Tanguy Ndombele was keen on leaving Tottenham before having his mind changed by Daniel Levy.
The Frenchman arrived in north London for a club record fee from Lyon.
But he struggled to perform and was looking to seek pastures new after less than a year.
Inter Milan were keen on bringing the 24-year-old to Italy, but Ndombele isn’t sure how close a deal was.
“To be perfectly honest with you I don’t know how close I was to leaving,” he told football.london.
“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.”
Levy was the man who signed off on Ndombele’s £62.8m deal.
The Tottenham chief is known for being a tough negotiator and was desperate to keep hold of the Frenchman.
Ndombele knew of Levy’s desire to keep him at the club having previously held talks with him.
The midfielder believes there is a mutual respect between the pair.
“Myself and Levy, we get on well. I am a player and he is the chairman,” he added.
“If we need to speak, we speak. There’s not much more to it than that, we both respect each other.
(Image: REUTERS)
“Right from the start though he said he wasn’t going to let me leave. He didn’t want me to go.
“He looked me in the eyes and he said to me ‘The problem is you’re stubborn’.”
Ndombele doesn’t beat himself up for what was an underwhelming first season in the Premier League. though.
He believes there were several factors that contributed to his performances and responsibility should be shared.
“I wouldn’t really say that I made errors, or particular errors,” he added.
“I think everybody has to take their own responsibility for what goes on in a season and there were things that went on at the club that people know about and things that went on at the club that people don’t know about.”
