Dembele expects Champions League finish for Tottenham

29-Dec-2012 5:30:00 PM

The Belgium international says he is happy with his start at White Hart Lane despite a frustrating injury but admits that he needs to add goalscoring to his game

Tottenham midfielder Mousa Dembele says he is happy to play for a club with the calibre to qualify for the Champions League.

The 25-year-old joined the north London outfit from Fulham last summer, amid reported interest from Manchester United and Real Madrid.

But the Belgium international believes he made the correct career choice by joining Spurs.

"I know where my career will go," he told The Daily Mail. "When I came to England I had the confidence to do something and I’m happy now that I play for a big club.

"If you hear big clubs are interested it’s always nice to know people appreciate what you do but when Tottenham said, 'We want him', I didn’t have to think twice. I didn’t think about anything else.

"You have a lot of players here who like to play football and, for me, it’s important that I can play my game as well. I’ve always had a good feeling with Tottenham, for a long time. We have the calibre to play in the Champions League. I believe in our team and I believe we can do something special."


BALE ONE OF THE BEST - AVB
12/1	Mousa Dembele is 12/1 with Paddy Power to open the scoring against Sunderland

Dembele has received plenty of plaudits for his ball retention and dribbling skills, but the Belgian knows he must add more goals to his game after only finding the back of the net six times since arriving in the Premier League.

"I just like to play, to pass the ball and dribble," said the midfielder. "When I was young I never shot. I always wanted to dribble the ball in the goal. I don’t want to shoot because I don’t like to.

"Is it about scoring the perfect goal? Yes, maybe. Before I always played on the street with two lamp-posts that were like a basketball pitch, and we could not shoot. You had to dribble and touch the ball on the posts to score. We never shoot the ball.

"So maybe it’s because I always played on the street and I liked to do it nice and beautiful.

"It’s true that I have to improve my hunger to score goals and I think in the last two years I have concentrated more on this. I don’t score a lot of goals but before I only thought about playing nice football. Now I try to be more important for the team by trying to score goals as well."

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