Matt Doherty said 'he never came close to leaving Tottenham in January'

IRELAND's MATT DOHERTY has today spoken about his future at Tottenham Hotspur

The Sword's man was linked with a move away from the North London club in January, but insists that 'a move never came close'

Doherty struggled at Spurs after moving from Wolves and had been touted with a move back to his old club, but the Ireland fullback has found a new lease of life under Italian Antonio Conte

Conte is well known for getting the best out of wingbacks, as seen with Marcos Alonso at Chelsea.

Doherty's best days have been in the position and he showed that yesterday when he scored in the 5-1 demolition of Newcastle on Sunday.

The 30-year-old has directly contributed towards six goals (2 goals, 4 assists) in his last six Premier League games.

Matt Doherty gives Spurs the lead against Newcastle 🇮🇪⚽️🔥

The Irish are painting London green today ☘️#COYBIG pic.twitter.com/3HKt2yPtkt

— Kenny's Kids (@KennysKids) April 3, 2022

Speaking via the Daily Star  Doherty said a move away in January was never an option.

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

“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.”

The Spurs player also admitted that it took a bit of time to get used to Conte's system and now said he is confident of giving the Italian what he wants

“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.”

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 07: Sergio Reguilon of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with Dejan Kulusevski, Son Heung-min and Matt Doherty(Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)

Spurs leapfrogged Arsenal to go into the top four. Arsenal play Crystal Palace on Monday night.

Both of the North London clubs still have to play each other in the run-in.