Inside Futbol

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Wales boss Craig Bellamy has insisted that Tottenham Hotspur forward Brennan Johnson was only taken off against Iceland as a precaution.

Spurs man Johnson scored Wales’ opening goal in the Nations League meeting with Iceland, hitting the back of the net after just eleven minutes.

Harry Wilson extended the visitors’ lead to make sure they went in 2-0 up at half-time and Johnson was brought off.

Iceland though scored twice in the second half to earn a 2-2 draw and even had chances to win.

There were concerns for Spurs star Johnson, who is in red hot goalscoring form at present, but Bellamy has moved to ease those worries.

He insists that Johnson was just brought off as a precaution having felt something.

“It was a precaution. He took a kick”, Bellamy was quoted as saying by the BBC.

“He did feel something from impact so we’ll get him checked out.”

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou will be hoping there are no issues with Johnson as he looks for his Spurs side to get back to winning ways next weekend against West Ham United in the Premier League.

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One of Tottenham Hotspur’s stars is ‘not shocked’ by one of his recent performances that was ‘extra good’.

Spurs headed into the international break sitting in ninth spot in the Premier League table and on the back of a damaging 3-2 loss away at Brighton & Hove Albion.

The loss on the south coast overshadowed a good period which saw Spurs record a fine 3-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke all got on the scoresheet at the Red Devils.

Kulusevski feels he reached a special level during the Premier League game at Manchester United, but is not surprised as he feels he has always had it in him to reach that standard.

“It came out in that match, but I have worked incredibly hard to play at that level”, the Swede was quoted as saying by Bold.

“I’m not shocked.

“I’ve just been waiting for it.

“Every match has felt good, but that one was perhaps extra good.”

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou will be hoping that the winger comes back from international duty with Sweden without any fitness issues.

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One of Tottenham Hotspur’s stars has insisted he understands a decision made by Ange Postecoglou which affected him in one of Spurs’ recent games.

Postecoglou has been under some pressure at Tottenham of late as worries that his approach is leaving Spurs too open have been the subject of much discussion.

Before the international break, Tottenham let a two-goal lead slip and went down to a 3-2 loss at Brighton.

Matters have been somewhat brighter for Tottenham in the Europa League, with wins over Qarabag and Ferencvaros.

The victory over Qarabag was gained with ten men, following an early sending off for Radu Dragusin, which meant Lucas Bergvall was brought off just over ten minutes into the game.

The Swedish midfielder though is not upset about it and insists he understands Postecoglou’s decision, which he has let go.

“Of course you’re disappointed, maybe you should be too”, he told Swedish daily the Dagens Nyheter.

“But I just had to let it go, I completely understood the decision.”

Bergvall did get to play against Ferencvaros and savoured the experience.

“Incredibly fun, something I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid. It was great fun and big for me.”

Tottenham beat Barcelona to secure his signature and there are high hopes attached to the young midfielder.

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Anderlecht were split on the idea of appointing Tottenham Hotspur assistant Ryan Mason as their new boss and so are sticking with David Hubert.

The Belgian giants have been looking for a new manager to bring in, with Hubert having been holding the fort in a caretaker capacity.

They held talks with Spurs assistant Mason about taking over at the club and looked set to appoint him.

However, according to Belgian outlet Voetbal Belgie, there was a split on the Anderlecht board about Mason.

Some felt that paying a compensation fee to appoint a coach who has little experience as a boss and no experience of Belgian football was not a smart move.

They argued that Scott Parker did not succeed at Club Brugge and Mason was a gamble not worth taking.

Anderlecht have now handed Hubert the manager’s job, with Mason remaining at Tottenham.

Hubert will look to continue Anderlecht’s good recent form, with the club registering a run of three wins in their last four games across all competitions.

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Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Lucas Bergvall has stated that Spurs have incredibly good players and admitted that competition to get into the starting line-up is tough.

The 18-year-old midfielder has already featured eight times for Tottenham, appearing twice in the Europa League.

Bergvall is highly rated by the Tottenham coaching staff but has yet to start a game for Spurs in the Premier League.

The Swedish international admitted that despite not being able to start games, he is still enjoying coming on as a substitute in the Premier League.

Bergvall pointed out that the Tottenham squad is full of incredibly good players who are doing well in Europe and stressed that it is tough to get a place in the starting line-up because of the competition.

“It’s great to be able to start games and make substitute appearances in the Premier League”, Bergvall told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.

“They are incredibly good players who belong to the top of the world.

“They are good players that I compete with, players who are doing well in Europe.

“So of course it’s tough.”

Bergvall is currently with the Sweden national team and he will be hoping to make his first start for the national team when they take on Slovakia on Friday.

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Tottenham Hotspur star Micky van de Ven has revealed that his former Volendam boss Wim Jonk gave him the belief and confidence to become the player he is today.

Van de Ven came through the Volendam academy before moving to German side Wolfsburg and joining Tottenham last season.

The Spurs centre-back played under Jonk during his time at Volendam and the 57-year-old tactician has joined Ronald Koeman’s coaching staff in the Dutch national team.

Van de Ven highlighted that Jonk gave him his first professional contract and revealed that the Dutch coach provided him with belief and confidence that he can become a good player.

The Tottenham star stated that during his early years at Volendam he was sloppy and was attempting dribbles a lot and revealed that Jonk gave him clever tricks to improve his game.

“He brought me to the first team at FC Volendam and gave me my first professional contract”, Van de Ven told Dutch broadcaster ESPN (via Voetbal Primeur).

