The End For Ledders?

End of the dream for Ledley? Let's hope not.

If Ledley King had enjoyed an injury free career, he would have been the backbone of the [color:586d=#006400 ! important][color:586d=#006400 ! important]England team and have more than 100 caps by now.

He is a very different type of defender than what would be termed 'English'. He is almost continental in his abilities, almost 'Italian' in his positioning and reading of the game. That he is also comfortable with the ball and moving forward just adds, what for me a complete player he is. I say player, because he is adept in almost any position.

As a Spurs fan, I once thought of King and Campbell at the heart of our defence. We don't need to go into the Campbell scenario, but as good a defender as Sol was, Ledley was better, in every way. The thought has often crossed my mind that had Ledley not had the injuries, and during all the stagnation and despair at the Lane for so many years, would he too have jumped ship. He would have been welcome at any of the top clubs in the world, and would no doubt have a bucket load of medals to go with it.

We knew Fergie was an admirer, Wenger too. Henry said that Ledley was the most difficult defender he played against. That from arguably the Premiership's greatest striker. So the injuries and his love for Spurs, not to mention the support the club gave him during these spells, meant he stayed. Managers came and went and we twice finished 5th, so near to the Champions League and the holy grail of the top 4.

Finally last season, with Harry 'Potter' Redknapp, he found a manager who could understand his problem and help to get the best out of him. He was superb for us last year, in fact, whenever he has put on the blue and white shirt, he is the fans embodiment of everything we want in a captain. His dream is to see Spurs successful and challenging the elite in the Prem and Europe. Well, with his help we are there. Playing Inter Milan at the San Siro. European Champions. Yes the romance and memories of '61 etc still charm us. The reality however is that it is a very different game to the last time we dined at the top table. There is a return leg at the Lane and we will all be hoping that Ledley will be leading us out onto the pitch.

Whilst we were a mediocre team for so long playing with only the league and cup runs to look forward to, Ledley's absence was less missed. Last season we challenged for 4th place and Ledley was able to play 1 game a week as he could recover during the week. Now that we actually have a team capable of challenging the top sides, we face the prospect of playing 2 games weekly. There is a sad irony about the fact that he has helped us to get there and he can't now take his place every week.

Now we have to protect him and choose which games he needs to play. He is not getting any younger and recovery time will just get longer. What no Spurs fan wants is to see below par Ledley on the pitch. He astounds us by simply being on the field, I for one don't want to see him struggle against lesser sides.

There will have to come a point where someone will have to make a decision, emotion aside about Ledley's future. Let's hope it is not for a while yet. But where does this leave the team? We have King and Woody, both wrong side of 30, both injury prone. Dawson would be first choice, but who to partner him? Gallas is short term, Bassong is a good player, but not first choice. Neither is Kaboul. I like Corluka, but can't see him as a permanent CD. I like the look of Caulker, although he is young and needs experience. So let`s give him more games. If he is good enough, let him learn from now. Harry is no stranger to developing young players. Rio, Cole, Carrick etc.

Of [color:586d=#006400 ! important][color:586d=#006400 ! important]course this is not an immediate solution. We need to cement our top 4 status, which I feel we can. Utd, Chelsea are both top heavy with older players and will have to rebuild. Liverpool are in a mess. Arsenal, City and Spurs could form the new top 3 for next few years. That should be where we should be aiming for. January should see our priority is looking for a long term replacement for Ledley. Who, is open to debate, but that we need someone is not.

The fact that the last few games we have played, we have had to come from behind to win is superb. Perhaps we are not as soft as we once were! However, we need defensive solidity to go with this new found resilience. Over to you Harry. Long live the King.


Read more: http://www.spurs.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=7506092#ixzz12dVtBhFd

Good article baz and a good read ! sad fact is we cant replace ledley, he,s a one off.

Just to add a little to the post you have to say how unlucky we have been in the cb area, as mentioned judas and king would have been formidable all those years ago, and then woodgate and king ! well it just wasnt meant to be, ok it could still happen if woodgate recovers, but how long will woodgate last, and for that matter how long can king go on?

Both pairings could have made the spurs defence hard to score against, but we have daws, bassong and now caulker so its not all doom and gloom, i am not bassongs greatest admirer but he is still very young.

