‘We deserve a trophy’: Van de Ven claims Spurs are made up our minds to finish drought

Micky van de Ven recollects being informed that he would by no means win a trophy in his profession after he moved to Tottenham. But the centre-half, who used to be signed by way of Ange Postecoglou from Wolfsburg in the summertime of 2023, says the collective decision inside the membership to damage the silverware curse will gasoline them in Wednesday’s Europa League last towards Manchester United in Bilbao. Spurs have gained not anything for the reason that 2008 League Cup.

“It will be a big thing, of course, because everybody knows that when you join Tottenham, you get the words through of: ‘Ah, you’re not going to win a trophy, you will be trophyless for the rest of your career,’” Van de Ven mentioned. “All the guys that came up here were like: ‘We’re going to change something about this club.’

“It was the gaffer and it was the whole squad who said: ‘We’re going to come here and change something.’ For us, it’s the job now to make this happen in Bilbao.”

Van de Ven used to be requested who had informed him he would by no means win anything else after going to Spurs. “It’s these people on social media, you know?” the 24-year-old spoke back. “These banter people that you don’t take really serious. It did not play on my mind, not even a little bit.”

The Dutch defender is without doubt one of the many gamers who proceed to combat for Postecoglou, who’s getting ready to dropping his task after 21 league defeats this season – essentially the most in membership historical past over a 38-game marketing campaign.

“We have all been standing behind the gaffer since day one, since he joined here,” Van de Ven mentioned. “He showed his quality, he brought us to a European final. Of course, he’s getting a lot of doubt from the media and we see these things. But I think he proved all you guys wrong and we’re standing in a European final, so hopefully we can lift the trophy. Not only for us but also for him.

“We all know we play for a big club. This club deserves trophies. That’s the truth. If you look at the quality in the squad, we deserve a trophy. It has been a tough season but we can end this perfectly by winning a prize.”

Postecoglou’s hopes were fired since Van de Ven and his different first-choice defensive picks returned from damage. Since the second one leg of the last-16 tie towards AZ, the goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and the defenders Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Van de Ven and Destiny Udogie were to be had.

Postecoglou picked Djed Spence over Udogie towards AZ however, that aside, he has relied at the quintet en direction the general, being rewarded with some confident performances, particularly within the 1-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt within the quarter-final 2d leg which secured a 2-1 combination victory.

Van de Ven’s partnership with Romero within the center is prime. “We just feel each other in the game,” Van de Ven mentioned. “If he does something, I know how I need to cover him, how I can help him. On the other side it’s the same – when I have the ball, he knows how to cover me.

“From the beginning I felt a strong connection with him but the more games you play together the more you start feeling each other and knowing each other’s qualities. It’s an unbelievable connection that I have with him now.”