Victor Wanyama, the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, gave a detailed interview on why he was forced to leave the North London-based club and confessed to having been frustrated by the top brass at his former club.
Speaking on Madgoat TV, via video link from Canada, where he currently resides after he was snatched up by Thierry Henry’s Montreal Impact side, the Kenyan star said that the management team at his former club stonewalled his attempt to make his way back into the team, having sustained a serious knee injury both in 2017 and 2018.
Wanyama used to earn Ksh436 million annually during his time at Tottenham Hotspur, data courtesy of Spotrac revealed.
Despite missing a huge chunk of games, the midfielder worked his way back to fitness and kept hoping that he would finally get his chance to return to the first-team action.
“It was very frustrating for me because I just couldn’t seem to get the playing time I craved. I love football and sitting on the bench for an extended period of time can get to you,” he explained.
On November 20, 2019, Jose Mourinho was appointed as the new head coach at the club and this gave Wanyama hope.
“During my first meeting with Mourinho, I remember him asking why I was not playing, and telling me that he believed in my abilities. He then asked me to keep working at the training ground and that I’d get my chance.
“This never happened and the frustration just kept mounting. I used to train day in day out, but on matchdays, I was left out completely,” he stated.
He then revealed that he got word that the club was looking to sell him, but the fact that he got the information from third parties was what irked him the most, marking the beginning of his exit from the club.
“The coach was telling me one thing, while news from the top brass was totally different. Clubs came in for me but the guys upstairs kept frustrating the negotiation process by asking for unreasonable amounts of money.
“I just didn’t get it. They didn’t want me to play and they seemed determined to block my move. It was during this period that I decided to head to the club’s boss in person to demand that they let me leave.
“I was at a point where I was losing my passion day by day and I needed to do something about it, fast. I told the club’s boss that I had given my all to the club but that I needed to be playing football regularly,” he explained.
Despite the stonewalling tactics by Wanyama’s former club, as fate would have it, it was former Arsenal striker and club legend Thierry Henry who came to the rescue and signed him up for Montreal Impact on March 3, 2020.
“I remember my first conversation with Henry, he told me that he believes that I need to fall back in love with the game and I didn’t need to hear anything else,” he revealed.
“When I spoke to Thierry [Henry], he told me he wanted me to join him in Montreal. I didn’t have to think twice. He has always been a player that I’ve admired, and I am really happy to get the opportunity to work with him,” he said after he penned a three-year contract with the club.
Wanyama joined Tottenham Hotspur in 2016, making 97 appearances and scoring seven times for the club.
He was part of the squad that reached the UEFA Champions League final and previously won a pair of Scottish Premier League titles while at Celtic FC.
Tottenham Hotspur is run by British businessman Daniel Philip Levy, who serves as the chairman. He has held this post since 2001, making him the longest-serving chairman in the Premier League.
On March 11, 2020, Wanyama made his competitive debut for Montreal at Stade Olympique in the first leg quarterfinal of the CONCACAF Champions League.
The current Covid-19 pandemic led to the suspension of the Major League Soccer (MLS) on March 12, but Wanyama’s debut showed that the Kenyan is still in his prime.
