Tottenham Hotspur central midfielder Tanguy Ndombele is closing in on a move away from north London this summer.

What's the talk?

That's according to a report by Italian publication Corriere dello Sport (via Sport Witness), who claim that the 25-year-old is closer to joining Napoli in the coming weeks, with negotiations between the two clubs expected to continue in order for an agreement to be reached for the France international to move to the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

However, despite Gli Azzurri's serious interest in the midfielder, it is said that the Serie A outfit are unable to pay the entirety of Ndombele's hefty weekly wage, with it being suggested that Tottenham will likely have to contribute to the Frenchman's salary in order to get him off of their books prior to September's transfer deadline.

Ndombele must go

Considering just how poor Ndombele has been for Spurs ever since his £63m move to north London back in the summer of 2019, should it require Tottenham paying a chunk of the 25-year-old's salary in order to move him onto pastures new in the coming weeks, the argument that Fabio Paratici simply must do so is an easy one to make.

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Indeed, after featuring relatively sparingly over his first two seasons at the club - starting 40 of a possible 76 Premier League fixtures in 2019/20 and 2020/21 - the £27m-rated midfielder's turbulent spell at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was summed up in the first half of the 2021/22 campaign.

Over his nine Premier League appearances - only six of which came from the off - last time out, the £200k-per-week Frenchman lost possession of the ball an average of 9.4 times, completed just 25.6 passes, was beaten by an opponent 0.8 times and lost 56% of his duels per game.

These returns saw the player who John Wenham dubbed "laughable" and claimed can't "be relied upon" average an extremely disappointing SofaScore match rating of just 6.58, ranking him as Conte's second-worst performer in the top flight of English football last time out - before he was shipped out on loan to Olympique Lyonnais in January.

As such, when considering the fact that Ndombele earns the same wage as Harry Kane, as well as more than every other player at Spurs, coupled with the fact that the 25-year-old is yet to feature in a matchday squad this season, it is clear to see that the midfielder simply must be moved on this summer - whatever the cost to Tottenham.