Tottenham star warned about attitude just like Virgil van Dijk

Tottenham star Micky van de Ven has been warned about his attitude and performances as the club lurches into a relegation dogfight.

The Dutchman has been a hero in N17 since his £43million arrival from Wolfsburg in 2023.

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His electric pace made him the perfect covering centre-back in Ange Postecoglou’s attacking line-ups, with his sweeping sliding challenges seeing his reputation grow.

Liverpool are among those credited with an interest in the Netherlands international.

An improved presence at attacking set-pieces has seen him win plaudits this season but defensively the 24-year-old has looked a shadow of himself.

What’s happened to Micky van de Ven?

Mistakes, including one in the home derby with Chelsea, plus the sight of him ignoring former boss Thomas Frank at the final whistle started to see his popularity slide.

Meanwhile, an increasingly frustrated demeanour and lack of leadership while captain in place of Cristian Romero have also been a concern.

A fan video of him reportedly ignoring interim manager Igor Tudor has since been debunked by the Croatian, but nonetheless his performances in the backline are a worry.

Against Arsenal, he looked helpless right at a time when he was needed to step up.

On talkSPORT, one Tottenham fan claimed he didn’t blame Van de Ven for ‘looking completely checked out’.

However, former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino disputed that position, insisting he had a problem with the centre-back’s attitude.

He told the Weekend Sports Breakfast: “Just on what Henry said there about Micky van de Ven, he doesn’t blame him. You should blame him because you can’t get away with that.

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“You sign a contract at Tottenham football club and if you’re – he didn’t say downing tools – but he’s got to think, for me, he’s very fortunate to play for Tottenham.

“Micky van de Ven, right, you’ve had a big move. You’ve done brilliantly well there, and what I’m seeing now is a player, he reminds me of when Virgil van Dijk was at the end of his time at Southampton, just before he played for Liverpool.

“He went in the January window and the period before, everyone knew Van Dijk was a tremendous player.

“Everyone knew that he was cruising, he could play comfortably and be okay. He was off because every club in the country wanted Van Dijk, and rightly so.

“Micky van de Ven reminds me of that where he’s like, ‘Well, I’ll be okay anyway either way’.

“That’s where I’ve got a problem with him because I don’t feel like it’s a player that’s going, ‘Do you know what, I’m going to fight for this club because I signed a contract to be the best player I can. And if they choose to sell me along the way or I don’t sign a new contract, then that’s down to me or the people up above in the club’.

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“I look at a player now that he’s got a good outcome either way.”

How did Virgil van Dijk leave Southampton?

After joining the Saints in September 2015, the Dutchman quickly earned a reputation as one of the league’s best with fans and teammates naming him their Player of the Year.

By January 2017 he was the club’s captain, but in the summer was then subject of an illegal approach from Liverpool, which the Reds apologised for.

He, though, did hand in a transfer request, but a move failed to materialise before the start of the 2017/18 season.

In the meantime, Southampton had gone from an eighth-place finish to a potential relegation battle, which they only just survived.

By mid-December they were bang in trouble and had lost 4-1 to Leicester City at St Mary’s, with Van Dijk then missing their last three games before the January transfer window, when a £75m switch to Liverpool was finally completed.

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And former Southampton CEO Martin Semmens claimed the player was nowhere near his top level in his final months with the club.

“Virgil van Dijk was a big one for us,” he recalled on talkSPORT. “We treated him in a different way and said, ‘You can’t go’. It didn’t work well for us.

“We didn’t [get him back on our side]. Virgil was fantastic, in my opinion, he trained at 75 [per cent] and played at 75 [per cent] and was still the best player in the team, if not the league.

“He didn’t cause us any problems. He never said a single bad word to anyone, but he wanted to go, and it wasn’t effective for us to keep the player.

“We kept him until January. It wasn’t good for the squad or the environment, but to be clear, Virgil never said one negative word to anybody.

“We felt, at the time, we could get more if he stayed. He’d had a bad injury, I think he’d been out for six to nine months, and we felt that he owed us, which is embarrassing now, I think back to it.

“There was also some contact from Liverpool we didn’t love. At that time, probably a little more for the morals, he had already met Klopp before he told us.

“But in the end, he did a very good job for us, and we sold him for a good price.”