The wider football world finally seems to have recognised just how exceptional Micky van de Ven has been for Tottenham this season. His stunning goal-line clearance in the Europa League final looked impossible to surpass, yet his Champions League strike against Copenhagen may have done exactly that.<\/p>\n
The Dutch defender has been vital for Spurs throughout the campaign, even wearing the captain\u2019s armband during Cristian Romero\u2019s injury spell. He is also the club\u2019s leading scorer, netting six goals across all competitions.<\/p>\n
Khalid Boulahrouz urges Liverpool to target Micky van de Ven<\/p>\n
Former Chelsea defender Khalid Boulahrouz has been blown away by van de Ven\u2019s performances and believes he is the perfect long-term replacement for Virgil van Dijk at Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Boulahrouz described the Spurs star as the \u201cideal successor\u201d to van Dijk\u2014both for the Dutch national team and the Premier League champions.<\/p>\n
Speaking to ESPN NL, he said:
\n\u201cVan de Ven really stands out. He\u2019s physically powerful and extremely quick. Opponents are aware of that, so they barely even try to beat him anymore. He could improve a bit on the ball; he makes the odd mistake. But overall, he\u2019s fantastic. I see him as the ideal successor to Virgil van Dijk for both the Netherlands and Liverpool.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big question is what Virgil will do after the World Cup. Years in the Premier League take a toll, and players eventually start thinking about easing off. And Liverpool aren\u2019t foolish\u2014if you want a world-class left-sided defender and have the money, you end up looking at van de Ven.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same applies to the Dutch national team. I think Ronald Koeman already knows van Dijk\u2019s replacement is right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool may move sooner rather than later<\/p>\n
Van Dijk\u2019s contract extension keeps him at Liverpool until 2027, and he is still regarded as the club\u2019s top centre-back ahead of Ibrahima Konat\u00e9. That might delay any immediate move, although Liverpool could shift Van Dijk to the right side, creating room for van de Ven to partner him.<\/p>\n
Regardless of Liverpool\u2019s intentions, interest in van de Ven is inevitable. Tottenham must act quickly and secure him to a long-term deal, as he is far too valuable to risk losing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The wider football world finally seems to have recognised just how exceptional Micky van de Ven has been for Tottenham this season. His stunning goal-line clearance in the Europa League final looked impossible to surpass, yet his Champions League strike against Copenhagen may have done exactly that. The Dutch defender has been vital for Spurs …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/micky-van-de-ven-342321-750x500-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54603,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54598\/revisions\/54603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}