We have heard it all before about Ledley King, but I will never tire of tales recalling just how good the legendary Tottenham defender was.
Jake Livermore is the latest of King’s former teammates to rhapsodize about his ability, and his miraculous management of that crippled knee.
Asked to build his perfect player from those he has played with by The Athletic, Livermore identified King as the ultimate tackler, describing his one-time skipper as “the governor…like a Rolls-Royce at the back.”
“Ledley King was the king of tackling,” Livermore said. “Considering he had dodgy knees and didn’t train from week to week, he was amazing.
“I broke my leg early in my career at Tottenham, so we were training together. He wouldn’t train properly from Monday to Friday because of his knees and he would play on a Saturday and be a rock at the back.
“His timing of tackling was always great, but if he didn’t need to tackle, he would just intercept. He was the the governor. He was like a Rolls-Royce at the back.”
Livermore did not make his Spurs debut until 2010 so arguably didn’t even see King at his peak, which I’d argue was under Martin Jol from 2004 to 2007, when he was as good as any other centre-back in the Premier League.
The West Brom midfielder, who played 58 times for Spurs after coming through our academy, chose another former great of ours – Luka Modric – as the right foot in his perfect player, telling The Athletic: “Everything he did was with with his right foot, whether it was the instep, the outside, the back or the sole. His left boot has still got the receipt on because he’s never used it, but his right foot is fantastic.”
A certain Gareth Bale was strangely shunned as the other peg in favour of Liverpool’s Andy Robertson, whom Livermore played alongside at Hull City.