Lamela never wanted to leave

From the second it was clear that Erik Lamela wasn't going to arrive in England firing on all cylinders every rumor website from Manchester to Sicily linked him with moves back to Serie A. However, in a recent interview, the Argentine discussed how he never seriously considered leaving.

"Last year I arrived to the club when the season had already started, I expected to play but never happened. They are decisions of the coach. And then I had an injury that left me almost out half of the season,"

"I never thought about leaving the club. There were many talks  in December and at the end of the season because I wasn't playing but I knew that should I am he physically fit I am going to have many chances to play. Today I am playing but I still have to keep working."

"[Having a compatriot like] Pochettino has helped me but he will select the better players and we have to fight for a place in the line-up. I was the one who tried to overcome the situation. I worked hard during the summer holidays, trying to arrive fit to the pre-season and today I fell really well."

These shouldn't be particularly surprising quotes. Lamela had the difficulty of arriving after the year started, dealing with a coach who might not have liked him, and was coping with what turned into a season ending injury. Given how long Tottenham stuck with players like David Bentley, it would be strange for the club to give up on a player with so much promise unless he was lighting his bridges on fire with napalm.

That said, it is nice to see that for all his difficulties, Erik didn't want to leave and was committed to sticking around at Tottenham. Spurs showed a lot of faith in him, not just in paying his transfer fee, but in giving him Gareth Bale's number straight away. Even if he didn't like it here, he should realize that he will probably never get a better chance to put himself in the shop window than he will have at Spurs.

Not that this will matter, because Erik loves us and is going to become a super star with Tottenham and never leave and we'll have Chas and Dave songs written about him wearing guyliner and hoisting trophies.