Tottenham ready to use X-rated video as motivation despite apology to Kane

Matt Doherty has warned Tottenham could use an X-rated video as extra motivation for their Europa League tie with Maccabi Haifa.

Maccabi Haifa star Fani makes foul mouthed remarks about Harry Kane and tries to wind up Spurs with gestures ahead of their play-off at White Hart Lane.

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho said the video has done the rounds in the dressing room and Doherty says winding up opponents can often backfire in spectacular fashion.

Doherty said: “I think you can use that.

“We’re pretty motivated as it is, the guys that we have and the manager that we have – the motivation will never go but I guess you can just use it as something a little bit extra to try and really show them who the bosses are here.

“So yeah, look, I think it’s probably something that might get mentioned. I’ll be interested to see it after this, how it goes. I’m sure I’ll have a look.”

Assaf Ben-Dov, CEO Maccabi Haifa, has publicly condemned the video and said it does not reflect the club’s respect for Tottenham and Kane.

Ben Dov said: “Following the match in Rostov Russia one of our players [made an] inappropriate comment that does not respect Tottenham Hotspur player Harry Kane.

“Our club condemns such behaviour. We are a club that advocates the person before the player.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Tottenham and Harry Kane, who we greatly respect.

“We wish them a successful season, thank you very much.”

Doherty went to the latter rounds of the Europa League last season with Wolves and believes Tottenham are even better equipped to go further this time, having got through two tricky qualifiers to reach the play-off.

Spurs defender Doherty added: “It’s a competition that we desperately want to be in and we’ve done the job in the previous two games.

“I know we didn’t probably have our best stuff or play particularly well but we managed to get the job done.

“That’s the goal, get the job done and once the group stages come along we can start to look at our performances and try to string some performances together.

“If you look at our squad, it’s quite exciting and will be hard to stop.”

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