Ledley King played under a whole host of managers across his 13-year spell with the Tottenham first-team, but he has a clear favourite, and Spurs fans will not be surprised by who that is.
If a new generation of Tottenham fans feel that the current era has been an extremely disappointing one for the club, given the club’s lack of success, one shudders to think how they would have coped with the late 1900s and early 2000s.
That was when Ledley King was breaking into the Tottenham Hotspur first-team, with the club mired in mid-table mediocrity and even occasionally flirting with relegation.
However, that started changing towards the latter part of King’s career, with Tottenham challenging for Champions League qualification under Martin Jol and eventually getting there under the tutelage of Harry Redknapp.
Ledley King reveals why he adored working with Harry Redknapp
By the time Redknapp arrived at Tottenham in 2009, King’s knee problems had reached a point of no return and the centre-back was unable to even train with the squad.
Yet, he was one of the first names on Redknapp’s teamsheet come matchday and helped secure Champions League qualification in 2010, with the North Londoners going all the way to the quarterfinal of the competition in their first time of asking.
It thus comes as no surprise that Ledley King enjoyed his time under Redknapp at Tottenham the most.
Reflecting on his playing days, the former Spurs captain told OLGB: “I think the game’s changed now. You don’t see the characters in the players like you used to anymore as well. There’s so much scrutiny, so much attention on the game that the fun element of it gets left behind a little bit at times.
“You’re almost not allowed to smile and have too much fun while you’re doing it these days. But yeah, Harry Redknapp was great. He was great for me personally because he came in at a time when I’d stopped training and not every manager would allow you to not train and still be able to play, but Harry did.
“I would say under Harry I probably had my favourite time at the club in terms of the players that we had at the football club. We’re talking about Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Rafael Van der Vaart.
“It’s just a shame that I was suffering during these times, but in terms of the football we were playing, being able to get into the Champions League for the first time, actually do well in the Champions League as well, it was brilliant.”
King reveals what separated Redknapp from other managers
Ledley King called time on his Tottenham career as soon as Redknapp was sacked in 2012, with the English manager losing his job despite getting the Lilywhites to a fourth-place finish that season.
The former Spurs defender explained that the legendary English coach kept things very simple and had a knack for getting the best out of the players he was managing.
King added: “Harry’s strength was identifying talent and getting the best out of them. That sounds very, very simple, but it was often players that some managers have struggled to really get the best out of.
“Harry had a strength of bringing them in and putting an arm around their shoulders and getting the best out of those types of players and that’s why we were able to do so well under him.
“I think all the players that I played with under Harry, loved Harry. Van der Vaart has said that it was his favourite time as a player, playing at Tottenham, and a lot of that is down to Harry and how he made us feel. We all loved Harry.”
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