Gabriel Agbonlahor believes Tottenham Hotspur will be “buzzing” that they are no longer part of the Europa Conference League “shambles”.
Spurs finished seventh in the Premier League last season. This earned them a spot in the newly created Europa Conference League.
After beating Pacos de Ferreira in the qualifying round, they were drawn to face Rennes, Vitesse and Mura in the group stages.
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After five games, they had seven points. They were due to face French side Rennes in their final group game.
This was scheduled for December 9 but it had to be postponed after there was a Covid outbreak at Tottenham.
It was announced on Monday that this game has been deemed a forfeit, which sees Spurs lose 3-0. The English side have subsequently been eliminated from the Conference League.
Agbonlahor has told Football Insider that he believes “everyone associated with Spurs will be happy” to be out of the competition:
“I think they will be buzzing deep down, it’s a shambles of a competition,” Agbonlahor said
“They’ll be happy to be out of it. It’s the sort of competition, if I was a Villa player and we had to play in it, I wouldn’t be happy to play in it.
“It doesn’t even count as Europe, to be honest. The Europa League is the cut-off point.
“It’s the third-rated competition. For me, I wouldn’t want to play in it.
“Deep down, especially the players, they will be buzzing. No more Thursday trips in a shambles competition, no more of the Thursday-Sunday games.
“Everyone associated with Spurs will be happy, to be honest.”
Elsewhere, Conte has backed Eric Dier to become one of the world’s best defenders:
“Eric Dier can become one of the best players in the world in that position.
“For sure he needs to work and continue to improve and understand the movement with the defensive line.
“He has to lead more, because in that position you have to speak a lot because you have to stay in the middle, at the back where you can see everything.
“He has a great space for improvement but we are talking about a really good player, strong physically with a good personality and good technically because he was a midfielder.
“This role is perfect for him. He has to continue this way because he can become one of the best central defenders.”
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