Even when you find yourself 1-0 down in the 71st minute against Lokomotiv Plovdiv, life has a habit of working in mysterious ways.
Trailing in an empty stadium in Bulgaria, playing for the right to travel to an empty stadium in Macedonia, with an imposing away fixture at St. Mary's still to follow, José Mourinho must have been wondering how on earth he was going to get through this week unscathed.
So Manchester United fans could forgive themselves a grim chuckle when a uniquely-talented French playmaker with nebulously-defined 'attitude problems' ended up being the difference, not just to the tie, not just to Mourinho's week, but perhaps also to the Portuguese manager's long-term future at Spurs.
Tanguy Ndombele was the French midfielder in question, and having recovered from what looked like Mourinho's own attempts to oust him, he has in turn gracefully thrown Mourinho a significant lifeline during a challenging week at the club.
His display against Plovdiv, even before the Bulgarian Cup winners were reduced to nine men, could pretty accurately be described as providing the match's sole moments of quality.
Seemingly the only player willing to take advantage of the space afforded to them by Bulgaria's fifth-best team, the Frenchman's 34-minute cameo saw him playing with intent and control, playing accurate, positive balls into the feet of Tottenham's attackers and looking to unsettle Plovdiv's defence by driving forward and playing quick one-twos.
Among the attacking midfielder's highlight plays was a deliciously disguised pass to Giovani Lo Celso on the edge of the box, while one outside-of-the-boot pass to find Steven Bergwijn in the penalty area deserved a Turner Prize.
The manner of his winner was especially impressive (although Plovdiv were somewhat undermanned at this point), as the former Lyon man threaded a dangerous ball through to Lamela, before via Lo Celso and Lucas Moura it found its way back to Ndombele, who almost disdainfully stroked it home.
But what was even more impressive is that the press-resistant midfielder's ability to manoeuvre his way out of trouble now extends beyond the football pitch, with his match-winning Europa League display the culmination of a process where he metaphorically dropped the shoulder on one of football's most uncompromising managers.
An unused substitute in four of Tottenham's six games after the Premier League restarted last season, it certainly didn't look as if Mourinho had much use for Ndombele, and though the Portuguese manager restricted himself to cryptic comments about fitness and effort in justifying the midfielder's exclusion, Ndombele's camp preferred the nuclear option.
ESPN reported in the aftermath of Spurs' victory against West Ham in June, where Ndombele was again unused, that the Frenchman had told Mourinho he never wanted to play for him again. Having broken COVID guidelines to train with his gaffer in Hadley Common, you can perhaps understand Ndombele's frustration.
Crucially, however, when he expressed this same frustration to Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy (check out episode nine of Spurs' Amazon doc), the chairman elected to mediate between Ndombele and Mourinho's viewpoints rather than unquestioningly back his manager, and it's this conciliatory bit of chairmanship from Levy that may well have turned things around for all concerned.
For a man who is associated with grit and impatience, Levy very sagely reasoned that, to be fair, Moussa Sissoko also had to take some time to adapt to life in N17 (and believe me, his first season at Spurs was actually something to worry about). But he also advised Ndombele that only he can unlock the boundless talent that everyone knows he possesses.
So the unstoppable pragmatic force of Mourinho met the immovable object of Levy, and the determination of the latter to protect one of his prized assets has provoked one of Mourinho's rare managerial reconciliations, with the Head Coach now talking in positive terms about the 'evolution' of his player, and insisting that while he never doubted his 'ability', his 'effort and motivation' had to change.
The caveat with Mourinho's newfound appreciation of Ndombele's 'ability' is that he still does not entirely seem to trust him, and as a result is maybe not utilising his ability as best he can.
It may seem an ungrateful complaint for Spurs fans who at one point were starting to doubt that Ndombele existed, but now that he is a semi-regular fixture in the Spurs starting lineup, Mourinho's lack of faith in his defensive ability means that he can often feature as a slightly awkward number 10.
There was no problem with Mourinho taking Ndombele off at half-time against Southampton, even after the midfielder's outrageous bit of skill in the build up to Spurs' equaliser completely flummoxed the Saints' press and put James Ward-Prowse on a spin cycle - he has to manage the fitness of his squad ahead of what he humourously called an 'inhumane' period of games.
It's more of an issue that Ndombele is playing so high up the pitch when he is clearly more suited to receiving the ball in plenty of space and driving forward from deeper positions. The ideal scenario for Spurs would be for both Ndombele and Lo Celso to feature in the same three-man midfield, with Lo Celso playing as a number 10, but Mourinho's clear phobia of watching Ndombele attempt to defend transitions means that the Lilywhites may never have their best attacking players on the pitch at the same time.
This will only get harder with Spurs needing to move towards a swashbuckling 3-4-3 now that Matt Doherty and Sergio Reguilon are (presumably) their first-choice full-back pairing.
Mourinho will likely have to go for a two man midfield in order to balance the XI, but whether he trusts Ndombele in such an arrangement, even next to a defensive-minded partner like Winks or Sissoko, is anyone's guess.
The reality is that at some point Mourinho may have to forego his conservative instincts and trust the one truly gifted line-breaking player in his squad - otherwise matches will largely be decided by whether Harry Kane and Son Heung-min possess enough individual quality to atone for Spurs' lack of coordinated creativity.
Levy threw Ndombele a lifeline, then Ndombele threw Mourinho one. Now, he has to take it.
Source: 90min