“He gave me the belief and confidence that I could really go far.”

“When you come into Volendam’s first team as a young boy, you are still sloppy and wild. I wanted to dribble a lot.

“He gave me clever tricks and that worked out well in the end.”

Van de Ven is currently with the Dutch national team and is preparing for their Nations League games against Hungary and Germany.

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Former top flight striker Chris Sutton feels that Tottenham Hotspur fans cannot deny that they are being served up with entertaining football by Ange Postecoglou.

The Australian boss has come in for familiar criticism about his side being too gung-ho and unable to close games out, while he continues to stick stubbornly to his approach.

Spurs led 2-0 against Brighton on the south coast at the weekend, but ended up losing the Premier League clash 3-2 as they collapsed.

Sutton accepts there were issues in the loss to Brighton and believes there was a real lack of aggression in the Spurs side.

He feels though that Tottenham fans cannot say that Postecoglou is not serving up an entertaining style, which is what they wanted when he took charge.

“Ange Postecoglou won’t change”, Sutton said on BBC Radio 5 live’s Monday Night Club.

“Tottenham fans were saying: ‘We don’t win trophies so we want to see entertainment.’ There isn’t one fan in the world that can dispute that they are getting entertainment week in, week out now. Maybe just not always for the better.

“I have mixed feelings about the weekend. There is a complete lack of aggression in the team.

“Were the Brighton goals avoidable? Yes.”

Spurs offloaded a host of fringe players over the course of the summer transfer window as Postecoglou continued to reshape the squad.

Given the exits, there may be room on the wage bill for the Australian to make additions when the January window swings open.

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Richard Keys thinks that former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was right in his assessment that Tottenham Hotspur will not win the league title again.

At the weekend, Tottenham suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Brighton, despite leading the game 2-0 in the first-half and looking set for all three points on the south coast.

Ange Postecoglou’s side collapsed when Brighton scored and applied pressure and there has again been harsh criticism of Spurs’ mentality and the Australian’s approach.

Keys revealed that Tottenham’s first half performance made him think that Postecoglou has found the way to get them going but added that Spurs made fools of themselves with their second half performance.

The veteran presenter pointed out that ex-Manchester United boss Ferguson was right when he predicted early this year that Tottenham will never win the league again.

“What’s going on at Spurs? Not only did they make complete fools of themselves at Brighton – they did me as well”, Keys wrote on his blog.

“I really enjoyed watching them in the first 45 at the Amex and said so on beINSPORTS.

“They were good. And on the back of the win at OT I found myself thinking they might just have got it right at long last.

“But oh no. The wheels came off again second-half in a very Spursy way.

“What is it about them? No wonder big Ange couldn’t take his eyes off the floor when he spoke afterwards!

“At best – they might win another cup one day, but it looks as though Fergie was right all those years ago – they’ll never win the title again.”

Tottenham are sitting ninth in the league table with ten points from seven games and they will be determined to come back strong after the international break.

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Ex-Premier League boss Alan Pardew admits that in the summer he was not impressed with Tottenham Hotspur’s transfer business as it was not ambitious enough.

Spurs have had an up and down season so far, with familiar failings showing themselves, including an ability to not close games out and to easily concede goals.

They led 2-0 at Brighton in the Premier League on Sunday, but then conceded three times to self-destruct and head back to north London with zero points.

While Tottenham have a number of exciting youngsters coming through, questions are being asked about the depth of their squad and Pardew believes not enough was done in the summer.

The former Newcastle United boss stressed that Spurs must aim to be fighting for the title as then falling just short will put them in the Champions League.

He admits he was not taken with the business that Spurs, under Ange Postecoglou, did in the summer.

“Forget about Ange, the transfer policy in the summer did not strike me of a team that wanted to be champions”, Pardew said on talkSPORT’s The Final Word.

“If you are Spurs you have got to aim to be champions because if you aim to be champions, you might get Champions League.

“And if you just fall short of Champions League you’ll make Europa League.

“If you don’t aim there, if you aim for the Champions League or the Europa League, you are going to fall short and you [Spurs] look short.”

Tottenham led Brighton 2-0 at half time on the south coast, thanks to goals from Brennan Johnson and James Maddison.

A quickfire goal for Brighton in the second half through Yankuba Minteh rattled Spurs though and by the 66th minute they were 3-2 down, with Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck having also struck.

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Alan Pardew believes Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou must realise that his side cannot have the same carefree attitude that his Celtic outfit had.

Postecoglou was dominant in Scottish football with Celtic as his Bhoys side won plaudits for their swashbuckling style of play.

The Australian has taken the same philosophy and approach to north London, but it is yet to pay dividends and the weaknesses were on display on Sunday when Spurs threw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at Brighton.

Tottenham have headed into the international break sitting ninth in the Premier League table with ten points and having won as many games as they have lost (three).

Postecoglou has regularly come in for criticism for his sides not being street-smart and Pardew thinks an approach similar to that at Celtic just will not do in the Premier League.

Pardew said on talkSPORT’s The Final Word: “When you’re in a dominant side like he was at Celtic, let’s be honest, in a way you can have a bit more of a carefree attitude and get results.

“You can’t do that in the Premier League.

“The top teams can’t do that.

“Man City showed that yesterday because Fulham should have turned them over.

“They were a little bit lax and Fulham definitely should have done the job on them.”

Tottenham have two London derbies in the Premier League lined up after the international break when they take on West Ham United and Crystal Palace.

They then host Aston Villa, but not before a daunting EFL Cup tie against Manchester City.