Mido: ‘One of my biggest mistakes was to leave Spurs’

Our former striker Mido fondly recalled his time at the club and relationship with the fans during a trip to Wembley on Saturday.

Speaking ahead of our 3-1 victory against Fulham, the Egyptian reminisced about his two-and-a-half years in north London between 2005 and 2007, a stint that he revealed would have lasted longer had he had his time over again.

“I had some great days and made great friends,” said Mido, who scored 19 times in 61 appearances for us. “It was an honour to play for Tottenham. I wish I had stayed (longer). One of the biggest mistakes throughout my career was to decide to leave. Tottenham is a great club and I’m still a great fan. I follow every game and I’m very glad we’re doing well.”

Signed, initially on loan, from Roma in January, 2005, Mido became an instant hero by scoring twice on his debut against Portsmouth and he struck up an immediate rapport with the Spurs supporters.

“The fans have always been great to me, since day one,” said the 35-year-old. “I was lucky that I started well – my first game, two goals. I remember I played for an hour. I wasn’t 100 per cent fit because for two or three months before that I wasn’t playing regularly for Roma.

“I just enjoyed it. The lads helped me in my first couple of days to get used to the way we wanted to play and (manager) Martin Jol helped me a lot. It’s important to start well when you go to a new club and for me, it was a great start.”

We had a wealth of striking options at the time Mido, then just 21, joined the club but the former Gent, Ajax and Marseille forward revelled in the competition for places.

“We had great strikers,” he said. “It was amazing to play with Jermain Defoe, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov. I played with Fredi Kanoute as well. We played with two strikers back then under Martin Jol. He always liked the 4-4-2 system. It was great to play with those players – great players.”

Mido left us for Middlesbrough in the summer of 2007 but, since retiring from playing in 2013, he’s learned that life is equally tough as a manager, having had spells in charge of his first club Zamalek (twice), Ismaily and Wadi Degla back in his home country.

“I’m calmer now but you don’t want to upset me!” said the famously feisty forward. “When you are a manager, you are responsible for everyone, your staff, your players, the whole football club sometimes. You need to be calm to make the right decisions. I was lucky I started the job early and I’ve learned a lot through the jobs I’ve had already. It’s so much pressure but once you get into coaching, you can’t get out of it. But I love the pressure – I enjoy it.”

A return to management may well be his next career move but Mido wants to be more prepared if he steps back into the hot seat: “I’m doing a Masters in Football Coaching Development at South Wales University,” he explained. “I’ve done my coaching badges, the C, B and A in Wales, and I’m enjoying coaching and my TV work. When I retired I started to do some TV work but then I got thrust into management work straight away.

“I managed Zamalek, one of the biggest clubs in Africa, and we won the Egyptian Cup, then (I managed) two other teams. Now I’m studying and looking forward to my next step, watching a lot of games, trying to meet a lot of managers, trying to learn. I want to be readier before taking my next step.”