Winks: Being part of a Champions League final with Tottenham hasn’t sunk in

Tottenham midfielder Harry Winks admits the prospect of starting the Champions League final for his boyhood club "feels crazy to say", though he concedes the full gravity of the situation has yet to sink in. 

Despite not making an appearance since the end of April, the 23-year-old has been tipped to start the game in Madrid, and it’s a scenario that has left him bemused, bewildered, but more than a little bit buoyed.

The Wanda Metropolitano Stadium will be the setting for this weekend’s showcase – an imposing, 68,000-capacity arena in the San Blas-Canillejas district of the city. It could yet prove to be the setting of Tottenham’s finest hour.

For Winks – a Spurs fan since the age of five – it represents a double incentive. To lift the trophy as a young player, and enjoy the scenes of jubilation with family and friends as a supporter.

“It is my club,” Winks told reporters. “I’ve known the club since I was five years old. It’s the only club I’ve ever played for. 

“To be part of a Champions League final with Tottenham - it actually feels crazy to say it. It hasn’t really sunk in.

"To have been a part of the team, to have played as many games as I have done in the Champions League, and to be part of this amazing side and this incredible era for Tottenham is a true privilege.

“I am humbled to have the opportunity to do that, and if we can go all the way then we’ll make history and it will be fantastic.”

The emotion of the evening, and the added anxiety of the game being an all-English affair, will ask a lot of questions of both squads in the Spanish capital. 

Yet Winks knows that beyond the deafening din from the terraces, the millions watching on screens around the world and the kudos that awaits the eventual winners, there’s a job to do once the white line has been crossed. 

“To be part of a team that has got to the Champions League final with Tottenham is something, honestly, I would never have dreamt of doing,” he said.

“But we’ve worked a lot in the last couple of weeks in dealing with the emotion of it all. Not getting carried away with it.

“(We’re) just treating it like any other game – but at the same point respecting the fact that it’s a Champions League final.

“It’s a positive vibe in the camp at the moment, everyone’s got a really good togetherness.

“I’ve seen what the manager has done to the club and how far he has taken everyone. Not only as players, but as people.

“The club is only going to go one way in my opinion, and that’s even higher and better.”