Mido, an Egyptian striker, has stated that he was concerned when Tottenham Hotspur signed Micky Van de Ven this summer.
Speaking on TalkSPORT (9/10 8:57am), the 40-year-old former Tottenham Hotspur player reflected on his old club’s start to the season.
After a dismal season last year, Tottenham manager Daniel Levy had work to do in the transfer market this summer.
In addition to missing out on European participation entirely, the club’s looming departure of star Harry Kane put enormous pressure on them to get their incomings correct.
Leicester City’s James Maddison walked right in and has performed even better than everyone imagined.
He already has five assists and has created an excellent combination with Son Heung-min.
Guglielmo Vicario has gone about his business calmly and well since taking over for Hugo Lloris.
However, one of the season’s biggest surprises has been Micky Van de Ven, who has been outstanding with Cristian Romero.
Mido has suggested that he wasn’t confident that Van de Ven would be an immediate success at Spurs.
The 22-year-old has proven plenty of people wrong and was the match-winner against Luton after some neat footwork in the box.
Mido admits initial concerns about Van de Ven
Speaking about the Dutch defender, Mido said: “I’ll be honest when I first saw [Micky] Van de Ven with his movement I was a bit worried, to be honest.
“I understand the idea of Ange [Postecoglou] that he wants a left-footed centre-back to start from the back and to have a better angle to see the whole of the pitch playing the ball between the lines and the diagonals.
“But defensively, I was really worried that this guy would struggle in the Premier League.
“I know in the Premier League that you always play against big guys up front and the likes of [Erling] Haaland and [Ivan] Toney, all the big guys, it’s very difficult to defend.
“It’s not like the Dutch league, it’s different, it could be a shock for him.
“But to be honest to the lad, he’s been brilliant.”
Plenty of Tottenham fans will agree with Mido that Van de Ven has been fantastic since his debut against Brentford.
His incredible pace is still surprising people and making it difficult for strikers to find a way past the 22-year-old.
He was ‘superb’ at the weekend and will hope that the international break presents him with the opportunity to make his senior debut for the Netherlands.