INTERVIEW: Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven is eyeing a top-four finish as he opens up on his meteoric rise to Premier League stardom under Ange Postecoglou, having nearly been released by Dutch second-tier side FC Volendam

Tottenham's speedy central defender is gearing up for a frantic sprint to the finish and will not settle for fifth place behind Aston Villa - even if it could still prove enough to qualify for Europe's elite club competition.

When asked whether Spurs are keeping on top of the complexities surrounding UEFA coefficient points, Van de Ven said: "Of course, you are speaking about it because you know that maybe fifth place is going to be enough. But we are not focusing on fifth. We want to be fourth or even higher. We just want to make sure that at the end of the season, we don't have to look at how everything went with the list."

Italy currently top the coefficient rankings but the second bonus Champions League qualification spot has become a straight shootout between England and Germany, who currently lead the chase.

He continued: "You look at it but it's not like I'll be supporting West Ham. It's not that deep. We just want to finish in a position where we are sure we'll be playing Champions League football next year."

The fitness of the indispensable 22-year-old, who epitomises the youthful energy at the heart of Ange Postecoglou's exciting revolution, will undoubtedly prove imperative to Tottenham's fortunes.

Spurs were top of the pile before their PS43million summer signing sustained a serious hamstring injury in the shock 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in November. And when the Dutchman has featured, Postecoglou's side have averaged a remarkable 2.3 points per game in the Premier League, compared with a paltry 1.45 in his absence.

Micky van de Ven has excelled in his debut season at Spurs ( Image:

Matt West/REX/Shutterstock) While the former Wolfsburg man possesses all the physical and technical qualities desired from a modern-day central defender, he also has the mental attributes - resilience, determination, intelligence and attitude - to match. Yet that should come as no surprise given his inspirational father Marcel was once an undercover agent that forged a highly-successful career out of intercepting organised crime. He is now a TV personality and star back in Holland.

"I was really young when he did this," explains Van de Ven. "To be honest, I didn't know everything that he was doing because it was quite dangerous. Now he's written a book and is doing TV programmes like Hunted, which I think you have here, but he was working on catching some of the highest-level criminals in Holland.

"It's difficult to explain in English and I can't say too much of course, but he'd be based somewhere in the Netherlands and was always there, every day. He came back late at night and was always in different cars, you know what I mean?"

There was one piece of advice that sticks out in the mind of Van de Ven. It was short but so very sweet. His father once told him to: "Accept the chaos."

Micky van de Ven suffered a hamstring injury in the 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in November ( Image:

Javier Garcia/REX/Shutterstock) Marcel's cunning remark derived from his experience handling life-and-death situations and he felt it became applicable to Van de Ven when he first moved to the Bundesliga and started to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of playing in front of big crowds in huge stadiums.

Van de Ven explained: "He was always saying, like, 'just in the warm-up, just enjoy what you see. Enjoy the people around you. Just enjoy the vibe of the stadium and everything. And then, when you have to go in and come back out, just switch on. Just accept everything that's going on around you because you know it's going to happen and you can't do something about it' so he was just like: 'Accept it.'

"And that was the moment that I was like, when I went on the pitch, I was like: 'Ok. Accept everything.' I know that it's going to be chaos. I know it's going to be weird for so many people but just do your job and then it went well."

For Van de Ven, there is no better weapon for snuffing out and detaining the opposition than his electric pace and the asset was one of the key driving forces behind Tottenham's interest. He recently clocked a mind-blowing top speed of 37.38 km/h (23.22mph) in the crucial 3-2 win over Brentford - the highest speed ever recorded in the top-flight since records began in 2020.

"I played this whole year but the gaffer of the first-team then, he didn't see the potential of me. He was like, 'no, the guys who are playing right now are way better than you. You are not fast enough'.

"That was maybe the strangest thing for me that he was telling me that I was not fast enough. I was like: 'Ehhhh?! You haven't seen me sprint?' I had to accept it because I was younger and he was saying: 'We don't really see the potential for you to become a first-team player in a couple of years.'"

The arrival of Wim Jonk would change the course of Van de Ven's career. He was a coach that immediately recognised the 18-year-old's potential and it would later net the Dutch second-tier side around PS3million when Wolfsburg pounced in the summer of 2021.

Micky van de Ven cost Spurs around PS43m including add-ons from Wolfsburg Van de Ven continued: "Wim Jonk said: 'This guy, he gets a contract straight away.' Straight away professional contract. He was there for a week. Professional contract, I went to the Under-21s and I became captain straight away, I played six to eight games and then boom, first team. Then I played every game in the first team and I never went off. It was strange, in the space of six weeks I didn't have the potential to go to the first team and then out of nowhere, first contract and it went through."

Van de Ven claims he once lost all of his speed when his body began to experience the challenges of physical growth. But he worked tirelessly behind the scenes to rectify the issue and now his sprinting figures are statistically comparable with Usain Bolt over short distances - a compliment he refuses to accept.

He said of the Jamaican icon: "I like Usain Bolt, his speed is unbelievable but I don't want to compare myself to him! It's genetics, when I was younger I was really fast and I was an attacker. I would out-sprint everyone when I was younger. Then there was a period where I had a dip, I was growing really fast, my height was going up fast and I had problems with my knees. I was a long yet tiny guy, it was not really helping me with my knees and I did some work on it and it came back [speed]."

Tottenham host Nottingham Forest in the Premier League (6pm) on Sunday after the game was switched from Monday due to rail strikes.