An awful lot being asked of Tottenham ‘warrior’ and his confident teammate

 

The hype around Nabil Bentaleb and Benjamin Stambouli didn’t take long to grow. Schalke were looking for two strong midfielders and the German media are convinced they’ve found them.

That Bentaleb and Stambouli played together previously at Tottenham is seen as a huge bonus and there seems to be a growing assumption they can hit the ground running as a pair.

Bild go with a headline on Monday saying: ‘Two Schalke warriors against the Bayern curse’.

The idea is that Stambouli and Bentaleb will be crucial to helping Schalke overturn Bayern. The match is on Friday and it’s surely asking a lot of the pair.

Stambouli was deemed surplus to requirements at PSG, and left on a permanent transfer, and Bentaleb completely dropped out of the picture at Tottenham, and has moved on a loan deal.

To expect the pair to be able to overturn Bayern on Friday is perhaps a little too much, but this is football and anything can happen.

Stambouli certainly sounds confident, with Bild quoting the player as saying: “I have the quality to be the leader. I am a character who can organise and conduct.”