Dele Alli and Harry Winks have no need to push for the exits at Tottenham, says Glenn Hoddle, although their respective futures do now lie in the hands of Jose Mourinho.
Two England international midfielders have struggled for regular game time of late.
Alli slipped out of Mourinho’s plans towards the end of last season, leading to him being linked with Paris Saint-Germain.
Winks was once a favoured option of his Portuguese coach, but he has taken in just three Premier League starts this season.
He is another now seeing a move elsewhere mooted, with minutes required in order to remain in Gareth Southgate’s England plans, but Hoddle believes two proven performers should avoid beating hasty retreats out of north London.
The Spurs legend told the Evening Standard: “When Jose first arrived, you thought Tanguy Ndombele was going to leave the club. But he ended up making up with Jose, is in the team now and would have started against Arsenal if he was not injured. So I do not think Dele Alli should be thinking that is it for him at Spurs.
“Harry Winks is also a good little footballer who needs to play if he is going to get in the England squad. So there is Winks and Alli, whose futures are in the hands of Mourinho.
“Then when they play it is up to them to save their careers. What a wonderful thing for a manager, to know there are players chomping at the bit to show you what they can do.”
Part of the problem for Alli and Winks is that fellow midfielders are shining for Spurs in their absence.
Ndombele has enjoyed a remarkable reversal in fortune, while summer signing Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg has slotted seamlessly into the fold to become a key component in Mourinho’s masterplan.
Hoddle admits as much, saying of the combative Denmark international: “I did not like him when I first saw him arrive.
“I was not sure about him and whether he was a Tottenham type of player. But the style of Tottenham has changed and Jose Mourinho is stamping his authority on it.
“He is the perfect Jose Mourinho player - to sit in there, destroy and keep things ticking, he never gives it away, keeps it simple, he is a leader, a talker, he will do the nasty things, the hard graft.
“He enjoys doing all that and he does it well. You would not want to play against him. That is the best thing I can say about him.
“He understands that there are better players than him and he gives them the ball. He has done a great job and he is one of the players Jose would least want to lose to injury, because of what he does for the team.”