Timo Werner: “I thought straight away that it’s the perfect fit”
Tue 09 January 2024, 20:02|
Tottenham Hotspur
Timo Werner has already played and scored for two different clubs at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – but he says he can’t wait to do it in our colours after completing his loan move from RB Leipzig.
A star performer for the German side, including against us in our Champions League meeting in 2020, the forward subsequently spent a two-year spell in the Premier League with Chelsea before returning to Leipzig.
Now back in London once more, he has spoken about some of the things that enticed him to join Ange Postecoglou’s project here in N17 and set out his own targets as he prepares to write a second chapter in English football.
“First of all, I’m very happy to be here, I’ve joined a very, very big club, we have often played against each other already – it doesn’t matter if I was playing for Chelsea or Leipzig, they were always big, big games to play against Spurs – and now I’m happy to be part of the team at the Club and I’m really looking forward to it,” he said in his exclusive first interview with SPURSPLAY.
“A lot of things attracted me here – first of all, the talk with the manager. I thought it was a really good talk, he gave me straight away the feeling that I need to join a club, what I want to feel when you talk to a manager and also the tactics and the style, how he wants to play, how he lets the team play. For me I thought straight away that it fits perfectly. Then the stadium, to play there every game is something special and also the team, I think we have some very good players. All of it was very interesting to me.
“I hope that I can be the best player I can be here. The people who have followed me a little bit in the Premier League, they know that I can bring my speed, that I can be a threat for the opponents so that’s what I want to bring into the team and off the pitch I think I can be a funny guy and I hope that I can arrive well into the team and that they are happy with me and my personality.
“One-and-a-half years ago I left England, I watched the Premier League, not too much to follow every single club but Tottenham was always a club which I watched. When I joined my old club, I said I wanted to be a winner and I wanted to win titles at the end, and in the end we won the Champions League so I think it shouldn’t be too bad to say that I’ve come here to also win titles and to win something.”
Of course, we’ve seen first-hand what Timo can do in front of goal – he hit the back of the net for the first time on English shores against us in N17 for Leipzig and then bagged his first goal in English football in our home Carabao Cup clash with Chelsea in September, 2020, which we won on penalties. Naturally, he’s keen to score for us rather than against us now and believes his ability to play across the front three will be key.
“Also this was part of when I spoke to the manager, that it’s important for him and also for me that I can play every position up front,” he said. “It’s always good when you have some players that can play different positions, who can change in the game – I think it makes it even harder to defend for the other teams if they never know who is coming from this position now – so I think that’s one of my strengths, to be flexible up front and to play every position and that is a thing where I can also help the team.
“They were always very tight matches against Tottenham, especially in the Champions League when I played my first game here – I think it was my first game in England when (Leipzig) played in the new stadium. Straight away I loved it, it was really something special to play there, to score there and now that this stadium is my home is something really special and I hope to play there as I did when I was at other teams. It should be even more special to score for Spurs as the home team, and to have the whole crowd behind you when you score is even better. I’m really looking forward to the games.”
