Tottenham: Kevin Danso relishing challenge after Spurs welcome back key duo | OneFootball

Competition for places at Spurs is set to increase following a double boost

Kevin Danso helped ease Tottenham’s defensive crisis in the January transfer window

Getty Images

Your matchday briefing on Tottenham, featuring team news and expert analysis from Dan Kilpatrick

Sign up

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Tottenham centre-half Kevin Danso says he is relishing the challenge of competing with fit-again teammates Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, and says playing alongside "great players" is part of the reason he wanted to join the club.

But van de Ven and Romero are both back in the squad for the Europa League last-16 first leg against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.

"I've always had to compete in my life, and I thrive off that challenge, playing alongside great players, competing for places with great players, and just being at an amazing club whose ambition is to win things and just to be part of the history of a club like Tottenham," Danso said.

"We all know what they [van de Ven and Romero] have achieved at Tottenham so far and how good they are. I am looking forward to that challenge.

"I'm going to push them, they're going to push me, and I think a season is very long: there's many competitions, there's a lot of games, so it's about keeping each other on the highest level possible to compete in every competition we're in, and just try to win every game and make sure that we're always on form."

With Davies still working his way back to fitness and head coach Ange Postecoglou saying he had not decided if van de Ven and Romero were ready to start against Alkmaar, Danso be partnered by Gray, 18, again in the Netherlands.

"He's unbelievable, the fact that he's 18, the maturity he plays with, the maturity with which he carries himself in the dressing room, it's amazing, he's a great lad and his quality has been on show for many weeks now," Danso said of Gray.

"I think he's just going to keep improving, because he's only 18 and to already have that maturity in the way he plays football, and off the pitch, it's something that's going to take him a long way."

Kevin Danso has impressed since arriving from Lens

John Walton/PA Wire

Danso had agreed to a medical at Wolves before Spurs' interest turned his head on the penultimate day of the transfer window.

He revealed a conversation with Ange Postecoglou was the clincher, and has targeted winning the Europa League this season.

"When a club like Spurs comes knocking, it’s something that I don’t think a lot of people would turn down," he said. "Certainly not me. That’s why I am here today.

"It didn’t take much for me to be honest. But [my conversation with Postecoglou] was really short and sweet - he just quickly gave me an insight about the idea of how he wants to play. It was very brief and he just told me the idea of what his team stands for. After that I was 100 per cent sure."

Danso added: "We take every game as an important one and go out to try and win every time. We’re only in the Europa League now and we’re going to go out and try and win. We want to win the competition of course because we want to be part of a Spurs team that is winning things.

"The pressure is normal and you have to deal with that at all big clubs - it'’s down to us to bring a good performance and win the game."