Following Andros Townsend’s departure from Tottenham in January, despite fighting for Premier League survival with Newcastle United, the 24-year-old winger has no regrets.
Toiling away on Tottenham’s bench and being passed over by the likes of Josh Onomah and other players during an eventual 3-1 win over Aston Villa in November, that didn’t sit too well with Andros Townsend. To the point that he got into an altercation with his fitness coach after the game.
Eventually, the 24-year-old would be sold during the winter transfer window. But even after the 10-times capped England international traded a potential Premier League title for a possible destination straight to the Football League Championship, Townsend has no regrets and is excited about getting plenty of playing time.
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It sounds laughable for mostly everyone that a footballer would give up an opportunity to “ride on the bench” of a title contending team in favor of getting 90 minutes of playing time with a potential relegated club. But truth be told, every footballer wants to play.
That will forever be the case even if they aren’t vocal about it.
If players are vocal about wanting to play, it would most likely turn out badly. Probably in the same way that Mauricio Pochettino handled Andros Townsend’s case. Although Townsend went about it in the wrong way by slighting shoving his fitness coach in the first place, which is a major no-no.
And with Pochettino already selling players who don’t see eye-to-eye with his vision on how the club should be handled, squad-wise, it wasn’t surprising to see Townsend be sold this past winter for a good amount of £12 million.
Still, it’s at least good to hear that Andros Townsend is happy about his decision.
“I definitely don’t have any regrets,” Townsend said (quotes via London Evening Standard). “I’m playing for a massive club and playing Premier League football.”
“I’m playing 90 minutes of games, and I’m 100 percent delighted with the move I made to Newcastle.”
Again, it sounds crazy to think that a relegation fight is better than making sporadic appearances for a soon-to-be top-four club at the end of the season. But even racking up 66 appearances for his boyhood club, in six years, that wasn’t enough to change his mind during Mauricio Pochettino’s two years in charge at White Hart Lane.
Ever since Érik Lamela’s arrival to north London — at his price tag no less — it was apparent that the Argentine winger was going to be getting the bulk of the starts over Andros Townsend. And while Lamela took a year to adjust to the style of the Premier League (injuries didn’t help either), a healthy competition for the right midfield/wing position was always going to happen.
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Over time, Lamela looked better while Townsend seemed to be a one-dimensional player.
In a sense of cutting inside and shooting from afar more times than was needed. And generally wasting possession because the ball would be caught or go out for a goal kick.
Of course if Tottenham happens to struggle with a strong defense in front of them and can’t break them down, especially a goalkeeper who is on his game. Long distance shots are fine to get the ‘keeper moving.
That being said, the addition of Son Heung-Min and Clinton N’Jie practically made Andros Townsend expendable when you factor in both new signings abilities and their transfer fees as well. So either way, Townsend would have been sold, it just accelerated with his actions back in November.
With Tottenham’s season being one of the best it has been since the Harry Redknapp era, Andros Townsend isn’t focused on what happens with Tottenham. Instead he’s more worried about helping Newcastle (19th place) to safety with six games remaining and six points clear of the drop zone.
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“You see the fans out there and see how passionate they are, and we’re desperate to give them something to cheer about,” Townsend added.
“I know footballers can be labelled as people who don’t care, but you only have to look at the faces in the dressing room to see how much it does mean to us. We’re going to try our hardest to get ourselves out of the situation that we’re in.”
Andros Townsend may no longer be a member of Tottenham Hotspur, but individually despite a tumultuous end to his Spurs career, it shouldn’t be too much to ask that he himself does well for Newcastle moving forward.