Nacer's happy return

The upbeat atmosphere on the Hotspur Way pitches has made Nacer Chadli’s return from World Cup duty with Belgium a real breeze – although he confessed his demanding catch-up programme has been anything but!

The 25-year-old rejoined the group along with his fellow World Cup participants a fortnight ago after a short break following this summer’s tournament, and has swiftly got into the thick of the training action under new Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino.

While he admitted it’s been a demanding couple of weeks as he bids to catch up with our preparations for the new season, the attacking midfielder says he’s noticed a genuine sense of positivity around the Training Centre.

“We’re training hard because everybody had to be fit for the start of the season,” said Nacer, who played in four of Belgium’s five games in Brazil. “I’ve enjoyed it and the way we’re training has been good, although it’s been tough because the rest of the lads are physically more advanced and we’ve recently come back. But we will catch up and hopefully get where we need to be.”

After seeing us remain unbeaten throughout our pre-season campaign, Nacer believes the air of optimism is emanating not only from training but also from the way Mauricio has set his stall out in our warm-up games.

“Everybody is happy with how we’re playing so it’s looking very good and we can’t wait for the start of the season,” he added.

“I think it’s good to have a big game like West Ham away to begin with – hopefully we can start well and take confidence for the rest of the year.”