Tottenham FA Cup win would spark golden era of success, says Jan Vertonghen

Jan Vertonghen is confident more silverware will quickly follow if Tottenham can end a decade-long trophy drought by winning the FA Cup.

Spurs would take a significant step towards a first trophy since the 2008 League Cup by beating Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final. The Londoners have not won the competition since 1991 and they have lost their past seven semi-finals — the longest such run in FA Cup history.

Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham manager, has repeatedly talked down the FA Cup’s importance, insisting winning the competition will not change the club or teach his players how to be winners.

But Vertonghen was also part of a promising young team at Ajax and his first trophy, the 2007 Dutch Cup, was quickly followed by a second in 2010 before back-to-back league titles in 2011 and 2012. The Belgian centre-half believes Spurs will quickly win more silverware if they can break their duck under Pochettino this season.

“Everyone at the club is looking forward to games like Saturday and being in finals,” Vertonghen told Standard Sport. “I’ve been here a long time and this is definitely the best team I’ve played in at Tottenham.

“This team and club deserve a trophy for all the work we’ve put in and we hope Saturday can be the next step.

“Everyone always says, ‘What do you need to win trophies?’ But when I won my first, the next couple followed at a quick tempo. You just need that belief you can do it and then they will come. We’re full of confidence that we can.”

Spurs go into Saturday’s match on the back of two disappointing results, after last night’s 1-1 draw at Brighton followed the home defeat by Manchester City on Saturday.

Vertonghen says the squad will not dwell on the frustrating draw on the south coast and believes playing United at Wembley, Spurs’ temporary home for the season, can only be a positive.

“Obviously I’m still dealing with the disappointment from last night, so it’s hard to look forward to Saturday but we’ll change that from today,” he said.

“United are a big team and they’ll do everything to win a trophy. It’s funny it’s at Wembley — it’s definitely not a disadvantage. We’re used to it now but the atmosphere will be different because United will bring more supporters than usual.

“But we feel very comfortable at Wembley, we’ve shown that over the last couple of months — not against City, but before that.

“We have to approach the game like we do in the League. In games at Wembley, we want to dominate, we want to entertain and play in a positive way. Hopefully we have the same game as at the beginning of this year when we beat United [2-0] in a very positive way.”

Vertonghen will be tasked with stopping his friend and Belgium team-mate Romelu Lukaku on Saturday.

He said: “Romelu is a great striker. He’s done very well for United in his first season and we need to keep him away from our penalty box.”