New Inter midfielder Christian Eriksen has spoken out about his final year at Tottenham and his desire to win trophies, and neither of those topics make for particularly easy reading for Spurs fans.
In an interview with BBC Sport, the 27-year-old said he felt like he was often made a scapegoat after announcing he would depart at the end of the season upon the expiration of his contract.
“If you have a short contract, you will be the black sheep,” Eriksen said, then discussing an “honest” interview given after the Champions League final where he first mentioned the possibility of leaving after the following season. “I did get the blame for a lot of stuff, for being the bad guy. I read I was the bad person in the changing room, that ever since I said I wanted to leave, it was no good me being there. To be honest, over the last few years, if anything came up, any player would think about leaving but I was the guy who said it publicly.”
Eriksen praised Jose Mourinho for allowing him to continue playing despite his situation, and said that it was not definite he would depart this winter until talks with Inter became more serious.
Then, speaking with Sky Italy, Eriksen blasted Spurs for the club’s inability to win trophies, coming closest during last summer’s Champions League final, in which the club fell to Liverpool. Eriksen seems to believe Tottenham wouldn’t come that close again.
“There’s a big chance of winning a trophy here or a bigger chance than where I was of course,” Eriksen told Sky Italy. “The Champions League final was a very bad day, we lost which you don’t want to remember. I’m here to win and start something new. The last time I won something was at Ajax so it’s many years ago. I still remember the feeling so I want to achieve it here as well.”
At Ajax, Eriksen was a three-time Dutch league champion and won the KNVB Bekker once as well. Inter is currently three points back of Juventus in a race for the Serie A title and has reached the Coppa Italia semifinals, while the club has fallen out of the Champions League and will take on Russian side Ludogorets in the Europa League later this month. Overall, Inter has not won a trophy since its 2010/11 Coppa Italia win, the season after winning its last Serie A title.