Both pairings are a dream come true baz, judas (had he stayed ) and king........a fully fit woodgate and king ! what side could better that central defence pairing.?

Where would we be had they been playing regularly since the start of the season ? who knows baz because it still needs the strikers to do their job, and we didnt fire in the west ham ,west brom or wigan games, sure it would have given us a cast iron defence but if you dont score you dont win.

Having said that i know what you mean, and think we would be nearer the top at least with those two fit and regular fixtures in the cb positions.

Copy & pasted below allegedley from our 'arry him-self. I do fear for Ledder's and wonder how much more he can offer. However much longer the guy can play for he will suffer later in life for it. Yup he's a well paid pro' but what he has put him-self for the club deserves the fans respect . . . . ..

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has expressed concern that the fitness of injury prone centre-back Ledley King is deteriorating even further.

King, 30, struggles to play more than one game a week because of knee injuries that also limit his training.

And after Redknapp saw his captain suffer a groin injury on Saturday, he said: "His problem is he can't train. He's been doing that for several years.

"But I think now he's picking up one or two more injuries."

King was forced off just before half-time of Spurs' victory at Fulham and Redknapp revealed the player will be out "for a while".

"It's such a shame for him; he's such a great player," added Redknapp.

"When you don't train, you pick up injuries. If I go out and start trying to sprint up that pitch now without training, I'm going to go and tear a hamstring, or do a groin, or do a calf or something.

"And that's Ledley's problem. He can't train."

Redknapp revealed he "gambled" on playing King against the Cottagers, with the intention of leaving him out of Wednesday's Champions League clash against Inter Milan.

"I thought, 'I'm better off getting two games out of him'," said the Tottenham boss, who had hoped to play King in Saturday's match with Everton but now looks to be without him for at least the next month.

Also some more info on the centre-half injury problems . . . . . .

Spurs' latest injury has provided yet another defensive headache for Redknapp, who has used 11 different centre-back pairings this season and was only able to pair King with summer signing William Gallas for the first time on Saturday.

Gallas has also endured an injury hit start to life at White Hart Lane and Saturday's match was his first appearance for a month.

"He came out Thursday morning - first time he's been able to train," said Redknapp of the former Arsenal captain.

"I was pleased with what he did back there for us. Sebastien Bassong came on and coped well at the back with him as well."

That partnership, which kept a second-half clean sheet in yesterday's 2-1 win, will be retained on Wednesday, with Younes Kaboul unlikely to be ready to return from his hamstring problem and regular captain Michael Dawson also unavailable.

Redknapp added of Gallas: "He's got to play - there's no-one else!

"Whether you can get three games in a week out of him, though, is going to be difficult.

"I'll probably have to take a chance on Wednesday."

My heart says Ledders will be ok to continue and will recover , but my head says how can he really get away with it for so long and we all know the older you get the harder it gets to keep your fitness level , i think we seriously have to look at a permanant replacement for ledders , the club comes first

I think Ledders will play again. If he feels pain, he comes off straight away and doesnt continue, hence not making things worse for himself. A week or so rest and he's ok again, but it cant go on like this forever. He's done well at 30 with his condition, and has given his all to Spurs, who owe him big time! He'll play for another season i think, but we really need to get a replacement in asap, hopefully January.

King or no King, we have not had a better goals against for years, since Harry took over, no matter the central pairing, we dont let many goals in these days. If we could just up the goals for, we would be top, let alone top 4. We got VDV scoring for fun, Huds just scored, Modders has scored this season, Bales chipped in, so we are scoring from midfeild, Crouch is setting them up and as long as his doing that his worth keeping. Cant wait for Defoe to come back as he looked to be reaching form just as he got injured.

Exactly Dave, bang on mate, we are missing a goal poacher and that is our very own Mr Defoe. Cant wait for him to come back! VDV will be setting him up, but we all know Defoe can go a bit dry during the season, but thinking about it, with VDV playing he will be more confident and will give it his all. Defoe just needs to be a little unselfish at times. But i also think we need a striker on the same level as VDV just to give our strikers a bit more competition, and that way we will get the very best out of them.