Martin Jol has played down talk of teenage winger Aaron Lennon making
Sven-Goran Eriksson's squad for the World Cup finals in Germany.
Youngster Lennon stole the show in Tottenham's 2-0 away victory against
Manchester City on Wednesday night as goals from Mido and Robbie Keane cemented
fourth place in the Barclays Premiership.
Lennon gave former Tottenham left-back Ben Thatcher a torrid time before going
off with a slight knock in the closing stages of a comfortable victory.
But Jol was quick to knock back any suggestion that, on his current form,
Lennon is capable of breaking into the senior squad, pointing out that Chelsea's
Shaun Wright-Phillips was in pole position for the right-wing role.
"Aaron has only just turned 18," Jol said. "He is a young player and I
always tell him if he performs we will do well because he is probably the only
wide player, along with Wayne Routledge, we have.
"If he doesn't play we must use a different style. I always prefer to play
him and against City he showed why.
"I played him in all the big games; Arsenal, Man Utd, Bolton. He had to learn
a bit. Sometimes he is a bit anonymous. Against City he was a personality. That
is what I like. He will be a big player in the future.
"We shouldn't get carried away by talking about the World Cup for Aaron. We
have players like Shaun Wright-Phillips. Aaron is 18. Let him first play in the
Under-21s. If he is doing well, you can always have a second thought."
The one downside for Jol was City substitute David Sommeil's tackle on Lee
Young-Pyo.
Lee was taken off on a stretcher after Sommeil's lunge but the City defender
escaped any form of punishment from referee Alan Wiley.
Lee is likely to be out for around two weeks and the Football Association will
await Wiley's report before deciding to take any action against the City
defender.
Wiley appeared to miss the incident entirely as he ran to dish out a yellow
card to Spurs midfielder Michael Brown for his challenge on Joey Barton.
"I can understand why the referee missed it because he was focused on the
first tackle," added Jol. "My only problem is that Lee has bad bruising on his
knee and will probably be out for a couple of weeks."
Pearce said he would reprimand the defender once he had assessed the
incident.
"I only saw it once in real time and didn't have a good view," he said.
"But if it was a poor tackle I will have a chat with the player and tell him it
is unacceptable."
Mido's opening goal, courtesy of some persistent play by Lennon, took his
tally to six in the last nine games but he will be absent from their trip to
play Leicester in the FA Cup on Sunday.
He will return for the Premiership clash with Liverpool at Anfield but will
then leave for the duration of Egypt's participation in the African Nations
Cup.
Jol is likely to call upon Grzegorz Rasiak as his replacement on Sunday but
the club have been linked with a move for French striker Nicolas Anelka,
currently enduring an unhappy spell with Turkish side Fenerbahce.
Jol said: "Mido has scored six goals in nine games. He works hard, he is
influential. Luckily we are not the only team in this situation. He is pretty
important for the team.
"I know roughly how I am going to replace him. Jermain Defoe is not a bad
player to have."
Mido added: "It is not easy when you travel a lot but I have no choice, I
have to be with my country and it is my duty.
"At the same time I don't want to leave the team here and I will do
everything I can in the games I can play.
"It is a big tournament for us, especially because we failed to qualify for
the World Cup. The people there are dreaming of winning the African Nations and
Egypt are one of the favourites to do it.
"We have won it before on four occasions and now we are playing at home we
will do well again, I'm sure."
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook