Terry Venables yesterday dismissed the sentiment surrounding his return to former club Tottenham and pointed to the massive, four-game test facing Middlesbrough in the next eight days.

Venables will be at White Hart Lane today for only the second time - the first was as a TV expert - since his acrimonius departure following the battle with Sir Alan Sugar.

But he insisted: "Going back there doesn't motivate me at all. I can't have any more incentive than I've got here at Middlesbrough. I haven't even got time to think about going back."

Venables steered Boro to their first win in 11 games, against Chelsea, last week and said: "We're getting there but we're going to be tested now over the next few games - Spurs, Liverpool, the Coventry tussle, then Leeds.

"We've got to be a tough little unit that does not get bowled over easily. Teams are going to have to work really hard against us. But I don't like saying that because it's usually the kiss of death.

"The players know what's got to be done, they're pitching in and I think we're all enjoying it. But, in the end, we've got to get the results to enjoy it.

"We've had a boost but it's just the beginning. We've got to maintain it. We've got two or three players back and, the more we get, the competition for places will get better. And I've seen one or two of the younger players and thought 'they're good'.

"The future looks great but the short term has got to be taken care of and we're just working on the things that need to be done. Team work, trying to improve."

Venables urged the new owners to stick with George Graham at Spurs.

The Spurs manager was informed yesterday his job is safe "for the time being" by ENIC managing director Daniel Levy after speculation that Glenn Hoddle is set to switch from Southampton to White Hart Lane.

But Middlesbrough coach Venables believes Graham is the man to guide Spurs into a new era.

"I can't see why George is not the man to take them forward, I can't see any reason at all," he said.

"George and I are old friends and people will just say 'he's his mate' so I don't want to get involved.

"They are doing fantastically well at White Hart Lane but that's the past and we'd like to come away with something. We need it.

"You've got a double edge there - George wants to beat me and I want to beat him. But the main factor is he's a competitor who wants to do well and I'm the same. Whatever happens we'll have a drink after the game but, before that, we're batting for our own teams."

Spurs have dropped just two points at home out of 24 but Venables does not believe the upheaval will affect their performance.

"I don't think what is happening concerns the players," he said. "What they've done on the field shows they are not concerned too much, they were minutes way from beating Arsenal. The politics upstairs and what happens on the field is completely separate."

But he revealed that his five-year spell at Spurs was his most demanding challenge.

"I enjoyed my time very much. It was maybe my most difficult job because when I arrived it was the end of an era, all the strong characters had fallen away.

"Ray Clemence and Glenn Hoddle had left, Ossie Ardiles had two or three games before he left, Richard Gough went and Danny Thomas finished.

"Everywhere there were problems and we hovered around relegation for a while. We had to really lift it up. But when I left they had a very, very good team.

"I imagine my reception there will be a good one but you never know."

Boro hope to have Croatian Alen Boksic in the squad today and defenders Ugo Ehiogu Curtis Fleming return after suspension