The Head Coach has spoken about new signing Dennis Cirkin, and whether we can expect the young defender to make his debut later today.
CONSIDERATION
"It's a bit of a dilemma for me, going into the weekend. You always want to get eyes on somebody first - he is still a young lad who hasn't made a senior appearance, and that's something to be considered. Also, the opposition's shape needs to be considered, and there's a lot of detail that goes into the way we play.
FAST TRACK
"In an ideal world, I'd give him six games lead-up to watch it, to experience it, to travel, to train, to learn the philosophy, but we are in a situation where we might have to fast-track him. Within that, there might be potential mistakes and what we can't do is hammer him and bamboozle him with science - we have to allow him to go out and play.
ASSESSING
"It [whether to play him this weekend] is one decision I haven't made yet, and I am still assessing his fitness, his movement, his timing, his understanding, his rapport with the other players, because he has only had one one-hour and ten minute session so far."
PROTECTION
"We have to protect him a little bit. He has had Covid three or four weeks ago so a little bit of time is probably needed to bed him in, but at the same time we can manage the minutes within the league because we have Dan Neil who has done extremely well at left-back."
QUALITY
He continued: "I'm delighted to have him. He's a well renowned talent for that age group, he's had international appearances for England throughout the age groups, and we've managed to capitalise on a contractual situation but at the same time give Tottenham some value and some future value in the player. We are really happy to have him, he's a really good player that we believe we can nurture into an even better player. He is ready to go at this level in terms of his quality."
