Christian Eriksen insists uncertainty surrounding his and some of his Tottenham team-mates’ future is not the cause of their horrible start to the season.
Spurs have won just three of their 11 games so far in this campaign, losing to League Two Colchester in the Carabao Cup, thumped 7-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League and going down 3-0 at Brighton on Saturday.
Boss Mauricio Pochettino, who is finding himself under pressure just four months after leading the club to the Champions League final, has said that it will take time for Spurs to be united after several of his players had “different agendas”.
Eriksen was one of those as he was expected to leave Spurs this summer, having said that he was looking for a new challenge, but has now entered the final year of his contract after the big move to Europe he was hoping for never materialised.
Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld are also out of contract in the summer, Danny Rose almost joined Watford and Serge Aurier and Victor Wanyama were nearly sold.
Yet all six players remain part of the group, but Eriksen, who is not interested in signing a new deal at Spurs, says that is not an issue.
“It doesn’t matter at all. Everyone is professional and in all clubs there is talk of players going away,” he told Danish news outlet Ekstra Bladet while on international duty.
“That side of the matter has no bearing on how we have performed so far this season.
“If I, as a football player, took all the rumours to me, I would float on a cloud. But I know that it can’t all be true.
“It does not affect me what is written.”
Sooo many goals at Tottenham Stadium… which Bayern player is most likely to star in Goal of the Week tomorrow?#UCL | #GOTW | @NissanFootballpic.twitter.com/DswCvvHMSb— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) October 1, 2019
Despite that insistence, Eriksen has been a shadow of the player that has seen him linked with the likes of Real Madrid, Juventus and Paris St Germain and has found himself in and out of Pochettino’s team.
He does accept, however, that he is having his toughest time since joining the club in 2013.
“It’s definitely my hardest time right now at Tottenham,” he said.
“The first year when I came was probably a bit up and down, but since Pochettino came in 2014 it has been a success story.
“Expectations for us are at a completely different level now. We have to win every time and it’s the same feeling we have as players as well.
“We as players must try to keep all the negative things completely out.
“But the reason for our results is actually hard to answer. We can’t close the matches, even though we are ahead. But we have also been unlucky.”
