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Tottenham: Can Nabil Bentaleb do what Mousa Dembele did?

By Jake Cole

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 17: Nabil Bentaleb of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates scoring the opening goal during the Capital One Cup Quarter-Final match between Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United at White Hart Lane on December 17, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 17: Nabil Bentaleb of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates scoring the opening goal during the Capital One Cup Quarter-Final match between Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United at White Hart Lane on December 17, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images) /
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Nabil Bentaleb has had near to a horror season this year, it has undoubtedly been a year of lows for the young Tottenham Hotspur midfield and the exit door seems to be close by.

However, if I remember rightly this time last year everyone was tipping Mousa Dembele to be one of the first through the exit door at Tottenham and 12 months on he is now one of the most important players in Tottenham’s Premier League title push. So, could Bentaleb learn a few things for Dembele and be a success at Tottenham after a terrible year?

No one can deny that Bentaleb has a lot of talent and can go on to achieve big things at Tottenham or elsewhere, but after an injury hit season it could mean that his development has started to slow down. He was one of the shining stars in the Tottenham team last season and was the rock in the centre of midfield alongside fellow academy graduate, Ryan Mason. It all started to become quite sour when it came to Bentaleb signing a new long-term contract at the club.

After long negotiations he finally signed a new deal, but this wasn’t half of the story.  Rumours were out that Bentaleb was looking for a big move or more money to become one of the clubs highest earners and this started to give him a bad name. In all honesty after the performances Bentaleb showed, he probably did deserve to be up there with the clubs highest earners, however he seemed to go the wrong way about it.

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His season started off poorly after two bad performances against Manchester United and Everton. He then got an injury and was out for a lengthy spell. Unfortunately for Bentaleb, Tottenham took it to the next level during his injury and really got their season going and by the time he was back ready to play Dembele and Eric Dier had made the midfield positions their own. Since his return he has been pushed even further back down the pecking order and he is now struggling to get game time with the likes of Tom Carroll ahead of him.

Many Tottenham fans felt he should have played in some games, for example the Borussia Dortmund away tie. It now seems that he isn’t favoured by Mauricio Pochettino, this is where Dembele comes into the equation. This time last season there was a whole host of players that needed to be sold by Tottenham and it was widely regarded that Dembele was one of them after a poor season with multiple injuries.

As we all now know, Dembele is finally living up to his expectations and he is one of the most important players in the current Tottenham squad. It seems that an attitude change meant Dembele was able to push on in pre season and push a way back into Pochettino’s plans and an inform and motivated Dembele is a fantastic player to have.

If Bentaleb can take a leaf or two out of Dembele’s book, then he could start fresh in pre season and knuckle down to get himself back into the manager’s plans for next season. He could be a real asset to Tottenham in a few years to come if he puts in the hard work just like Dembele. I’m not comparing the two players ability because they are both quite different, but the attitude that Dembele showed could rub off onto Bentaleb, hopefully.

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