It is difficult to imagine Oyvind Leonhardsen, the only person known to have formed a breakaway sensible wing during his time with Wimbledon's Crazy Gang, shouting the odds at a manager or banging on his door demanding a first-team place or a transfer.

He insists, however, that those who remember his young playing days in Norway would say he was just such an impatient pup. Not bad-tempered, mind, just impatient. They would not have recognised the mature man who, when turned into a pariah last season as a Liverpool player, behaved with the patience of one from Southampton.

For the first time since he began his professional career at Molde he was not an automatic first-team selection. So shocked and disgusted was he by his inability at times even to get on the bench that he gives a passable Victor Meldrew impression when he says: "I couldn't believe it."

However, he channelled his disappointment into efforts to improve his game. He worked with commendable and unflagging enthusiasm during six long months without a single minute on the pitch for the first team; so much so that when injuries built to the extent that team selection was no longer Gerard Houllier's choice but Hobson's, he returned to produce some of his best form in the final six games of the season.

His honesty and professionalism so impressed Houllier that when Spurs made their bid at the start of this season the manager had the good grace to tell him that Liverpool would miss him. And, says Leonhardsen, as if anyone would doubt a football manager's word, "I think he meant it."

Houllier to George Graham could have been a case of frying pan to fire. Instead Leonhardsen has been on fire for Tottenham, whose more direct style under Graham is perfectly suited to his game. Much as he loved Liverpool, their game is based more on passing and, that word again, patience.

If Tottenham is Leonhardsen's spiritual home, he is also Graham's ideal player: hard working, unspectacular, unselfish and unlikely to upstage his boss by appearing in shampoo adverts or spearheading anti-land mine campaigns. At £2.6 million he was also in just the right price range for Graham, who is nervous with other people's money.

Spurs are also using him in his favourite role. He says: "I started well at Liverpool but things were not right for me when they changed from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 and I had to play out of position on the left wing. I am best as one of three central midfield players. Here I play on the right but just tucked in, with Stephen Carr always going past me on the outside."

Leonhardsen arrived in England five years ago, seeking a new challenge after three championship medals with Rosenborg. He believes he is now playing the best football he has produced in this country and, at 29, has also belatedly developed a talent, previously unknown at least to team-mates, for scoring goals.

He is joint top scorer at Tottenham with four and has also found the net in both internationals for Norway this season. Three goals have come in the Premiership, leaving him a full eight months to beat his best total of six at Liverpool two seasons ago.

"I am already beginning to think that I cannot go on scoring like this," he says. "But I have always felt that there were more goals in me and I should have at least gone into double figures for a season by now."

Given the fact that so many players tend to score against former clubs, a few punters could be taking a nibble on Leonhardsen scoring against Wimbledon at his English alma mater tomorrow. There he will also face his former Norway boss Egil Olsen, who gave him his debut in his first game as manager against Cameroon in October 1989.

Olsen is already under pressure at Selhurst Park for his unique interpretation of the zonal marking system. Leonhardsen, however, insists that he is the man for the club as a natural leader of underdogs determined to have their day.

"Norway had not been doing well when he arrived," he says. "But he made all of us believe in his methods and ourselves and he built up a great record. He would use a lot of statistics, showing you how many touches of the ball you'd had, how many back-passes you made and so on. If everyone sticks with him he will make a success of Wimbledon too."

The old Crazy Gang quickly learned that there was no point in trying to convert him to their childish ways. Leonhardsen was so insistent on giving all his time and energy to the serious pursuit of football that Vinnie Jones dismissed him as boring. Given the boorish nature of the person who bestowed it, no man could have hoped for a finer accolade.