Dembele never know support like Spurs fans

Mousa Dembele admits he has never received support like that of the Spurs fans and was surprised by his welcome after returning from a six-match ban.

The Belgian international missed the final two games of last season and the first four of this campaign after he appeared to gouge the eye of Diego Costa in the heated clash with Chelsea in May.

The hugely-influential midfielder returned at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday night in the Champions League when he came on as a half-time substitute against Monaco and he couldn’t believe the reception he received.

“It’s been a few months where I haven’t played for Tottenham so I’m delighted to be back,” said the 29-year-old.

“I’ve trained hard here but of course it’s never the same, you want to play games, you want to be involved so it’s not easy but I’m happy now and against Monaco I was happy that the fans really supported me and sung my name.

(Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

“That was amazing for me. I was very surprised, the whole stadium singing my name like that. I’ve never had it like that before. Last year as well, the fans sung my name a lot and I’m very proud of that and very happy.

“I’ve watched a lot games in the last few months and, of course, I’ve been doing a lot of training, more than normal I think, but it’s been good for me to make a similar kind of effort to what people do in a game.

“It’s just been like normal with my team-mates in training and at home as well with my family. For me it was okay, I’m very happy I’m back and we’ll work hard together now.”