The Warm-Up: 'Chaos' envelops Tottenham as Griezmann ribs Ramos

For me it will be the toughest season and I think if we want success we have to give more than our best. It’s not enough to give 100%, it’s 200%. We know from inside that it will be hard and, because we are warriors, we want to fight. We want to be proud at the end, we want success and we do not want to complain or make excuses. I am a winner and I love the challenge. We want to go again.

I think we all feel disappointed with the announcement from the club this week. I want to say thank you to the fans and apologise and try to reward them by winning games. I want to be there, in the frontline, fighting. I feel the responsibility and that is why I am here. I am very grateful to Daniel Levy. I think Tottenham gave us, me, my family and my staff, a lot of things that always we will be grateful for. This was a moment to say ‘we are going to be with you all’, because we knew what was going to happen.

Take away the specter of Messi and what you see is not a preening disco Bond villain but someone in whom the drive to be perfect is so desperately acute that surviving it looks like a test of sanity. Think about how he plays: so wound up, so intense, so high-stakes, always, always, always. It's the maximalism of fear: Do everything or you might miss something. Work harder, try more, strain the sinews in your neck when you smile. Of course someone who's wired like that would seem cut off from other people. Other people can't really help him; they can only oppose him, judge him, or hold him back. What if the rest of it came down to the same quality? I mean all the stuff we read as egocentrism or vanity -- the clothes, the cars, the yachts, the logo slathered on all he surveys. Couldn't you see those things as the anxious compensations of someone who can't help trying too hard because he only feels secure when he's the best, is perfect, in everything?