King: Spurs will bounce back

LEDLEY KING is confident Tottenham will bounce back from their UEFA Cup disappointment and emerge an even stronger team in Juande Ramos’ first full season.

Ramos arrived at White Hart Lane in October and masterminded the Carling Cup triumph but his European dream ended on penalties against PSV Eindhoven this week.

Skipper King feels Spurs can go further next season in the UEFA Cup, the competition Ramos won in the previous two years with Sevilla.

“For us to win something means that the season will still go down as a positive year for us. Now we have that taste of winning something, we believe we can go on and do more,” King said.

King has been limited to nine appearances this season as he is recovering from knee surgery.

His recovery will be managed for the rest of the campaign and he is expected to play if he is fit, but not risked.

With European football secured and Barclays Premier League safety virtually assured, there appears little to play for — but Ramos will also use the rest of the campaign to assess players he wants for next season.

King is among the clutch of players that look safe, with a host of others now looking to impress the head coach.

“The target for us now is that we keep improving and that means we have to win as many games as possible,” said assistant boss Gus Poyet.

“We are going to start building for next season starting with Sunday against Manchester City.”

Ramos left out goalkeeper Paul Robinson earlier in the campaign before being brought back into the side, while Younes Kaboul has had spells out of the squad and Gilberto was not taken to PSV.

Aaron Lennon, tipped for an England recall earlier in the campaign, was dropped for the first time under Ramos, as the coach went for a narrow formation in Eindhoven.

It has been suggested Ramos may bring in recruits he has earmarked from his time in Spain, bolstering a squad that skipper King feels has a strong core of players.

“We feel we have the players to win the competition, we had confidence in the team that we could get the result, but now we feel we have let it slip a little,” he said. “The first leg against PSV has cost us, we didn’t play well at home.”

When the clash against PSV went to penalties, Jermaine Jenas missed a chance to win, then Pascal Chimbonda went wide as Spurs crashed out.

“It was a great and fantastic experience for some of our players,” Poyet added.

“Some of them had that walk with the ball from the middle of the pitch to the penalty spot for the first time and that will bode very well for them in the future.

“We talked to Pascal and Jermaine in the dressing room. I wasn’t the best at penalties when I was a player, but I told them you can only miss if you take one, the players who never miss are the ones who don’t take one.”