Bentley driven by passion for Spurs

The £17million signing from Blackburn was unveiled at a press conference this morning and revealed he had been desperate to join the team he supported as a boy all summer.

And, with the possibility of Russians Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko also moving to White Hart Lane before the start of the new campaign, the 23-year-old winger is confident there are good times ahead.

He said: "We can do anything we want and anything we put our minds to. A great manager [Juande Ramos] has come in and everybody has seen what he did last year.

"The fitness and the level of play at Tottenham has risen and I wanted to be a part of that. This season we will keep progressing and keep doing well.

"Can we finish in the top four? Of course. There are young, talented players here and it is all there for us.

"If we work hard and give it our all, we can do it. It will be difficult but if we are all up for it then it is possible."

Bentley has signed a six-year contract and will move from Ewood Park for an initial £15m that will rise a further £2m on appearances.

He added: "It will be up to me to perform. If they know I am running my socks off for the team and performing, hopefully they [the fans] will love me. Every player wants to be loved by their club and I'm no different.

"Joining Tottenham means the world to me. They were the first club I used to watch as a kid and Gazza was my favourite player. All my mates are big Tottenham fans, all season ticket holders.

"There is a piece of my heart at this club and as soon as I knew they were interested in me that was it. I didn't think they were interested in me to be honest but once they came in there was nowhere else I wanted to go."

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger used Bentley only nine times in the League as a teenager, though the Gunners will pocket a hefty slice of the Rovers cash through a sell-on clause, but the winger has no regrets about his time there.

He said: "That's in the past, we met at different times in my career. I was at a point where I wanted to play and at the time they were the Invincibles.

"It was very difficult for me and very different to what it is now.

"I'm not someone who plays for money, I just love the game and, at that point in my career, I just wanted to play football."

Ramos believes he has signed a player with "exquisite touch" but refused to elaborate on who else would be replacing Robbie Keane (Liverpool) and Dimitar Berbatov (probably to Manchester United) out of the exit door at White Hart Lane.

He said: "I only speak about players in my own squad to those at other clubs. Something similar happened with ourselves last month so I am not talking about all that."

Not that Spurs are missing Keane and Berbatov in their pre-season preparations.

After scoring four goals in the win over Norwich City, Darren Bent hit another hat-trick last night as Tottenham beat Leyton Orient 5-1.