Spurs to save the King?
Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:21 pmI picked the Evening Standard on my way home and read an interesting article.
Ledley King has been immaculate for spurs this season, but his knee problem means he cant play more than a game every week.
With our game coming midweek, would harry save him for our game?
If so it means he probably wont play on both weekends. How would it affect them?
Personally I think Harry should save him for our game. Bassong can deal with Bolton and Burnely. But you never know with twitchy.
Edit: found it
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard- ... to-rule.do
Ledley King has been immaculate for spurs this season, but his knee problem means he cant play more than a game every week.
With our game coming midweek, would harry save him for our game?
If so it means he probably wont play on both weekends. How would it affect them?
Personally I think Harry should save him for our game. Bassong can deal with Bolton and Burnely. But you never know with twitchy.
Edit: found it
Ledley King's ability to produce his best football at the most important moments is at the heart of his enduring value to Tottenham but the club's chances of qualifying for the Champions League will surely be enhanced if he plays only one more match this season.
King's chronic knee problems mean he can play only once a week, which would nevertheless allow him to feature in two of Spurs' remaining three games, at home to Bolton on Saturday and at Burnley eight days later, during the final weekend of the campaign.
The defender's presence would shorten the odds of a Tottenham victory in both those fixtures but it would probably guarantee his absence from the club's most significant test of all, at Manchester City on 5 May.
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp likes to use King as much as is possible but he may conclude that less is more. Sebastien Bassong is a competent centre-back, perfectly capable of mastering a Bolton team who have managed just 16 Premier League goals away from home all season and a Burnley attack unable to save their club from relegation.
At Eastlands, though, it will be a different matter. The task of taming Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez and Craig Bellamy requires the highest levels of concentration and technique and Spurs simply cannot afford to be without King.
How City would be lifted were King's name to be absent from Spurs' team sheet next week. Imagine the confidence it would give to a side who will probably need victory over Redknapp's men if they are to overhaul them in the race for a place in next season's Champions League. This is not to denigrate Bassong, who has had a decent first year at White Hart Lane after arriving from Newcastle, playing well alongside Michael Dawson in central defence.
Yet he remains inferior to King, whose talent and temperament have won him the admiration of England coach Fabio Capello to such a degree that the Italian is willing to overlook the 29-year-old's physical fragility and choose him for this summer's World Cup.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard- ... to-rule.do