In the last few months, Harry Redknapp has bemoaned having to work on a small wage budget. He has said that limited money for player’s wages has prevented him from signing top players. Looking through the Tottenham squad, there are a few injury-prone players that rarely feature in the side, on high wages. Releasing Woodgate and King could free up some money, but do Tottenham have enough defenders to do this?
They would be left with central defenders Gallas, Dawson, Kaboul and Bassong. Of these, I see Kaboul as the man to take Tottenham to the top in the future.
There is a touch of the Gareth Bale to Younes Kaboul’s story. Kaboul came to Tottenham from Auxerre in 2007. He was young but showed he had raw ability. Due to the injuries of Dawson and King he started playing regularly in the first team. Just like Bale, Kaboul was not quite ready for this exposure, and made mistakes which affected his confidence. In doing so, Kaboul created many doubters in his potential. However, after a few seasons out of the limelight, Kaboul seems to have matured. He looks assured and confident and has played well this season.
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Kaboul has been absent with a hip injury since January, but should be back to full fitness in the next few weeks. To some extent, the jury is still out on Kaboul, but personally I think he will develop into a very good player. Watching him at White Hart Lane against Inter Milan earlier this season, I was hugely impressed with him. He is remarkably quick and agile for such a big defender and teamed up impressively with the experienced William Gallas. He is good in the air, being strong and tall. He also weighs in with his fair share of goals, including the winner against Arsenal in November, lovely.
In his early Tottenham career Kaboul was prone to lapses in concentration. His mistakes against West Ham and Birmingham cost Tottenham points in 2007. This lack of composure resurfaced earlier this year. He head-butted Newcastle’s Cheik Tiote and was sent off, luckily it did not cost Tottenham points that day. However, in general, he has shown signs of maturity in recent months, his time at Portsmouth with Tony Adams has clearly benefited him.
He is as strong as anyone in the league and is one of the quickest defenders. With attributes likes this, he can be a top class defender. He probably still needs to work on his technique, and on his positioning, but if he continues to improve like he has done in the last year I think Tottenham will have a serious defender on their hands.
For the time being, Gallas and Dawson are a good partnership. But there is no reason why Kaboul cannot overtake Dawson, who still makes silly errors, in the next few years.
Tottenham would lack experience without the likes of King and Woodgate, especially as Gallas will be 34 next year and might play less. So maybe this summer is too soon to offload both but I don’t think Woodgate has a future at White Hart Lane. As for Dawson, he will need to rise to the challenge of leading the defence in future years, while Bassong must continue to improve. But my guess is that Kaboul will be running the show for Tottenham before too long.
You can follow Joe on twitter @joeaustin8
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