Lamela: 'I love my life... and I can now help the young players'

As he embarks on his seventh season as a Spur, Erik Lamela is as enthusiastic as ever – and ready to help the next generation of players step into the fold.

Having made the move to north London from Italian side Roma back in the summer of 2013, ‘Coco’ is now one of our longest-serving stars.

In his six years here, he’s made 184 appearances and chipped in with 29 goals, in spite of his fair share of injury problems.

Now back at Hotspur Way and getting stuck into pre-season training once again, the 27-year-old is feeling positive about the challenges that lie ahead, both on and off the pitch.

“I feel good, I’m training with the team and preparing for a good pre-season,” he said. “I find my own motivation. I always like training and when I no longer like it, that will be the moment I start to worry.

“I like to come here to train, to work, to see my team-mates. I’m happy for this, I love my life and I love football, I really enjoy it. Pre-season is still tough though! It’s the difficult part of the season. We train a lot and we’re still not competing yet. I like to compete.”

It was put to the Argentine international that his six years at the Club have flown by.

Does it feel like that amount of time? “I don’t know. Honestly, no, because in the middle I had a lot of problems with injuries. I think I lost two seasons,” he admitted. “It’s incredible really. Time passes so quickly! It’s a long time. It’s true a lot of things happened in the middle (of that time) but that’s life. It happens here, it would happen in another place. The important thing now is I feel good and I’m looking forward to the new season. I’ve forgotten about the past. What has happened has happened. I’m ready to go again.”

Naturally, with young stars from our Academy always striving to improve and earn a chance to work with the first team, people start to look to the ‘old guard’ for guidance. Erik is happy to be in the latter category and relishes what he sees as some extra responsibility.

“I don’t feel old! But it’s true, after many years here, I am one who will now help the younger players, pushing them in a good way to help the team because the team is better if everyone is good on the pitch,” he added.

“The games on tour this month will be important to test us. We are training hard and we will be ready for the big matches coming, important matches to help the young players training with us.”