Steven Bergwijn has given a very revealing interview about his time at Spurs and what made him leave the club for Ajax.
Bergwijn moved to Ajax earlier this month in a deal worth £26m becoming the first big-name player to be sold by Spurs in what has been a hectic transfer window for Spurs.
The Dutchman who only made 4 appearances for Spurs last season has now revealed that Antonio Conte’s broken promise forced him to push for an exit. While speaking to Algemeen Dagblad, he said:
“When he told the media during the winter break that I was going to be important and he didn’t want me to go to Ajax, I thought: OK, this is not the time to argue. Let’s see if it changes.
“You work hard and fill in well, but you always get three or four minutes of playing time. That’s not what I was waiting for. It was very frustrating. I had no connection with Conte. I think we only had one conversation after the last practice of the season. I then went to the director and said: Listen, I’m not coming back. We’re going to find a solution. I just want to leave.”
Bergwijn also revealed Conte’s reaction to his decision: “He (Conte) said ‘Sorry that I didn’t let you play much. We had no cup matches and I really wanted to finish fourth to make it to the Champions League’.
“He chose Harry Kane in the striker’s box. I understood that, but I could also play in other positions. I just didn’t want to get into a ‘yes-no’ situation anymore.”
Bergwijn’s frustration is understandable considering he only played 28 minutes of Premier League football over seven appearances. Antonio Conte tends to prefer wing-backs over traditional wingers such as the Dutchman which is perhaps why he didn’t view the Dutchman as someone who would fit his system. With a move now to Ajax, his city of birth, hopefully, he can find his form again.
They are PL numbers only
I don’t think he was a bad egg, just not the right player for us and probably not as good as he rates himself. Who knows, with regular games he might come good.
Plastic gangster, and not as good as he thinks he is. Jose needed a striker and Levy bought him Bergwjin. Conte needed a top wingback and Levy got him Spence…
Moura’s Spurs career revolves around one night in Amsterdam. He didn’t play in the final because lightning doesn’t strike twice, he came in early second half did nothing and has continued to produce nothing of any significance since. I like him, but he’s just not very good. He was only at PSG because he was a reliable room-mate for Neymar…
Managers use what they’re given, Moura is a good lad who gives 100% so any manager would make use of him sometimes if he’s there. If he was that good he’d play more…
Neither Moura or Bergwjin have ever improved us when they’ve been on the pitch. Moura might be a good sort but he’s nowhere near good enough, with zero end product. Bergwjin wasn’t any better, just two substandard forwards, one of which is happy to warm the bench and help out when he can and the other wanted out. I’d sell Moura while we might still get a reasonable fee…
Stevie B wasn’t good enough, it’s that simple.
Once Stevie B got in the side Moura featured very little. Moura clocked a lot of that game time up in the cups etc earlier in the season. He sat on the bench for most of the run in.
It isn’t nonsense, he played under 2500 PL minutes is his entire Spurs career and got 7 goals and 5 assists.
In total he played 3556 minutes across all competitions and has 8 goals and 10 assists. An involvement every 198 mins.
Considering how bitty his time was in the side, that stands up pretty well.
For context Moura has played 11666 minutes for us and has 27 goals and 12 assists. An involvement every 238 mins.
I forgot another performance around the time of Leicester – the West Ham cup game. Scored one, set one up.
Conte isn’t perfect, he makes odd decisions sometime.
Nonsense. I watched him play loads and against sub par opposition.
83 appearences and he achieved 8 goals and 5 assists.. Nowhere near good enough because most of his minutes were in the ropey or conference league or cup games. He couldn’t produce against lesser teams.
He actually played very little in the premier league, because of the reasons I just stated above. Not good enough and couldn’t be trusted…
Mourinho preferred Moura and so did Conte.. Two of the greatest managers of this generation can’t be wrong.
It reads like a different -ist altogether. Do better, people
Read the very first sentence of my original post.
Conte got us 4th, yes, that is great. Back him all the way. He doesn’t fancy Bergwijn, and we have sold him. Absolutely fine by me.
