A day with Ledley

Morning you lovely people.

Had the pleasure of going on a stadium tour of the Lane yesterday, fronted by a former player of ours, some of you may have heard of him - Ledley King. Thought I'd share some of Ledley's speeches - warning, it's likely going to be long!

It was a late birthday present for my Mum (well... I think I was just as excited if truth be told), she said she wanted to do a final tour of the Lane before it gets demolished in the Summer, so I thought what better than to do a tour with one of our greatest ever players.

As we arrived with everyone accounted for, we got taken into the press conference room, we were all seated and one of the tour guides had a little chat with us and she told us Ledley will be with us shortly.

Ledley arrived and the room applauded. He was accompanied by another tour guide by the name of John, who was going to be the man to take us around and ask Ledley a number of questions, especially at the beginning of the tour. John also spoke to us about what to expect, where we were going and that'd last approximately 90 minutes.

John then began to question Ledley, initially starting with the very beginning, Ledley mentioned that he played for Senrab, an exceptional youth side that had the likes of John Terry, Bobby Zamora, Paul Konchesky and one or two other soon to be professional footballers. He also lived opposite Ashley Cole (now I understand why Football Manager games always had him and Cole as good friends!). At around 14 years old, he was approached by Spurs along with two of his good friends, mentioning that at the time he was initially third pick of the bunch but his two friends eventually didn't make the grade. He was offered YTS terms (didn't ask what it meant but presumed it was 'Youth Team Scholarship'?) along with a two year professional contract. He said that was great as he knew he'd have time at Spurs after he was done with school. The academy trained in evenings and that all the youngsters cleaned first teamers boots, the room sighed and laughed when he told us it was Sol's boots he cleaned. Made us chuckle when he said all the lads would ensure the boots were spotless in the late weeks of November and December, in order to get a Christmas bonus from the club! He said guys like Sol, Les and Tim were really good to him and the youngsters.

Then proceeded talking about progressing through the set up and eventually breaking into the first team, his first appearance being a half time sub against Liverpool at Anfield. He came on when Spurs were 2-0 up but Taricco had been sent off, so was brought on at LB. He said being told at HT that he'd be coming on was nerve racking as it meant waiting and waiting before coming on, he'd have much preferred to have just been given the shout to come over and then thrown into it. The game ended 3-2 to Pool, he said he felt disappointed and began to question his abilities as to whether he could make it, coming on at 2-0 and then losing 3-2 during the time he was on the pitch was tough to take but as time went by he got over it. Then talked about playing in CM for a spell before eventually cementing himself as a CB.

It moved briefly to breaking into the England squad, John said about how Thierry Henry mentioned Ledley was the best CB he'd played against after France played England in the Euros, Ledley mentioned that was his first competitive England game and felt it was an honour to have had those quotes said about him - later in the tour he mentioned that Henry was the best striker he'd faced, predominantly due to the movement of him, he found him incredibly difficult to pick up due to constantly drifting into different positions and that was a CB's nightmare. Santini was appointed Spurs manager not long after the Euros and told Ledley he was impressed with his performance against his French team.

Then moved back to club football and spoke of the appointment of Jol after Santini's sudden resignation, said Jol was loved by the staff and players and he also knew the fans loved him. Said what we all knew, in that Jol was sacked during the Getafe game, Ledley wasn't playing that match and said how friends texted him the news but he didn't know what to make of it as no official word was said. After the game finished he sat in the dressing room with the players, he said Jol didn't immediately follow them in, that can be the norm but said Jol was gone for a substantial amount of time and it was obvious something was up. Jol then came in and shook all players' hands before announcing the news.

Got interesting when he spoke about Ramos' appointment. Although he didn't directly say it, it sounded as though no one liked the guy much. He said one of the first things Ramos criticised them on was that the Spurs team collectively weighed 100kg more than his Sevilla team, Ledley pointed out it was an unfair criticism to make as it was two completely different sides in two completely different leagues. Ledley said only one player was at the right weight, he asked us who we all thought, I said maybe Lennon due to his size, someone else said another, it turned out to be Jenas (makes sense, as especially in big games he never stopped running). It wasn't long before Ramos' appointment that Ledley began seriously suffering with the knee, he explained to Ramos that he couldn't train as intensively as he'd want but Ramos initially had none of it, telling Ledley he had to train like the rest if he wanted to be picked, when they eventually realised that by match day, Ledley's knee was in no shape to play, Ramos then admitted defeat and allowed Ledley his own personal regime but that he used Ledley more so in cups than in League games, which was bitter sweet for him as he'd have loved to have played more in the league but appreciated it was under Ramos who he lifted the cup. He mentioned what tabloids said in that sauces and condiments weren't allowed with meals, sweets and chocolates were also banned and everyone had their own strict diet, made us all laugh by saying Tommy Huddlestone definitely struggled! . Said the language barrier was a real problem but did say that Ramos was exceptional at preparing for big games, he said when we drew with Arsenal 1-1 at the Emirates in the first leg of the semi final, Ramos explained exactly what he wanted done in the second leg and the players executed it to a tee, annihilating them 5-1 and a lot of it was down to Ramos' planning. Also said he had a similar plan for the final, at a time where Chelsea were incredibly strong and so again it worked well. He made a joke about Chimbonda, saying how he it looked like he was going home after being subbed off yet was the guy most excited at the final whistle. He said that when we faced the smaller sides, Ramos didn't really have a game plan and just somewhat expected us to get the job done rather than actually going in with proper tactics. He felt that was the main reason for his downfall as the Prem isn't so easy to just say you can go in and beat someone as if you have a divine right to do so and it's why league results suffered. After his sacking, we played Bolton the day after and ALL players on the coach brought out sweets and chocolates from their bags .

