2015 Nations Cup: Tottenham counting cost of losing Algerian Nabil Bentaleb

Published on: 19 December 2014
2015 Nations Cup:  Tottenham counting cost of losing Algerian Nabil Bentaleb
Tottenham counting cost of losing Algerian Nabil Bentaleb

For Nabil Bentaleb the momentum that he has built at Tottenham Hotspur stands to be checked.

The 20-year-old helped the club to their 4-0 Capital One Cup quarter-final victory over Newcastle United but he will miss the two-leg semi-final against Sheffield United, together with a clutch of Premier League fixtures, because of his involvement with Algeria at the Africa Cup of Nations, which begins on 17 January.

Bentaleb’s country comes first and he will be a part of an Algeria squad that starts the tournament in Equatorial Guinea as favourites. The final is scheduled for 8 February and if Algeria were to reach it, Bentaleb would miss four league matches for his club.

He has only recently recovered from a foot injury that ruled him out for almost two months and he has re-established himself as the first-choice in central midfield. There is no other way to dress this up: the timing of the Cup of Nations is far from ideal for him.

But Bentaleb can see the bigger picture after a whirlwind rise to prominence over the past 12 months which has seen him go from Tottenham academy hopeful to first-team player for club and country. Never mind the Cup of Nations, Bentaleb started in all three of Algeria’s World Cup group games in Brazil last summer. He was also an unused substitute in the last-16 loss against Germany.

Bentaleb speaks with conviction about what Tottenham can achieve this season. There remains the sense that Mauricio Pochettino’s team are a work in progress and that they are quite capable of hitting the wall at any moment. Consistency has proved elusive, which is why the visit of Burnley on Saturday seems like a big test.

But there have been tantalising flickers, most notably in the 2-1 home win over Everton and the cup victory against Newcastle. Despite their various wobbles, Spurs sit seventh in the table, four points off the Champions League places, and they are also through to the last 32 of the Europa League, where they face Fiorentina.

“I think the top four is realistic this season,” Bentaleb said. “We are in December and we are still in the game. We are not far from it. It will all be played out in the second part of the season. We don’t really fear anyone. We know that if we play at our best we can cause a very big problem to any team in the Premier League – to Chelsea or Manchester City. If we focus on ourselves, we will go far. The good thing about this team is that we don’t know what is our limit. We know we can be better but we don’t know the limit.”

Bentaleb followed his heart when he declared for Algeria this year rather than France – the country of his birth and the one he represented at under-19 level. His parents were born in Algeria.

“When people ask me why I chose Algeria over France I say that when I was younger and France lost I was not crying in front of my TV whereas when Algeria lost, I was crying and getting angry,” he said. “I chose Algeria because my heart always wanted Algeria. It’s a really bad thing to be missing the Capital One Cup semi-final but it’s my country and I made the choice to play for them. I have to assume it now.”

Bentaleb knows the risk to his Tottenham place that will come while he is at the Cup of Nations; Pochettino currently has a fully fit squad and Etienne Capoue and Benjamin Stambouli, among others, will look to press their claims.

But Bentaleb’s default-setting is to fight. He has always done so at Tottenham – it was one of the reasons why he was given his debut against Southampton last December, in Tim Sherwood’s first league game in charge – and will continue to do so. “Tim Sherwood was the first one to trust me and put me in,” Bentaleb said. “Most of the credit I have is for him. I will be forever grateful to him. I have found my position at Tottenham but you are never safe. This is football and you always have to fight.”

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