Great Dane Eriksen set for a show of strength

CHELSEA will probably know by now that they called it wrong. They were on trial as much as Christian Eriksen when one of Europe’s most-hyped young talents turned up in Cobham as a 14-year-old for the first of two visits. It might just sting Jose Mourinho tomorrow that neither side quite fancied the other, Chelsea thinking the boy ‘too weak’, to quote the player’s father, and Eriksen himself ruling that the club’s academy set-up was not as embracing or enticing as that what was offered by Ajax. What an intriguing quirk of fate that scrawny Eriksen grew into a player more than capable of dictating how this Capital One Cup Final will be won. ‘England was not my first choice at that age,’ Eriksen admitted this week, recalling the trips from Odense to London, first at 14 and then 15 for games against Millwall and West Ham. ‘I enjoyed myself but it was too big a step at that time. In England you can’t enter the training ground without permission, whereas in Denmark you are free to go in. ‘Ajax was a lot closer to home and it meant my mum could come over for my first month. It was an easy decision.’ He signed for Ajax at 16 and joined Tottenham as an £11million player in 2013. In the wider scheme of the club’s spending in recent years, he might just be the best of the lot. He is the playmaker in the tight spaces, an attacking midfielder with enough sense of purpose that he has scored 16 goals in 51 Premier League games. As Spurs flopped out of Europe on Thursday, Eriksen still managed to look good. If Harry Kane is to follow Eriksen in succeeding in a second season, he will need some of the latter’s resistance to expectations. The challenge now is for Tottenham’s two leading outfield forces to take on a fresher, stronger Chelsea side. The 5-3 home win over Mourinho’s side in January is still fresh in the mind. ‘We showed that we can beat them,’ said Eriksen.