Ben: “I want to take every chance I get”

Ben Davies is not standing still on the back of his best season in a Spurs shirt.

The Welsh defender, 25, made 38 appearances in all competitions in 2017/18 including a personal best 26 starts in the Premier League.

He also weighed in with two goals and six assists as we finished third in the Premier League, qualifying again for the Champions League.

Yet like his team-mates, Ben, who joined us from Swansea ahead of the 2014/15 season, is just focusing on progression and improvement.

Asked about his target for 2018/19, he told us: “I just want to play as many games as I can and try to perform well in the Premier League, Champions League and take every chance I get.

“We all want to progress and take the Club forward.

“As I've said before, you can’t rest on what you’ve done at this Club. It’s all about trying to improve and going one step further as a team. As a group, we’re all working hard.”

Ben is now up to 31 days of pre-season having returned on July 9.

As you’d expect, he’s counting the hours to our Premier League opener at Newcastle on Saturday (12.30pm) – where he’d love to turn the clock back a year!

Ben was on target as we visited ‘the Toon’ on day one last season – 13 August, 2017 – and came away with a hard-earned 2-0 victory.

“That was the ideal way to get last season started and if we can get another good result and I have another good game, I’ll be delighted,” he added.

“I can’t wait to get going. We’ve got a settled squad and hopefully we’ll pick up where we left off last season and start well.”

Indeed, we won 14 of our last 20 league games of 2017/18, losing only twice.

Meanwhile, as the nine players who reached the semi-finals of the World Cup returned to training this week, Ben took time to praise the youngsters who joined the seniors on our USA Tour, performing admirably against AS Roma, Barcelona and AC Milan.

“They’ve stepped up and they’ve been an absolute credit,” said Ben, who now has over 200 career appearances to his name, plus 39 caps for Wales.

“It was an unbelievable experience for the players who have played a lot of games, let alone for these younger lads who had a first real opportunity to play in the first team.

“They all stood up to the challenge and performed as we expected them to - they are all good players. We’re proud of them.”