Matt Doherty insists he never came close to leaving Tottenham during the last transfer window.
Despite switching to left wing-back, a goal and an assist continued Doherty’s impressive resurgence on Sunday as Spurs fought back from a goal down to thrash Newcastle 5-1 in the Premier League and leapfrog rivals Arsenal in the battle for fourth place ahead of the Gunners’ trip to Crystal Palace tonight.
Many expected the Republic of Ireland international to depart north London in January after struggling to establish himself under Antonio Conte, but he says he never even contemplated a potential exit as he praised the manager’s impact.
“I didn’t come close, I never had a conversation, nothing was ever said to me,” Doherty told Standard Sport. “From my point of view, I was led to believe that I wasn’t going anywhere. I don’t know if that’s the case, that is what my point of view was.
“You have thoughts at times that it wasn’t working out. I just decided that I wanted to train hard and I wanted to play here. Why would I want to go anywhere apart from Tottenham? I thought if I keep training hard and I keep doing what the manager wants, the opportunity would come and it would be up to me to grasp the opportunity, and at the moment I seem to be doing that well.
“The manager wants us to play a certain way as a wing-back and it just takes a bit of time to understand what he wants,” Doherty added. “I guess it helps when the team is playing well and you get in a couple of times at the back post... the confidence just builds.
“Every wing-back and every player is just playing at the top of their game right now, everyone wants the ball, everyone is making the right angles the manager wants, everyone is making the runs he wants. What he wants us to do, when we do it and it comes off, we create big chances from it. A lot of it is down to the manager.”
