Tottenham Hotspur star center back Micky van de Ven is one of the top players in his position in the Premier League when he is at his best, but for much of the 2025/26 season, he was very clearly not even close to his best, which had even Spurs fans questioning his quality. And in truth, he wasn't quite stellar for about half the 2024/25 Premier League season - or more- before that.
Spurs need Van de Ven to be playing at a close to world class level in the 2026/27 season in order to get back to where they need to be next season as one of the top five clubs in the Premier League, and for those few weeks to close the last season in the Premier League relegation fight, Van de Ven looked like that caliber of a center back again under Roberto De Zerbi.
Like so many Tottenham fans and even seemingly most of the players, Van de Ven could not stand playing under Thomas Frank, and it got to a point where it appeared Van de Ven was ready to bolt from Spurs because of how bad things got under Frank. Now, Van de Ven is all in on Spurs, thanks to De Zerbi.
Tottenham need Champions League football every year
He has a lot of optimism for the 2026/27 Premier League season, too, and with a lot of former Tottenham Hotspur figures predicting top five football and a return to the Champions League, Micky van de Ven isn't shy about saying that this is the ultimate goal for Spurs in 2026/27.
Van de Ven told the media, via Hotspur Lane, "Spurs is a team that needs to play Europe every year, so obviously the European spots are something we are going to aim for. The most important thing is we play our football, and that we are a difficult team to play against.”
One of the things that Van de Ven and the Tottenham players love a lot about Roberto De Zerbi is the fact that he has Spurs playing their game. Unlike Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, who had Spurs playing passively and defensively, the Lilywhite are going to assert themselves on games in possession and dominate, especially after the signing of Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali. If Spurs can do that and get into the top five, the positive momentum and the return of Champions League football are going to give the club even more ammo to become a title contender once more.
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