Then spoke about his time under Harry, said Harry was a brilliant man-manager and the players enjoyed his leadership. He completely allowed Ledley to do what he needed in order to play and said Harry reinstated him back into Prem games providing he was OK to play, which he was chuffed with. Said how it was phenomenal to be in a team that had the likes of Modric, van der Vaart and a rising star in Bale and how we were definitely the most exciting team in the country at the time. He said Harry wasn't tactically astute as other managers, hence often being involved in games where we conceded and scored plenty but the freedom Harry allowed meant it was good to be a part of.

Said he was gutted to retire young and that although it was the knee that forced him too, the reasons for his long injury spells were down to muscle problems. Because he wasn't able to train properly - often having to do pool work despite not being able to swim! - his body wasn't prepared for the intensity of 90 minute matches and once he'd got 3-4 games under his belt, he could always feel tears in his groin/ calf/ hammy/ quad and it was those that kept him out for so long. It's why in his later years, he said he had to become smarter on the pitch, he didn't want to be in positions to sprint after a player and he credited Naybet as a big part for his improvement, said Naybet was in his 30s when he joined and so never relied on pace but was always positioned well and that's where he developed his game from.

Said Daws is/ was a good friend and team mate and that the two complimented each other well, as Ledley said he was a more ball playing CB while Daws was happy to break his nose at any opportune moment . Mentioned Woody too and said how he and Woody had similar problems with injuries but felt they worked really well together - when they both played! Robbo was one of the jokers, said you always had to check your clothes in the dressing room as Robbo would put deep heat in boxers and shirts lol. It was Ledley's decision to say to Keano to lift the trophy together, as he'd been out for a while and Keano led the team in his absence and both grew up in the team so he felt it was just that they lifted the trophy together.

Overall was a superb tour, got to sit in the director's box, view an area that had a roll of honour of players who'd represented their country while under contract at Spurs, also had all of our sponsored shirts throughout the years going around the room, went into the changing rooms and then pitch side, finished it off going into a room that had the League Cup sitting there and we all posed for photos with Ledley by it.
Baring in mind John said it was due to last around 90 minutes, it was just short of 3 hours! Was incredible and well worth the money. There's probably a bunch of things I've missed off but tried getting to most of the main talking points.

It's probably home time now for anyone that's read all this .

**likely to be spelling/ grammar mistakes, not thoroughly checked over it**

 

. Excellent stuff, I really enjoyed reading this.

 

It's always nice to get an insight from one of our best players.
I thought he was moving into coaching, though. Wonder how it's going?

The part about Naybet rings very true. We miss that sort of experience at the moment.
We've got a very young squad and they're very good, for the most part, but there's value in having been there and done it.

 

I like stories Thanks

YTS was youth training scheme. I feared it when I left school. It was like £30 a week when it should have been £100. It was a way of getting youngsters off the dole without offering them proper apprenticeships...

 

Several clubs used them as a cheap way to take a punt on youngsters in the mid-90s, for example Leon McKenzie joined Palace as a YTS trainee in 1994.

 

Brilliant stuff SOS....I've done one of these tours.....without the Cherry on top. Brilliant experience to be in the dugout. It was back in the AVB days...I did a poo squat...it's a good view, I know why he did it.

 

Brings back memories I done the stadium tour twice once with my mates and then with my son when he was about ten . I didn't have the privilege of meeting the great ledley king but it was great to walk down the tunnel to see the hallowed turf and looking across to the shelf where I used to stand . I did have the privilege of meeting another great Glenn hoddle though when he came along and trained us when I used to play Sunday league football many years ago although that was spoilt when he brought ray Wilkins along with him . I named my African grey parrot ledley after the spurs legend and taught him the ledley only got one knee song which he still sings to this day.my wife thinks I'm mad but once spurs are in your blood that's forever

 

That was the game when Ledley made Suarez look like Soldado. A truly incredible performance. Suarez was reduced to kicking out and trying to commit foul after foul. Ledley just swatted him.

 

Suarez did that a lot against us. Should've been sent off on multiple occasions.

 

Wilkins must have been there to carry the great man's bags?

 

Both families were local hayes in middlesex and used to do training with us .I used to play football with rays brother Steve he was quite a skilful player obviously didn't get that from his brother though