However, you can have the above views and still think he treated Bergwijn shoddily. Don’t forget it we were relying on Arsenal to melt, partly down to drab games v Wolves, Saints, Brighton, and Brentford. We failed to score in three of them, and had Bergwijn who was hot for Netherlands
Bergwijn actually played very little football for us, and had a couple of really unfortunate injuries timing-wise. He is a much better playe than Moura in my opinion, and we’ll see that.
We know what we get from Moura, and it is not very good. Not bad, but we know the ceiling. Which made his inclusion all the more frustrating as Wolves and Saints put us to the sword at home.
Bergwijn was not the game changer you seem to think he was. So what if we lost to Wolves and Southampton. Doesn’t mean a bluudy thing. Conte got us 4th place, that is the long and short of it.
Exactly right man.
Moura is the better player, that’s why all three managers played him more than Stevie Burgers for us.. Moura can defend and play in multiple positions. He never whines or moans. He always fights. He’s a team player… Chalk and cheese players and attitudes.
When KoolioJetSki came in then Burgers was doomed.. This isn’t shocking, it’s standard how football teams are run.
Koolio scored more goals and assists in his first 7 games than Stevie B managed in his whole 3 year spurs career.
Everyone keeps remembering the one Leicester match and forgetting the rest of the three years where he achieved very little.
Well that particular decision coincided with home defeats to Saints and Wolves. Probably the point everyone was wetting their drawers
Not sure where you get your figures from
Moura:
19 starts + 15 as sub.
1774 min total.
Bergwijn:
4 starts + 21 as sub
551 min total.
I never particularly rated Stevie B, running fast and getting shots away reminded me of Townsend and that other wildly overrated Englishman Wallcott. Good in flashes but lacking quality for the top level…
‘Shocking’? He played more than Moura did last season, and Moura’s still at the club!
Conte got us 4th place with his decisions which tells me that he was right. That will do for me.
We can’t really argue with what Conte has done, but his treatment of Bergwijn was shocking. He won us the game at Leicester, was our best player in the woeful game v Chelsea after, then got absolutely cold-shouldered for Moura before Kulu established himself.
I get he wasn’t first choice, but he should have been the first go-to.
I am stretching here but I am sure he had a golden spell under Jose I remember him covering the flank brilliantly but like someone said I still shudder at the miss at Bindip FC.
For me and I know this will upset many posters I would rather have kept him than the hero of Amsterdam who promises much but delivers little.
I have no problem with Bergwijn’s remarks. I think Conte did want him to stay, ideally, because he has that additional element of pace and he can score goals, which is ideal for an ‘impact sub’. However, looking at it from the boy’s point of view, he just wanted to play. He’s ambitious, he is performing very well for Holland and clearly he doesn’t want to sit warming the bench. Fair enough, best of luck to him and we move on.
There is probably some truth in that, just look at Rodon. He’s always been steady for Wales alongside Ben Davis and he’s always been ready when called for with us, yet he’s not had any run of games either.
Gang signs….
Some of the classist remarks I read on these comments are astounding.
Why do you think Stevie cares about Spurs fans goodwill? He’s gone mate, he’s not our player anymore. The guy was in fine form for his country, scored crucial goals for us in that 28min he was granted. Without his double against Leicester, we probably wouldn’t be in the CL, and without CL would have seen Conte walk He wasn’t clinical enough pre Conte, and once Tony arrived didn’t fit the system. Good luck to him, he was never lazy and didn’t cause problems.
He’s really starting to chisel away at the fan’s goodwill with the constant sniping…he needs to shut up now and show everyone what he’s made of! Outside of those couple of games with goals, and the indelible memory away to Leicester, I can certainly remember screaming at him for some terrible finishing, especially against Liverpool where he cost us all 3 points. Just spare us the “step up nonsense” as I won’t go as far as to call him a flop, but leaving the Prem for the Eredivisie!
Good luck at Ajax, hopefully, you’ll be throwing up your gang signs a-plenty and if all goes well they’ll be selling you for a 300-400% profit in a few years, as usual.