Bentaleb the full interview

Nabil Bentaleb went from the Tottenham Development Squad to the knock-out stages of the World Cup in just a few months and produced performances at the highest level better than any other Tottenham player at the tournament.




He has been speaking to the official website in a two part interview that is brought together here for ease of reading.

“I feel like I’ve gained more experience as a result of playing at the World Cup and that’s hopefully going to help me to improve further in the future. 

“I was confident ahead of the tournament after speaking to the Algeria manager, but I still kept my feet on the ground because you never know what can happen. 

“I worked hard to prepare for the tournament and I think it paid off – I played three games out there, after all.” 

“Coming out of the tunnel for the first game was amazing. At the beginning I was thinking ‘wow, this is a World Cup game!’ 

“But then after that I thought ‘this is just a football match’ and I treated it in that way so I could really focus on my game. Once I was out there, I played my normal game and that really helped me. 

“We played as a team when we were there. All three group games were very good apart from the Belgium match because of the 2-1 defeat, but it was still an amazing game. 

“In the second match against South Korea it was 3-0 at half-time and while we knew we could achieve something before the game, we didn’t know it would be that good in the first half. They gave us too much space, we took the chances and eventually won 4-2. 

“The Russia game was the most emotional one because we got through for the first time in Algerian football history and it was very important for us to achieve that. There was a lot of pressure on us before the game, we knew we had to get a positive result – at least a point – and it was tough because we conceded early in the game. We had to stay strong and we believed right until the end. It paid off as we scored and went through thanks to the 1-1 draw. 

"I think personally it gave me more experience and more confidence and I’m really proud to have played at the tournament. Now it’s a new season and I have to move forward, to improve more. We’ll see what the new Head Coach wants from me and I’ll continue to work hard and to learn even more. 

“I was fully behind my team when we played Germany and all the players did amazingly well. We showed what Algeria is about. We’re about spirit, we never give up, and we fight against any opponent. We weren’t scared of Germany. Everyone was talking about how big Germany are as a footballing nation but we weren’t afraid of them and we showed that. We paid them respect. 

“We travelled a lot during the tournament. We stayed at Sorocaba in Sao Paulo and travelled two days before every game. The atmosphere was fantastic. Everywhere you looked there were people clapping you and there were different countries’ flags on buildings everywhere. You could look at a particular building and say ‘this is a building where the people support Germany’ or Algeria or whoever just by the amount of coloured flags outside. 

“We knew before the World Cup that the Algeria fans were willing us to go through and when we did it, they gave us something back through the reception we got when we returned. We always knew they were behind us.”

Right from the moment he came on against Southampton he went down as one to watch, he looked immediately at home as Gary Neville mentioned during his commentary, he had never herd of him and though Spurs had 'found one' in Bentaleb.

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Walker behind the rest in terms of fitness

He rightly saw regular games after that before being withdrawn so as not to burn him out. Te rest allowed him to go to the World Cup fresh and continue his footballing education at the highest level. That first season experience can only stand Spurs in good stead this season and allows the club the freedom to move a player on.

With Morgan Schneiderlin wanting to arrive as well, it won't only be Gylfi Sigurdsson who departs from midfield, Sandro is expected to depart too. Whatever the ins and out Tottenham have saved a fortune in transfer fees by producing a player with the ability to become a top talent in years to come.

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