Fabio Capello must rate Ledley King very highly indeed to include him in today’s England squad. Our Captain is without doubt the best centre back in the Premiership on his day but his inability to train on a regular basis means makes his inclusion in the National squad all the more impressive.
By all accounts, Ledley spends his training time either swimming or in the gym on a bike. It’s taken a lot of time and effort but it looks like King and Tottenham backroom staff have found a way to efficiently manage his problem and find a way to get him out on the pitch fairly regularly.
Obviously, any time Ledley is with England will need to spent the same way it is when he’s with the club. You’d hope he isn’t pushed too hard but I get the impression Ledley isn’t the type of person that will risk more time out now he’s started playing regularly again. I’m happy for him to be a part of the England set up, he fully deserves his chance, but I just don’t want it to have an adverse effect on his performances in a Spurs shirt.
I can’t really see Capello taking Ledley King to a tournament when he can only play a limited number of games. There is no way his knee would stand up to 4 weeks of non stop football and as highly as I rate the player, surely the squad would be better served by taking one of the other top class centre backs the Premiership has to offer.
Here’s hoping Ledley can manage to balance an international career alongside his club career and gets further opportunities to show what he’s capable of on the world stage.
THIS IS GREAT NEWS AND HE CAN LOOK AFTER AARON HE SHOULD HAVE AROMA THERAPY MASSAGE I HAVE DONE THIS FOR YEARS WITH A BAD KNEE AND IT WORKS GOOD LUCK LEDDERS HOPE YOU WOW THE COUNTRY LIKE YOU DO US SPURS FANS
Yeah I’m concerned about this too – it would be great to have Ledley in the team for all of our remaining matches and you have to say that playing (or even training) with England could put that in jeopardy.
However this is a guy that in my opinion is in the top 3 centrebacks in the world game – and probably not bettered by either of the other two (whoever they might be). He’s never had a dip in form like Ferdinand and particularly Terry (i.e. the last 2 years) even though he has had more of a reason than any of them. If his body were to allow him, he could easily be a Maldini-type presence and play until 40.
I think ultimately we fans are probably a bit selfish – were it not for the knee, Ledley would probably, under the performance-related leadership of Capello, have ousted either Terry or Ferdinand in the England team. He would have well over 50 caps and have the worldwide recognition that his talent deserves. We mustn’t be too upset about his being called up, this is the absolute minimum he deserves and if it means he’s unavailable for us again, then as long he cherishes that England cap, we should be happy for this one club legend.
Here is a player who has played his whole career outside the Champions League for a team that has spent the season skirting with relegation. He’s played less than 2/3rds of his team’s games, has barely trained with his team mates and STILL gets picked for his country. He really is as good as that suggests. Given that, would you rather have a player THAT good for 2 or 3 games in a tournament (should you need to call upon him) or the likes of Upson, Lescott, et al?
He is not just better than those players (forgetting about the incumbents), but he is SO much better that Capello has drawn the same conclusion that Harry, Juande and Jol drew before him;
Namely that a little King is better than a lot of anyone else.
he’s just playing for one more contract, once that is signed you’ll hardly see him again
cunts got no cartliage for fck sake
he’s been dropped now
Hi,
I recently started my own Tottenham blog at
http://www.boysfromthelane.blogspot.com
I was wondering if you would mind adding my site to your list of blog links? On my site, I’ve linked yours and several others that I read regularly and am impressed by.
Many thanks.