Louis van Gaal urges Steven Bergwijn to leave Tottenham Hotspur

The 24-year-old found his playing time severely limited in North London during the 2021-22 campaign, making just four Premier League starts under Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte.

It has been rumoured that former club Ajax are interested in taking the winger back to the Netherlands this summer, and Conte is willing to move the Dutchman on in order to fund his major rebuild planned for the upcoming transfer window.

Now Bergwijn's national team boss has weighed in on the speculation, urging his player to make the move back to Ajax in order to protect Bergwijn's chances of making his squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year.

Speaking after the 4-1 win over Belgium on Friday evening, in which Bergwijn scored, Van Gaal said: "I want him to go to Ajax as soon as possible. Tottenham don't give him enough playing minutes and that is unbelievable when you see his qualities."

A report from the Mirror suggests that Ajax saw a bid rejected by Spurs on Friday, but that the Amsterdam based club are set to up their offer to around £18m, which potentially includes a further £2m in add-ons.

Spurs brought Bergwijn to North London for around £26.5m from PSV in January 2020, and the winger has gone on to make 83 appearances for the club across all competitions so far, scoring eight goals.