Bentaleb’s keen to reward Spurs fans after signing new five-year contract

The 20-year-old Algeria international’s representatives had been in negotiations with Spurs’ hierarchy for around 10 months, since September, and his future appeared to be in doubt when he voiced his frustrations in an interview early last month.

But the midfielder put pen to paper on Monday, and he is keen to continue developing, while seeing a similar improvement with Spurs as a team.

“I’m really happy to commit myself to the club until 2020,” he told the club’s website. “It’s a good achievement for me, I’ve been working hard to get a contract like this and I’m pleased.

“You can see how much it means to me by [the fact I’ve signed] a five-year contract and how I fight every day on the pitch. No matter if you sign or not it’s [about] what you give on the pitch.

“You have to fight all the time and you have to improve all the time, otherwise for me I take this as a failure.

“We have a young team and we all want to learn but this season we have to show something to the fans.

“Last season we finished fifth. It’s a platform, we have to do better now, we have to go and achieve things, to thank the fans that were behind us for the whole season. Now it’s time for them to get rewarded.

“Grabbing onto the fourth place could be one of the best things of the season, and obviously we’re playing in the Europa League.

“No matter what competition we will play in we can be sure that we will give 100 per cent and we will want to win, to lift up a trophy this season.”

Another young midfielder, Harry Winks, has also committed his future to Spurs, signing a three-year contract with the option for a further year.

The 19-year-old appeared off the bench to make his first-team debut against Partizan Belgrade in the Europa League in November.

He said: “For me, it’s just about taking it a step at a time, month by month. It’s fantastic to sign a new contract now, but I’ve still got a long way to go.”