David Bentley Times

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR manager Harry Redknapp has urged David Bentley to concentrate on his football and stop trying to live up to the billing as David Beckham's successor.

Bentley, who signed for Spurs a year ago but has since lost his place in the England squad, has been tipped to leave White Hart Lane but Redknapp has not received offers for the 24-year-old midfielder.

This week Bentley was arrested and charged with a drink-driving offence.

"He needs to lose that image that has grown around him over the last year," Redknapp said. "What's happened this week doesn't help him.

"He needs to concentrate on playing football, losing that tag of being like Beckham"

"He needs to concentrate on playing football, losing that tag of being like Beckham. I don't like that, he's not Beckham. He's David Bentley and he's got to kick that one into touch.

"The lads call him 'Becks' and I don't think it helps him. I think he needs to be himself and develop his own personality with the way he plays football.

"He needs good advice from whoever is involved with him off the field, he doesn't need to be involved in nightclubs - he doesn't need it. The advice he needs from a good agent is 'concentrate on your football David'."

Bentley will not start against Liverpool in Spurs' Premier League opener, but Redknapp insists the former Blackburn midfielder has a future at the club.

He believes Bentley could force his way back into the England squad reckoning with a good season.

"He's English and if he was to have a great season by graft and turning it round he could end up making the World Cup squad which at the moment looks a million miles away for him," he said.

"Who knows, with a great season under his belt you don't know who could force their way in."

Redknapp reiterated his anti-drinking stance among his squad, adding: "All the problems in football come through drinking, not only here but any club. Whenever there is a problem it's always in a nightclub or somebody who has had a drink.

"Their rewards are so fantastic these days. They're not the average man in the street who looks forward to Friday and Saturday and looks forward to having a booze. These are super-fit athletes who earn fantastic, incredible amounts of money.

"There is no code of conduct but they'll be heavily fined and dealt with if they're drinking."

Redknapp also has personal experience of the effects of drink driving.

"I was involved in an accident in 1990 when I lost my best mate and four people got killed," he said. "A young kid of 17 was drunk and driving the other car. You can't do it. Get on a bus if you have to, don't drink and drive. There's no place for it."