LONDON -- Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim says he is not surprised by Eric Dier's rise as he prepares to face his former player in Wednesday's Champions League match against Tottenham.
Dier has established himself as a crucial player for Tottenham and England since he moved from defence to holding midfield, and the 22-year-old agreed a new five-year deal on Tuesday.
Jardim managed Dier for the 2013-14 season at Sporting Lisbon and he claimed some credit for the development of the Cheltenham-born 22-year-old, who moved to Portugal when he was seven.
"I knew him at Sporting -- he's a tremendous athlete, a real top class player and he spent the developmental part of his career at Sporting. I always knew he was going to have a good career but I hope he's not at his best tomorrow evening," Jardim told a news conference.
"He evolved his style of play when he was with me. He played two different positions: holding midfield and centre-back. It's no surprise to me that he's showing later in his career that he can play in two different positions and be as good in either.
"I think it's always very important -- whether it's English lads going abroad, or French or Portuguese young players -- to get experience in foreign leagues. It's really positives. It teaches them to cope with adversity and gives them different experience.
"When they go back, they benefit in their own leagues. It's important for their benefit and growth as they become older."
Meanwhile, Jardim says he is ready to unleash Premier League flop Radamel Falcao against Spurs at Wembley, and he is convinced the Colombia striker, 30, can rediscover the form that made him one of the most feared forwards in Europe.
Falcao scored in both legs of Monaco's Champions League qualifying tie against Fenerbahce before being ruled out for several weeks with a muscle injury, but he played 25 minutes from the bench in Saturday's 4-1 win at Lille.
"If he played a full 90 minutes in the last game, he would have definitely been struggling to play two games in four days," Jardim said.
"The fact he only played 25 minutes means he could feature tomorrow night and if he does, we'll see how he is during the game. We've got other ways of setting up. If he has to come off, we've got other solutions on the bench. We'll see how things go.
"I'm convinced Falcao will get back to the level we saw him playing at Porto and Atletico Madrid. Certainly the work he is putting in to achieve this bodes well for the future and he is certainly striving hard to get back to how he was playing."
Monaco midfielder Joao Moutinho, who revealed he was "a few short minutes" from joining Spurs on deadline day in August 2012, added: "It's true that he probably didn't have his greatest spell in football while he was here [in England], but he was injured a lot of the times so didn't manage a lot of minutes on the field.
"The Falcao that I'm seeing right at the moment is a Falcao that's really determined and working very hard, and in a good moment with how he's playing, so lets hope he puts in a good performance, maybe scores a goal or create a couple of assists, that'd be great. Certainly the Falcao we're seeing now is on form."