SAMBA? YOU'RE TALKING KABOUL.

BazSpur wrote:by Jagjit Bassi on August 10, 2011




Every year, Tottenham are linked with a galaxy of stars. On the
forums you read ‘We need a striker, we need a left back, we need a
centre half’ and so on and so on. Virtually a whole team, despite just
being a couple of wins from a Champions league space last season.

The ITK’s come out of the woodwork claiming that a friend of a friend
of Daniel Levy’s gardener has heard ********* (insert any world class
player you wish), is in talks with the club about an imminent deal.

We as fans get caught up in frenzy, thinking we need new players – any player. We don’t care who. Just buy someone!

Sometimes the solution is closer to your doorstep than you think.
Looking at the forums, you see all this talk about Chris Samba and how
we’re desperate to get him, giving them half our squad and £10 million
for the services of the French-born Congolese defender.

I just can’t see why we would need him. We already have a player in
our squad who is potentially twice the player. He’s fast, strong,
excellent on the ball and is a goal scoring threat. He is technically
and physically as good as any ball playing centre-half in the league.

I know your probably thinking – we know,but King won’t last forever and Dawson needs a long term defensive partner.

You could never replace a fully fit King. A player like that only
comes once every 20 years. To my mind, if King had kept fit, it would
have been Terry and Rio who would have been fighting for the right to
partner the Tottenham player in the heart of the England’s defence. No, I
was thinking of Younis Kaboul.

Kaboul has yet to reach his potential. The former Auxerre player has
had an interesting football journey. He was an established member of
Auxerre’s French cup winning team and captain of the under-21 team.
Great things were being written about the boy from Saint- Julien-en-
Genevois.

Despite having offers from some big teams such as Chelsea, Inter Milan and Liverpool, he joined Tottenham in the summer of 2007.

With the addition of Bale, these signings looked like assured long
term investments, with both having the physical and footballing ability
to be mainstays at Tottenham for years.

Unfortunately, despite a promising start (he scored on his home
debut), Kaboul found it very difficult to cope with the pace of the
Premier League at a time when Spurs were struggling.

Having ability is one thing, but having the understanding of playing
centre-half in the English game is another. Countless times he was
exposed and more importantly was effecting Dawson’s game. Dawson was
being exposed, as his youthful partner would go AWOL.

The lad had to take a backward step before he could go forward and
going to Portsmouth was like going back to school. Under the tutelage of
Redknapp and perhaps more importantly Tony Adams, he started to
understand the game, producing some heroic performances, scoring 5 goals
in 50 games.

On his return, he came back a more disciplined player, not trying to
be the best player on the pitch and remembering he was a defender first.
He has had some memorable moments, his assist for Crouch’s goal at the
City of Manchester Stadium being the highlight, closely followed by the
winner at the Emirates.

This season is a massive one for Kaboul, with emerging talents like
Caulker on his heels, he really does need to establish himself, reaching
the heights his potential deserves. The kid can do everything needed by
a centre half, he just needs to a) believe it himself and b) be given a
chance by Redknapp.

Dawson and a new improved Kaboul could save us £10 million and that
could be invested in the striker all Tottenham fans are craving for.



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