The Spurs Blog

Martin Jol has decided not to bid for the services of former England skipper David Beckham.

Jol said: “Of course, I have a lot of respect for David Beckham, but I’ve never said I want to sign him,”

“We are fine here as it is. We already have Aaron Lennon. Beckham is a non-runner.”

Martin Jol was dissapointed with the performance of the team following the 3-1 defeat at the hands of Reading.

He said: “At half-time we wanted to put it right but you need personality and character,”

“It’s frustrating, you get angry a bit as well because you can do all the hard work and prepare yourself well.

“If we would have had a good result today everything would be fine - last eight of the Carling Cup, in the UEFA Cup and probably seventh in the league. And you throw it away.

“All credit to them because apart from Arsenal not many teams have won here in the last 12 or more months. But if you make those sort of mistakes you can’t win any game.

“So it is good to be back to earth with our feet on the ground and be the team we were before when we had a run of 10 games.”

Martin Jol has admitted we were lucky to advance through the tricky Carling Cup tie against Port Vale yesterday.

“Everybody expects you to go through to the next round, it’s the same as it always is,” said Jol.

“All the ingredients were there for an upset - they were organised with a good goalkeeper, they give you the initiative and that is not easy.

“But I felt home advantage was there. We kept believing in the second half and we had some outstanding performances. Luckily our quality probably gave us the edge.”

Martin Jol is likely to shuffle his big squad in order to rest regulars Ledley King, Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane for the Carling Cup match against Port Vale tonight.

Steed Malbranque is likely to make his debut, with Danny Murphy, Tom Huddlestone and Edgar Davids also in line to start the match.

Egyptian forward Mido is happy with the strength of our current squad.

He said: “The strikers are scoring again but the whole squad is doing well at the moment,”

“Not many teams have a squad like ours where so many players can come straight into the starting line-up and do a job.

“Against MK Dons, we had people like Reto Ziegler, Paul Stalteri and Anthony Gardner who came in and did really well and the manager knows he can call on all of us when needed and we will do a job for the team.”

Reports suggest that we are still looking at 18-year-old Standard Liege defender Marouane Fellaini.

The youngster, who has previously claimed that we contacted him during the Frank Arnesen era, is one of the most promising Belgian prospects. 

Promising full-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto has slammed his former club Lens for the way they treated him during his time at the club.

He said: “I am fine. There are players that speak French so that is a help. I like the English league,”

“I keep in contact with some Lens players. But when you are educated at a club, contrary to England, people take more care of the players from the outside rather than the ones who came from their own education centre.

“So at a certain time, you have to leave. The players that joined the club after me could better negotiate than me.

“Look at a player like Steven Gerrard in England. He was demanded by Chelsea but Liverpool managed to keep him.

“It is not in the French clubs’ culture to keep the players they have educated.

“Did I feel Lens didn’t do its best to keep me? Of course. If I asked for something, they told me it was not possible.

“As they could not manage a strong character, they prefer to part with him.

“At Lens, they love sheep, but I am not one. Maybe that is what we missed last year, players with strong character.”

French winger Steed Malbranque could make his debut for Tottenham Hotspur in their match against Port Vale this week.

Malbranque, who moved from Fulham earlier this year, has yet to feature for his new club due to a hernia injury but is now back in full training and will be happy to get some first team football in the Cup.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says he is not interested in signing Aaron Lennon.

Mourinho said: “No, completely not interested. The boy is good, but we have no interest in buying or changing anything.

“Our interest is to keep Shaun Wright-Phillips - who was supposedly involved in any deal. No way. It’s not true.”

SWP is a great player but you can keep him. We need to hold on to our stars and land a left sided midfielder.

Jermaine Jenas has urged Aaron Lennon to reject any offers and stay on at White Hart Lane.

Jenas said: “The fans love him and we don’t want to lose him as a player.

“He was the best of the wingers on the pitch on Sunday and gave Chelsea all kinds of problems.

“We knew he would, especially as he had his new yellow boots on and we gave him plenty of stick before the game, but we didn’t say a word afterwards!”

On the goal by Lennon, which gave Spurs the victory over the champions, Jenas added: “He’s been threatening to score for a few games but he saved it for the biggest occasion.

“He did it by beating Ashley Cole and he’s the best left-back in the world. It was a great finish.

“Chelsea have been linked with Aaron but results like this prove he doesn’t have to go there to fulfil his ambitions and win things.”