Coach claims Tottenham have a 22-year-old who’s more talented than £53m star

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FC Volendam coach Ruben Jongkind has now spoken at length about Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven’s departure from the club.

Before joining Germany’s Wolfsburg in 2021, van de Ven was working closely with Jongkind at his academy side in the Netherlands.

And in an interview with iNews, the coach was reminiscing about some of the derisory offers Volendam received for van de Ven.

Jongkind was already convinced that the centre-back had world class potential and compared the situation to transfers in Europe at the time.

He said: “This is world-class potential so don’t come with €1.5m when [Alessandro] Bastoni who probably has less talent already went for €31m.”

Of course, Jongkind was referring to Bastoni’s move to Inter Milan from fellow Serie A side Atalanta at the time in 2017, a player now said to be worth £53m.

And if van de Ven’s huge potential has been obvious to Jongkind for some time, Tottenham fans will be very grateful that his future is entwined with theirs. 

Interestingly Jongkind also spoke about van de Ven’s pace in the interview, something that is already benefiting Tottenham’s back line.

The former coach said whilst his acceleration was always there, they had to work much harder to build his physique. 

Jongkind expected van de Ven to thrive at Tottenham

Right now, it’s very difficult to find someone who’ll say a bad word about this Spurs side, and in particular Micky van de Ven.

Alongside his centre-back partner Cristian Romero, Ange Postecoglou looks to have a partnership that can stand the test of time.

And Spurs fans will be keeping their fingers crossed that Romero is fit to face Fulham tonight.

Such is their rapid progress, this Postecoglou team will now face the burden of expectation in their coming games – a whole new challenge for this side.

One they can overcome, but a challenge nonetheless.

And Jongkind seems to think that van de Ven has the ability and the potential to rise to any occasion for Tottenham.

Moreover, if the defender has been underestimated in the past, it’s now his new manager that is facing the same fate.

Phil Neville has just revealed how much he underestimated Postecoglou before he started at Tottenham this season.