Head coach Tim Sherwood has been a long-time fan of Christian Eriksen and hopes Tottenham can hold onto the playmaker this summer.
The 22-year-old has been one of the few shining lights in a disappointing season for Spurs, continuing his fine form with two assists as Fulham were overcome 3-1 on Saturday.
Eriksen was brought in last summer as Spurs attempted to fill the void left by Gareth Bale's move to Real Madrid, who also raided north London to sign Luka Modric the previous year.
Sherwood is hoping Spurs can avoid losing a similarly key player this summer, but knows Eriksen will be attracting admiring glances.
"You are always fearful that someone might come and take one of your best players and Christian is certainly one," the Spurs head coach said.
"I watched him at 17 years of age at Wembley for Denmark and I rang (chairman) Daniel Levy the day after and said that he needs to sign this boy - £10million later he is finally here, so that is all good news.
"I don't think he was available (at the time) and I think he wanted to continue his education at Ajax and that is what happened.
"And perhaps Daniel didn't follow up on it as he does not follow-up on every player I tell him, as there are probably too many.
"He had a year left at Ajax. He has been great acquisition for the club and they have done well to bring him in.
"He has just turned 22 and he has a head of a 35-year-old. He knows when to speed it up and slow it down and Harry Kane is very similar in his development."
Sherwood highlighted the extra work Eriksen and striker Kane put in as being key to their recent improvements - something it appears Sandro would do well to follow.
The Brazilian midfielder was left out of the squad to face Fulham and took to Twitter on the morning of the game, posting "just to let you know that i'm not injured!".
Sherwood said Sandro's absence is because "he's not up to it at the moment" and, while he played down talk of bad blood between them, was confused as to why he took to Twitter.
"Are there many fans screaming out there 'why ain't Sandro playing? I don't know," he said.
"If that is what he is trying to say, I am not sure. The squad goes up, I show my hand early. I don't care about showing my hand.
"I tell them pretty much on the Thursday by the team shape and they know that they are not playing.
"I don't expect anyone of them not playing to be happy with it but I expect them to be professional and work hard to get back into the next squad.
"If they don't show me that then they will not be in the next squad and they will continue to be the same."
Source: PA
