Kieran Trippier believes one of Tottenham Hotspur’s biggest recent mistakes was selling Mousa Dembele and has also spoken about the Belgian’s replacement Tanguy Ndombele.
The right-back left Spurs last summer to join Atletico Madrid and he has been speaking about that final season at the north London club.
In a long and extensive interview on The Beautiful Game podcast, Trippier explained the big mistake he felt the club made which could have altered the course of that last campaign, which ended in a Champions League final defeat to Liverpool.
“For me I felt personally it was about selling Mousa Dembele. He was the best player I’ve ever played with. For me you can’t replace him, Mousa Dembele,” he said.
“We sold him in January. I don’t know about his situation and maybe he wanted to go but I personally feel that if we’d kept him for that extra four or five months and let him go on a free in the summer we would have done a lot, lot better.
“I think we would have won the final.”
Spurs finally bought their Dembele replacement in his near-namesake Tanguy Ndombele. However, the club record signing from Lyon has struggled to become a regular in the team and gain Jose Mourinho’s trust.
Trippier explained what he’s been told about the Frenchman and how good he can be, but he couldn’t help looking back to Dembele and the hole the Belgian left in the team when he left.
“I’ve not played with [Ndombele] but I’ve seen him play. From what I hear he’s unbelievable and supposedly he’s frightening,” said Trippier.
“They’ve got quality players, but, for me, the little fine margins of winning something is obviously when Mousa left. That’s my opinion. As a player you don’t want to see a player like Mousa leave. especially in January. Unless there was something that he needed to leave or whatever, I honestly don’t know.
“For me it didn’t make sense because he’s the fine margins of winning you the Champions League final. That’s how good he was. He could have three players around him and you could give him the ball. The amount of respect the players had for him, and to see a player like that leave in January when you are going through a difficult season, for me it didn’t make sense.
“That’s just my opinion. I don’t want to speak on any of the players’ thoughts on that. That’s just my opinion. As soon as he goes it just saps it out of you because you’ve lost Mousa Dembele.
“It’s a difficult period at the moment for them because with the team they’ve got they don’t deserve to be where they are. They’ve missed H [Harry Kane] for so long and he’s a natural goalscorer for them, Sonny with the military and the Olympics.
“They’ve got a fantastic team and it’s about challenges. You will go through periods like this but they will come out the other end for sure. Make no mistake about that as they have a fantastic, unbelievable manager.”
Trippier had plenty of praise for Mourinho and believes he will leave his mark on his old club.
“You look on paper and they have a quality team. I feel like they’ve brought the right manager in as he’s a natural winner,” he said.
“You look at everywhere he’s been and he’s always won trophies and he finds a way to win. I feel he’s the perfect manager of course. The players, you’ve got Dele Alli, Harry Winks who is an absolute baller as well.”
Trippier also spoke about his final few months in north London.
“I had mixed emotions throughout the last season. Injuries played a massive part for me,” he said.
“I’m not someone who likes to use excuses but you see Christmas time now I had surgery and I needed that at Tottenham. I told them that I needed surgery because it was getting to a point where it was….I could have been less selfish, playing wise.
“We had Serge [Aurier] and Kyle Walker-Peters, two great right-backs but I can’t help it if I’m getting picked in the majority of the games.
“Perhaps I should have been more professional, taken a step back said something. I was playing games at 60 or 70 per cent. Maybe I should have taken a step back.
“If it had happened now I definitely would, but they were such big games. Manchester City in the Champions League, Ajax, whoever.
“You want to play in these games, but looking back you suffer more after through playing.
“You have your ups and downs and as a footballer you hear all kinds of things. Rumours, maybe your time is coming to an end four months before. I heard a lot of stuff. Maybe I knew deep down that it was maybe time for a change.”
Trippier gave his full side of the story about his departure to Atletico Madrid and how it came about and admitted he has not really caught up with Mauricio Pochettino since leaving for the Spanish side.
“I’ve not really spoken to him since I left Tottenham. I’ve got a lot to thank him for. I’ve never once bad-mouthed him. I’ve just told it how it was,” he explained.
“Tottenham, or whoever, can say what they want to say. I did knock on his [Pochettino’s] door, and I said I have an opportunity to go to Atletico Madrid.
“If I am part of your plans, then I will stay. He didn’t give me a yes, and he didn’t give me a no in his office.
“So as a player you think ‘oh right okay, no problem’, but then I went to the chairman and told him the exact same.
“I had a conversation with the manager, and I said am I part of your plans? If I am, no problem but I have a great opportunity here to go to Atletico Madrid.
“But going back to what I said before, probably in March/April I heard off people I trust that they’ve tried to offload me, offering me to clubs.
“Like I said I was going through a lot, injuries, and when you’re going through that and hearing that they’re trying to sell you, so you know you’re getting mixed messages.
“You think no problem and you just get on with it until the end of the season.
“That’s why in pre-season I pulled over the manager and asked ‘am I part of your plans?’. He didn’t give me a yes or a no but said ‘if you any help I’ll help you’. That’s the truth.”
Trippier had a message for those Tottenham fans who might have felt that he had disrespected the club since he left.
“I’ve not really had the opportunity to say what I wanted to say. When I came to Atletico and I said what I said about the situation, some Spurs fans I feel misread what I said or maybe I didn’t really say it correctly,” he said.
“I feel they felt disrespected in a way a little bit. They don’t know what I personally went through last year with injuries and then four or five months before the season ended the club don’t want you. It’s not nice playing for four months and knowing the club doesn’t want you. It’s difficult. That’s what I heard anyway.
“I thank the fans for welcoming me, most importantly they got behind me. It’s just little things when you are playing and hear booing it’s not nice, even off your own fans.
“I’m not saying they all did it, I’m just saying as a footballer you can hear people in the crowd when you are taking a corner or throw-in and you are getting a few boos here and there and it’s your own fans.
“That”s not nice and it didn’t help my confidence. I felt that was a big factor in my last five months. The first half of the season I thought I did well, I felt it started to go downhill from late December and that’s when it started getting bad for me.
“There’s little things like getting booed, hearing rumours about the club moving you on at the end of the season, so I’m thinking I need to sort my own career out and my next step when I do leave, injuries I was struggling.”
He added: “I thank all the Tottenham fans for welcoming me and supporting me. It wasn’t like I was there one year, I was there five years and I had a good time with great memories at Tottenham. I just don’t want the fans to feel like I was disrespecting them when I left with the comments I made as I was speaking the truth.
“To the fans why I did leave, I went to the manager and asked ‘do you want me to stay?’ If he said to me there and then ‘yeah, you are part of my plans I want you to stay’ then I would have stayed as I had it from him.
“When I didn’t get an answer off him when I asked him, as soon as I didn’t get a yes or a no I knew my time was up then, that’s what I made the decision to leave.
“I’ve nothing bad to say about the manager as he took my career to the next level. I’ve nothing bad to say about anybody there. It was just a little bit sour with a few people. Nothing from my part, certainly nothing from my part. I would have stayed like I’ve said many times, but things aren’t meant to be in football. Football happens so quickly and it’s a funny old game.
“You hear rumours, you hear people talking and you just know as a player your time is up. But to the fans, nothing but respect to them. I don’t want them to feel disrespected with the comments I made in pre-season when I was on the tour in America as I was speaking the truth.
“I’m not going to lie about something and I’m just going to speak the truth about what happened. That’s exactly what happened.”
(Football London)