“I had to move on to progress as a player” – Spurs defender reveals why he left

Former Tottenham defender Luis Binks has revealed he decided to leave Spurs for Montreal Impact in order further his playing career.

Binks was a former Spurs Under-18 centre-back but in February he left for MLS side, Montreal Impact in a bid to push forward his future in the professional game (Transfermarkt).

In an interview with Mount Royal Soccer, the former academy player also revealed what it was like to have a one-on-one conversation with Jose Mourinho after informing the head coach of hos desire to leave the club leave the club.

Binks said: “Well, I went in there and sat down with the academy manager and some of the coaches with whom I’d worked most. They didn’t want me to leave and then they said, ‘OK, we’ll get the manager in here.’

“And obviously when I heard that it was a bit like, ‘Awwh, No’, because everybody knows what Mourinho’s like,”

“So to tell him you want to leave is not easy. And he came in saying if I carried on doing what I was doing I would be with the first-team, I’d go on pre-season with them and next season I might play a few cup games and be involved with the squad.”

“But I didn’t want to take that risk of maybe… I’d rather come and play men’s football be guaranteed to train with them every day, and hopefully, if I train well, I’ll play. So coming to Montreal was a better option for me, I felt.”

The 18-year-old had played on eight occasions for Spurs this season in the Premier League 2, but the youngster heavily criticised the academy standard for lacking exposure to men’s football.

Binks had been at Tottenham since the age of six but twelve years later he finds himself halfway around the world at Montreal – along with former Spur Victor Wanyama.

Wanyama made the move to the MLS side in March also and the youngster has insisted the midfielder is taking care of him in their new adventure (Transfermarkt).

“I trained with him [Wanyama] a few times, but I didn’t really know him, because obviously I was a young kid training and you keep yourself to yourself sort of thing. So I didn’t come across him too much, but since I’ve come here he’s looked after me a bit,” Binks added.

Spurs Web Opinion

It is always a shame to see young players leave as they feel they are unlikely to actually ever play for the first team. Especially in this case, Binks had been at Spurs for 12 years so it is disappointing that he felt he had to leave to get a chance at men’s football.

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