Joe Rodon has been speaking about the impact of having Gareth Bale and Harry Kane in the Tottenham Hotspur dressing room.
The young Wales international joined Spurs from Swansea in the last transfer window and made his second Premier League start on Sunday in the 3-1 win at Sheffield United.
For Rodon it has been an experience to step up to the English top flight, with players such as four-time Champions League winner Bale and the prolific Kane.
“It is a dressing room full of stars and for me to come in and sit with them and learn from these players every day is only going to improve me as a player and I am just grateful to be a part of it,” he said.
“Obviously I have spent more time with Gareth as part of the national team. They [Bale and Kane] are both top professionals, and everybody knows that. We can see that on the training ground and, as you see, out on the pitch.
“It is not just them two, it is everybody – and it starts with the gaffer trying to bring a winning mentality to us all. We all want to give our best and do the job for the team.
“Gareth coming into the dressing room is going to have that much more experiences and Harry is going to win plenty of things. You bring that together, and we all want to be winners.”
While Bale has been struggling for minutes in the Premier League with a couple of injuries interrupting his early months back at Tottenham, Kane has been going from strength to strength.
Rodon was asked whether seeing Kane back in his own box, heading away set pieces, meant there was no excuse for any other Spurs players not to put the effort in.
“Of course. It goes back to what I said before, he is a top professional and a top player,” he said. “We all want to give our all and seeing him do that is only going to give us more motivation to do that as well. It was a great overall team performance [against Sheffield United].”
The Tottenham fans have a saying that when the year ends in one their club wins a trophy. That has not been the case for a while but Rodon was asked whether this could be the year the dry streak for silverware ends under Jose Mourinho.
“We will take each game as it comes,” said Rodon. “When the opportunity arises we will keep working as hard as possible and hopefully bring something to the table.”
(Football London)