Mauricio Pochettino has labelled Mousa Dembele a “genius” on more than one occasion and the Tottenham midfielder is smart enough not to let his manager’s praise get to his head.
Spurs boss Pochettino compared the Belgian midfielder to Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho last month, ranking Dembele among the best players he has ever worked with.
Dembele has gone some way to justifying those comparisons in recent months, most notably in a dominant display against Juventus in the Champions League round of 16.
“I'm very happy about this compliment,” Dembele said.
“It's a bit difficult to focus too much on that, because after all you have to perform every week and you need to be focused for the next game and if I will always think about this compliment it's not always good.
“But obviously it's a big compliment.”
Dembele is not the only Tottenham star set to feature for Belgium on Tuesday when they take on Saudi Arabia in a friendly.
Along with Jan Vertonghen will be his Spurs team-mate Toby Alderweireld, the subject of much transfer interest after talks of an extension stalled, leaving Tottenham mulling whether to cash in on a prize asset this summer.
Dembele was unsurprisingly reluctant to discuss his team-mate’s future.
“I think he's fit but for details I think it's better he speaks with you because it's difficult to talk about other players," he said.
“Obviously he's a very good player, a very important player. Here in the national team we have a lot of good players and at Tottenham as well we have a lot of good players, so it's always difficult to talk about.”
