Tottenham players rallied round their beleaguered head coach Christian Gross yesterday as speculation continued about his future. Spurs' veteran defender Gary Mabbutt believes that Gross will stay despite poor results, uncertainty over his fitness coach Fritz Schmid and morning-paper criticism from the striker Les Ferdinand that he was made to train with an injury that will now keep him out for a month.

Another player blamed the team's problems on loss of confidence because of recent defeats rather than anything to do with the new coach.

Gross's brandishing of a London Tube ticket at his inaugural press conference was meant to show solidarity with the fans' tricky journey to home games but came across as an amateurish attempt to illustrate a "ticket to success".

The coach has also privately explained that his refusal on Sunday to answer questions about his future if Schmid's work permit was rejected was not meant to infer he was contemplating resignation. Instead, he wanted to avoid being accused of trying to influence the British government over Schmid's application.

According to the club captain Mabbutt: "Mr Gross's English is perfectly adequate, but in a press conference, things can be misunderstood.

"I understand he was asked the same question in three different ways and maybe what he meant to say was not put as clearly as it could have been."

Gross has since tried to clarify the position by pledging his future to Tottenham, and Mabbutt feels that "the players are all convinced that Mr Gross will be staying".

Another player said: "There has been no indication that the manager is planning to leave. He seems fully committed to the job. He has probably found the challenge a lot bigger than he first thought. There is also the problem of settling down in a foreign country and now the possible loss of his right-hand man, Fritz Schmid.

"But Christian Gross is very confident and knows what he wants. The problem is confidence in the team. When we lose a goal heads just drop. We think `Oh, here we go again'. It is down to the players to turn that around."

But there was general agreement that life has changed under Gross. `It's a far more concentrated build-up towards training and matches now," said Mabbutt. "It's a different regime that's more demanding on your life and it's something the players have got to get used to. Basically we are now training and playing six days a week instead of five. but the players are very responsive. And let's judge Mr Gross after six months or a year, not immediately."

However, there was more bad news for Gross yesterday when it was confirmed that David Ginola has pulled a hamstring and is doubtful for the FA Cup third-round tie against Fulham.