New Spurs signing David Bentley has spoken following his ‘dream’ move to White Hart Lane.<\/p>\n
Bentley said: “First of all I have to earn my right to be at this football club, a club that is in my heart. My aim is to have fans come and enjoy watching me perform for the team I’ve dreamed of playing for.<\/p>\n
“I’d love to be an entertainer like [Paul] Gascoigne. I desperately want that. But I know I have to start off by earning the right.”<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old revealed that Spurs missed out signing him as a kid.<\/p>\n
He said: “No one from Spurs scouted me at all, though I lived just up the road. All my mates gave me some stick when I went to Arsenal but I have to say it was a great environment to grow up in.<\/p>\n
“I was coming through at the time of the Invincible team, which went an entire season unbeaten in 2003-04 and set record after record.<\/p>\n
“I just wanted to play regular first-team football. It has never been about money with me.<\/p>\n
“No one forced me to leave but Blackburn offered me what I wanted – a real chance to play.<\/p>\n
“Once I knew Spurs were in and interested – I’ll be honest and admit I thought I’d never end up here – there was only ever going to be one team I’d sign for.<\/p>\n
“I was trying my nuts off to get here. Every day I was going through it, on the phone, trying my hardest to come here.<\/p>\n
“My friends are all season ticket holders and they were on the phone to me every day. It has been an emotional time for me.<\/p>\n
“All my mates, the Tottenham boys, loved it, absolutely loved it when I signed. They all have Tottenham tattoos up their arms and down their legs. They’re mad fans.<\/p>\n
“They kept phoning to tell me ‘You’ve got to come to Tottenham’. I told them ‘I want to but they don’t want me’.<\/p>\n
“It means the world to come here. My head and all my passion will be channelled into doing well for Tottenham. My mates are buzzing now – just like me.”<\/p>\n
On competition for places, he said: “I’m excited by our strong midfield. I want to play with top players. Look at [Luka] Modric and [Giovani] Dos Santos, [Jermaine] Jenas and [Aaron] Lennon.<\/p>\n
“I feel I can do a job in most places. Last season I played in central midfield, up front and on the left but I played the majority of the time on the right.<\/p>\n
“It’s whatever is the manager’s decision. They’ve given me the No 5 shirt. I’ll play centre-half, too, if they need me!”<\/p>\n
The England international has also revealed that he was a fan of Spurs legend Paul Gascoigne when he was younger.<\/p>\n
“Gascoigne was my favourite player growing up. The first football top I ever got was a Tottenham shirt with his name on the back.<\/p>\n
“Gazza was great, a footballer who enjoyed his football, enjoyed his life and just played with that freedom. A lot of players looked up to him.”<\/p>\n
He added: “I can still see Gazza scoring at White Hart Lane with no boot on! He ran through and put the ball in the bottom corner. That’s my best memory of him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"