Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven has told FourFourTwo about his disappointment of losing out on Champions League football for next season, despite talk of Spurs' ulterior motives in the title race.
Tottenham saw their last hopes to qualify for the Champions League disappear after losing at home to Manchester City, with two Erling Haaland goals sealing victory for the visitors – who can now win the title on Sunday if they beat West Ham United.
Though much of the run-up to the game was dominated by discussions of how Tottenham could do their bitter rivals Arsenal a favour by beating City to help Arsenal's title assault, Van de Ven reflected on his disappointment after starting the game the better of the two sides.
“I think we played a good match in the first half, but in the second half we lost a bit of control and you noticed that City got into the game a bit better at a certain point and they scored pretty quickly after half time,” the defender said. “And then it becomes very difficult against City, although we still got a good chance to make it 1-1. But we didn’t score and then they made it 2-0.”
Van de Ven was deployed as a left back, the position in which he was relocated during the game against Burnley last weekend, and to great success as he scored the winner with eight minutes to go. The defender explained he knew the role from playing there before.
“I’ve played at left back quite often, so for me it is not a very uncommon position to play,” he said. “And in our system it’s a bit of a different position because the full backs often come on the inside, but I am quite used to be playing left back anyway, so that is not a problem.”
The Dutchman is a versatile player – he even played as a forward in his early teens – and his overall adjustment at the club has gone so well that he has been chosen by supporters as their player of the season.
“It's great that I’ve been voted as player of the year by the fans,” says Van de Ven. “It’s a really nice moment and I also think I had a good first season at Tottenham in the Premier League. Of course, I also had a setback due to my injury, but in retrospect I think it was a good season and hopefully we can continue to build next year and [achieve] great things.”
The Dutch defender’s influence at his new club can be seen in the stats. He played every minute of the first ten games in which Spurs won eight and drew two. The next game, at home to Chelsea, Van de Ven was forced off with a hamstring injury at half time with the score being 1-1, only for Spurs to lose 1-4 in the end without their new talisman. And in the next nine league games in which he was side-lined, his team lost another four games.
Partly because of Van de Ven’s absence, Spurs’ chances to qualify for Champions League decreased during the course of the season, but with Aston Villa recently dropping points as well, they still had a chance if they had beaten Man City. Van de Ven is disappointed with missing out on Europe's elite competition, but thinks that Spurs can also achieve big things if they qualify for the Europa League.
“Obviously you always want to reach the Champions League and I think this is also a Champions League club,” he says. “Of course it's a pity. But the Europa League is also a big competition and hopefully we can go far there next year. We will see what will happen next year and perhaps we can reach the Champions League next season.”
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