Matt Doherty opens up on his future at Tottenham after finding form under Antonio Conte

Tottenham wing-back Matt Doherty has opened up about rumours linking him away from N17 during the January transfer window.

The Ireland international struggled for game time after moving from Wolves in August 2020, both under Jose Mourinho and his former boss Nuno Espirito Santo.

However the 30-year-old has looked like a different player under Antonio Conte, and his flourishing on the right or left in his wing-back system.

Doherty scored and assisted in the emphatic 5-1 win over Newcastle, and has been a key player in driving Spurs’ late bid to make the top four.

Speaking after Sunday’s victory, he tackled rumours of a move away in January saying he “didn’t come close”.

Conte was reportedly interested in buying Wolves flyer Adama Traore to add more power in the wing-back department, however Doherty insisted he never even considered a transfer to another club.

“I never had a conversation, nothing was ever said to me,” Doherty explained.

“From my point of view I was led to believe that I wasn’t going anywhere.

“You have thoughts at times that it wasn’t working out, I just decided that I wanted to train hard and I wanted to play here.

“Why would I want to go anywhere apart from Tottenham?

“I thought if I keep training hard and I keep doing what the manager wants the opportunity would come and it would be up to me to grasp the opportunity, and at the moment I seem to be doing that well.”

Doherty admitted that it took him a while to get used to Conte’s systems.

The Italian loves to drill his players with set moves - which led to several goals against Newcastle - and wing-backs play a key role in these.

“The manager wants us to play a certain way as a wing-back and it just takes a bit of time to understand what he wants,” Doherty said.

“I guess it helps when the team is playing as well as you do and you get in a couple of times at the back post, the confidence just builds.

“Every wing-back and every player is just playing at the top of their game right now.

“Everyone wants the ball, everyone is making the right angles the manager wants, everyone is making the runs he wants.

“What he wants us to do, when we do it it comes off and we create big chances from it - a lot of it is down to the manager.

“He is drilling us on the training pitch, he wants us to play a certain type of football and you can see that we are doing that and it is really exciting football and we look a real threat going forward.”

And Doherty said the form of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min will put pressure on their Champions League rivals, including Arsenal.

“It shoots us into the top four at the moment, we have kind of done our job, we have had an inspired display there, especially in the second half,” he added.

“But we just have to look after our own games, we know we still have to play Arsenal.

“We are going to think for every game of the season that it is a must-win game and we can’t afford to slip up.

“It’s nice that we have done our job first this weekend and let’s just see if results go our way.”