'World-class' Spurs star 'more talented' than €70m Chelsea target

Tom Weber

• Updated: 24 Oct 2023 09:36 BST
• 4 min read

Micky van de Ven is fulfilling the world-class potential that was already obvious years ago.

Many elite sides will feel that the Dutchman was one that got away in the summer. After emerging as one of the best defenders in the Bundesliga - and one of the division's quickest players - last season, Van de Ven made no secret of his desire to make the step up to the Premier League in the summer.

Particularly Liverpool may rue letting him slip away, given that they were linked with him, but even other sides like Chelsea and Man Utd could have used a player like the 22-year-old. It was Tottenham who would ultimately snap up the Wolfsburg star for €40 million - and it is already looking like a bargain.

READ: Romano reveals Man Utd target's Chelsea links amid new contract talks

Van de Ven has taken to life in England like a fish to water, again putting in an outstanding shift in Spurs' recent 2-0 win over Fulham that saw them become the sole leaders of the Premier League. To someone like Ruben Jongkind, Van de Ven's coach at FC Volendam, this talent was clear to see years ago.

Van de Ven better than Bastoni

Speaking to the iNews, Jongkind recalled discovering the youngster for the then-second tier side in 2019.

“We went to watch the U19s just to have an idea of the youth and there we saw him for the first time. It was my colleagues Jasper [van Leeuwen] and Wim who saw him first and they were like ‘holy s***, what is this?'”

“So when we got in charge, the first thing we did was give him a contract because he didn’t have one and we moved him to the U23s straight away. After two months he was already way too good for the U23s so we promoted him to the first team and he never came back out."

READ: Chelsea and Liverpool dealt MAJOR blow as Bundesliga giants step up wonderkid pursuit

Inevitably, Van der Ven attracted interest from bigger fish like Wolfsburg, but they initially tried to lowball the small club, which even led to a legal battle involving the late Mino Raiola. “This is world-class potential," Jongkind said, "so don’t come with €1.5m when [Alessandro] Bastoni who probably has less talent already went for €31m [from Atalanta to Inter].”

Bastoni, incidentally, was targeted by Spurs last term and is now being linked with a €70m move to Chelsea, but the Blues could have signed the 'more talented' Van de Ven for a lot less in the summer.

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