Football's Nearly Men - Ledley King

Ledley Brenton King was born in Bow, London on the 12th of October 1980. He attended the Blessed John Roche RC School and as a youth footballer played for Senrab F.C. and the Tower Hamlets district representative team. Joining Tottenham Hotspur as a trainee in July 1996 he progressed through their youth system before making his debut in May 1999 in a 3-2 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield. Manager George Graham initially used him as a midfielder as he established himself as a regular in the Spurs side and it was in this position that he scored in an away draw against Bradford City in December 2000, a goal after just 10 seconds that set a Premier League record that would last for 18 years. However it was when he appeared against Derby County at Pride Park in October 1999 that he was on the receiving end of a tackle by Rory Delap after about 30 seconds that eventually resulted in him requiring surgery on his left knee, which frequently held him back thereafter. The operation on his left knee kept him out for six weeks and it saw him having operations on that knee many times afterwards. Ledley says, "You could say that was the start of the end and it was only four days after my 19th birthday. I quickly grasped that I was never going to be as good as I wanted to be but I still felt I could be very good." His knee problems accelerated around the time of Spurs winning the League Cup in 2008 and he admits it was a lonely place, heading to the swimming pool when his team-mates headed out to train. The crippling injury meant he could only train once a week as his knee swelled up like a balloon after playing, meaning once it was drained he had to rest for six days with his training essentially involving a quick jog. This is what Harry Redknapp said of the knee injury: "There's no cure. There's no cartilage, nothing to operate on. It's just bone on bone. So it's just a question of managing it. It swells up after games and it normally takes seven days to recover but having played on Monday night he's had less time than usual. He rarely trains, he mostly just goes to the gym to keep himself ticking over. But not running or anything like that. But even if he only plays 20 games a season, he's worth having because he's so good we have a much better chance of winning." Thierry Henry has stated Ledley was the best defender he had played against and the only one to tackle him without resorting to fouling.
When Ledley gets stopped in the streets he often gets asked about that tackle on Arien Robben, perhaps one of the best tackles in the Premier League, and a moment that captured his sheer class. To put it in context, Tottenham had not taken three points off Chelsea for 16 years when they headed into that 2006 fixture. The inevitable was expected to happen when Robben, 22 at the time, ran through on goal with King some 15 yards behind him. As King glided across the White Hart Lane grass, he gained ground with logic-defying speed and still had the composure, to read the movement of his opponent and time his tackle. It was no wonder Spurs players celebrated like King had scored a goal, then went on to seal their long-awaited win against their bitter rivals.

Ledley came through with a clutch of top-class defenders including the likes of Rio Ferdinand and John Terry but it is widely recognised that if he had steered clear of injury that he would have been the best central defender of his generation by some considerable distance. It is such a shame that he represented his country on only 21 occasions as he was England-captain material for his ability alone and would have been much higher if he had been able to train on a daily basis. Ledley says, "During the five years of not training there were numerous times when England would call me up but I never felt confident in my body to add another game because of the fact that I was always breaking down." He could have been the best defender of his generation; instead, he will be remembered as a 'nearly' man of English football. A one-club man who went on to make only 264 appearances in 13 years at Spurs as his time was dogged by the injury. He was the club captain at White Hart Lane and was Spurs' most dependable player when he was fit, which sadly wasn’t often enough.

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