Friedel dismisses talk of Spurs exit

Brad Friedel has rejected reports linking him with a return to Blackburn Rovers and insists that he is happy at Tottenham.

France international Hugo Lloris joined Andre Villas-Boas’ side on deadline day and after months of criticism from France manager Didier Deschamps, finally edged Friedel as the manager’s number one choice.

But despite his status as ‘second-choice’, Friedel says he is focused on Tottenham, where he enjoys competing for the starting position with Lloris.

“I’m contracted to Tottenham and I’m concentrating on Tottenham. Whatever role they throw at me I’ll do it to the best of my capabilities,” he said.

“There’s no rivalry with Hugo. At every club, for 21 seasons, there’s competition for places. As I said before when I signed the two-year contract I figured I would play last year, this year was an unknown.

“The club have been on the look-out for a long-term goalkeeper for a couple of years. We also have two other outstanding goalkeepers at the club in Heurelho Gomes and Carlo Cudicini.

“So competition for places? Yes. But the club is going to be around a lot longer than any of us. They want to be in the Champions League and they want to try to win trophies so they continuously have to buy good players in every position.

“Do I thrive on competition? Absolutely. Or else I wouldn’t be playing football, and definitely not at the age of 41.”

Asked if he will leave White Hart Lane in January, Friedel responded: “That’s all hypothetical. I’m at Tottenham and I’m very happy here.”

Friedel joined the club on a free transfer in 2011, and continued to build up his impressive statistic of consecutive Premier League games under Harry Redknapp.

However, his run of 310 games came to an end when Lloris started against Aston Villa, meaning the 41-year-old missed his first Premier League game in over eight years.