Atlanta’s most exciting player explains why he will choose Tottenham over Bayern Munich and Liverpool in the January transfer window.
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Tottenham this summer amid interest from several European teams. The Netherlands international, who made his senior debut for his country earlier this month, has settled seamlessly into Ange Postecoglou’s team, alongside Cristian Romero, with the defender scoring his first goal for the club against Luton Town before the October international break.
With Spurs down to 10 men, van de Ven netted the winner early in the second half before helping see out a clean sheet which understandably saw him named player of the match. After the game, speaking to TNT Sport, he commented on his first goal for Spurs the brilliant conversation he had with club captain Son Heung-min prior to the game.
“Incredible match, I think we showed a great mentality as a team and I am really happy to score my first goal in the Premier League and for Tottenham and the clean sheet is the best for defenders,” he said. “I knew that Maddison likes the cutback so I stood back and he played it perfectly to my left and I tapped it in, amazing feeling.
“It was funny because when we were in the bus and coming to the stadium, Sonny told me ‘we’re going to make your first goal today’ and I said maybe who knows and I scored my first goal, so perfect.” While his attacking contribution was timely, it has been his defensive acumen that has left many impressed, with his blistering recovery pace a perfect asset to have with Postecoglou liking to deploy a high line
Before the Lilywhites confirmed the £43million deal completed to sign van de Ven, Liverpool and Bayern Munich were both interested in acquiring his services. Ultimately though, he chose to join Spurs from Wolfsburg with his main reason for doing so now being revealed.
“Because of the good talks with Spurs,” he said in a recent interview. “It is really important for me what the manager says. ”If I would play a lot, what at my age is very important, and I had the best feeling with Spurs.” Not only has van de Ven impressed with his own displays, but his addition has also helped Romero amid his new responsibilities within Spurs’ leadership group with talkSPORT pundit Darren Ambrose making a major admission about the 22-year-old.
