season though under Mauricio Pochettino, who turned to the coveted France international after missing out on Frenkie De Jong that year, there were signs he was going to struggle.
"It was incredibly tough. I remember that I was even calling home to my friends in France saying I want to come back," Ndombele would later admit to football.london .
Ndombele, who was born in Longjumeau, a suburb of Paris, had risen so quickly in such a short space of time, from the fifth division of French football to the Premier League, that the jolt of those infamously gruelling Pochettino pre-seasons played their part in some of the early injuries he would suffer as his body struggled to adapt.
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When he was fit though and on his game, he was something special to watch, calm under pressure and able to use that natural talent to get out of tricky situations with a quick mind to plan a route through. One moment he would be surrounded by opposing players, the next he had motored away before sending a trademark no-look pass or through ball to a team-mate.
"I’m someone who plays on instinct. I never ask myself too many questions on the field. Things come to me quickly in my head, thankfully," he explained back then. "It's important not to be afraid. That’s exactly it. You try stuff, and taking a risk is part of the job.
"Of course sometimes that's not easy but if you go for something risky and it helps the team then that's great, and I think all teams need players who are ready to take risks."
Some might wonder what would have happened to Ndombele's career if Pochettino had remained in charge and whether it would have been better for him in the long term. The pair only spent a handful of months together before the Argentine was sacked and Jose Mourinho arrived.
Mourinho and Ndombele clashed but to the Portuguese's credit he got what is still the best period of the Frenchman's career out of him since his Lyon days. It came after some public dressings down and that impromptu training session outside his home during the pandemic.
"If you know Jose Mourinho then you understand how he behaves," the Frenchman told football.london back in 2021. "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."
Mourinho would later say that he "never doubted his quality, I doubted in some moments his motivation and commitment and professional attitude".
There were plenty of moments when Ndombele looked like leaving but it was former chairman Daniel Levy who was determined to make his record signing a success and one of his meetings with him during his unhappiest time was captured in the Amazon documentary All or Nothing.
It all did work for a while, as after an injury-hit first year he played 46 games under Mourinho in the 2020/21 season with 10 goal involvements. including a wonderful no-look lobbed goal against Sheffield United. With the Portuguese's exit though, so Ndombele's time at Tottenham started to head towards its end, if not in contract but in appearances.
Caretaker boss Ryan Mason did not turn to him during his first spell. Nuno Espirito Santo did give him a chance and there was a clinical goal in a 3-2 win at Newcastle United and playing a big part in Son Heung-min's winner, but his pairing with Ndombele was never one that looked like it would last.
Neither was the Portuguese's pairing with Spurs and when Antonio Conte arrived in 2021 that was pretty much that for Ndombele, with the Italian's tactical rigidity and demands. Aside from an assist for Harry Kane in a 2-2 draw against Liverpool, Ndombele's fate was sealed with the woeful performance and infamous slow walk off the pitch against League One strugglers Morecambe amid boos from the fans.
What followed was a four month spell back at Lyon and then a season-long loan at Napoli, where he became a Serie A winner but was mostly used from the bench. Neither club seriously looked to sign him permanently.
Spurs had yet another new head coach when Ndombele returned and Ange Postecoglou had a good look at the midfielder on his return in the summer of 2023. Despite a bright start in pre-season training, the Australian grew unimpressed with the midfielder's attitude and application, including his time-keeping, and just did not believe he could reach the physical level required to play his football.
Nobody would offer Tottenham the kind of money they hoped for for their record signing and instead a third loan came with a mess of a campaign with Galatasaray in which Ndombele was in and out of the squad and drew frequent criticism from the Turkish media.
There were reports about him arriving 6kg overweight and that his manager Okan Buruk was left furious with his eating habits. Various publications claimed that while Ndombele has been following a planned dietary programme while at the club's training ground, he was found to be eating junk food at home including ordering a burger at his hotel base after a Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich, which it was reported sparked a late night showdown with Buruk.
The Turkish reports claimed Ndombele was told he would not play for the team until he had dropped his body weight down to 75kg. He would later get back into the team but never really played that much with just 19 Super Lig appearances as they won the title. There was no chance Galatasaray were going to activate the £13.1million option to buy him with 664 minutes to his name across the entire season.
So again Ndombele returned to Tottenham, albeit having won two league titles in as many seasons, and finally the club agreed to a mutual agreement of his contract two-and-a-half years after he last played for them. It came 12 months before the six-year deal he first signed in 2019 was meant to come to an end, with just 91 appearances for Spurs, with 10 goals and nine assists to his name.
"End of my adventure in the best club in London. I learned a lot during my time at Tottenham," he said on Instagram. "Thank you for the unwavering support of the supporters. I wish you all the best for the future and I know you will be extremely successful."
Ndombele moved back home to France, signing a two-year deal with Nice. Despite little flashes of what he could do, he would only play 38 times for the Ligue 1 club across the next couple of seasons, his time there blighted by injuries, with a sports hernia keeping him out of months and then when he returned last summer to pre-season training he soon realised he needed surgery to fix a groin injury.
Last season he did not make his first appearance until December. He would go on to make just eight league appearances, with only 272 minutes on the pitch in those games, starting just one of them.
When his latest contract came to a close at the end of June, Ndombele became a free agent. As of this point, no club has rolled the dice on the midfielder, who will turn 30 in December.
There have been some links with Marseille, where his old Lyon boss Bruno Genesio currently coaches although the 60-year-old's position is said by the French media to be under threat.
Ndombele's last permanent social media post came just two days before his contract ended at Nice. With the caption "Just chilling", it featured a collection of images of him on holiday, playing five-a-side indoor football, working in the gym and some training ground videos. All eyes are on what he does next.
Ndombele may point to winning Serie A and Super Lig titles and that club-record move to Tottenham as proof that he achieved far more than most others who try their luck in football, while injuries have not been kind to him in recent years.
However, that's a fraction of what the Frenchman could have achieved if he had married his incredible talent with everything else that is needed to reach the elite levels in the game. He would certainly have made more than seven appearances for his country, while just 218 games across the French, English, Italian and Turkish top flights at the age of 29 shows a career unrealised.
For Tottenham, Ndombele promised so much but that price tag means that until someone else takes such an unwanted cros, the Frenchman will continue to be considered the north London club's biggest ever flop.
