Nabil Bentaleb has insisted he respects Tottenham Hotspur and their supporters but says he had to join Schalke on loan to play more football.
Bentaleb, 21, joined Schalke on a season-long loan in August and reports in Germany have suggested the German club have already agreed in principle to sign him permanently for €19 million next summer.
Last month, Bentaleb appeared to criticise Tottenham fans, telling Bild : "If you lose there, nobody supports you in the stadium."
But in a new interview with The Set Pieces, Bentaleb said: "I have so much respect for the Tottenham supporters. And I have so much respect for the club that gave me the chance when I came for the first time to England."
The Algeria international was a regular in manager Mauricio Pochettino's first season at Spurs but he fell out of favour last term after signing a five-year contract, making just two league starts amid injuries and rumours of attitude problems.
"I was injured quite a long time and when I came back, the team was only winning," he said. "I was not part of the plan and I thought at that time -- and still now, at my age -- I need to play to improve.
"I made it clear to the coaches and the coaches said: 'No problem. We can sort this situation out.' I left on good terms with the chairman and the coach."
Bentaleb had a slow start at Schalke, who lost their first five matches of the season in the club's worst-ever Bundesliga start.
Since then, the midfielder has been superb, and he is the club's top scorer with five goals. He credits coach Markus Weinzierl for his turnaround.
"I made some stupid mistakes," the midfielder said of his first few games. "He [Weinzierl] put me back on the line and I think I showed that he could trust me. Listen, I'm 21 years old and I'm willing to learn. I have a lot of things to improve and I hope I will improve even above my expectations.
"I'm not married, my family's in France. So I just stay the whole day at the training centre, doing some recovery, working on some stuff, watching videos.
"I'm just focusing 200 percent on what I love. It's football and I think it's a perfect city for this because everyone thinks football, drinks football, lives football."