How relentless Bentancur is striving for more at Spurs

Rodrigo Bentancur is in the middle of answering a question about his swift adaptation to life at Tottenham but the sound of banging, growing louder and louder as he talks, is making it increasingly difficult for the Uruguay midfielder to concentrate.

Overhead, outside the first-floor canteen at the club’s Hotspur Way headquarters, a grinning Heung-Min Son is thumping his palms against a glass window, his laughter reciprocated by Bentancur as he succeeds in distracting his team-mate mid-interview.

“A fantastic player and a great person,” Bentancur tells Sky Sports of Son, still smiling. “To be his team-mate is an honour, above all because of his personality. We enjoy ourselves every day.”

Bentancur and Son communicate in a mixture of languages – “some English, and he has learnt a bit of Spanish too,” he says – but their friendship shows precisely what he has just been talking about.

Bentancur has only been a Spurs player for nine months, the midfielder joining from Juventus for ?20m on the final day of the January transfer window, but he is already a popular figure among team-mates and fans alike and it is clear he feels right at home.