scat1620
L'espion mal fait
- May 11, 2008
- 16,369
- 52,830
To cut to the chase how do people see Younes Kaboul's future at Spurs, and how would you handle his inclusion (or not) in our defence over the coming months and season(s)?
To get it out of the way, I think that when fit he's the best centre-back at our club bar none, Vertonghen included. However, I am beginning to have serious concerns about his long-term fitness - he's been out of the side for the best part of a year now, and although he's apparently now training again we still haven't had any indication that he's anywhere near ready for any first team action any time soon. There have been various hints from ITKs that his injury problems may be of a chronic variety and therefore even when next he gets himself fit enough to be in first team contention, there may be the suspicion that another lengthy spell on the sidelines will always be just around the corner for him.
Without having any insider knowledge as to his injury and long-term fitness situation myself it's hard to form a definitive opinion, but if the rumours of potential chronic injury problems have any truth to them then I would [very reluctantly] have to conclude that we should look to sell him, as harsh a stance as that may be. For the last few seasons we have all seen the effect of regularly chopping and changing our defensive personnel as we accommodated Ledley whenever he was fit, and regularly switched things round to bring a replacement CB into the team on the many occasions where he wasn't. As majestic as King was whenever he was fit enough to turn out for us, I'd suggest that if we'd had a competent (evidently inferior to Ledley) but fit pair of central defenders who could be relied upon to partner each other in the majority of games, our defence might have been better than it was for having the brilliance of Ledley one week and then A.N.Other filling in for him (in a defensive line that didn't have the familiarity of playing together every week) the next. And as much as I think a fit Kaboul is a fantastic defender, equally he's no Ledley King. Better to have an 8/10 defender who'll be there every week than a 9-10/10 defender who'll play once every 3 or 4 games, IMO.
Obviously all of the above is based on the assumption that Kaboul won't be able to get back to playing to his former standards for sustained runs of games in the future - I would love that to be all wrong and to see Younes leading our defence out for years to come, and that may indeed happen.
What do you guys think? Will Kaboul ever recover to form and long-term fitness? And if he doesn't, should we stick by him and play him when we can, or should we look for other options?
To get it out of the way, I think that when fit he's the best centre-back at our club bar none, Vertonghen included. However, I am beginning to have serious concerns about his long-term fitness - he's been out of the side for the best part of a year now, and although he's apparently now training again we still haven't had any indication that he's anywhere near ready for any first team action any time soon. There have been various hints from ITKs that his injury problems may be of a chronic variety and therefore even when next he gets himself fit enough to be in first team contention, there may be the suspicion that another lengthy spell on the sidelines will always be just around the corner for him.
Without having any insider knowledge as to his injury and long-term fitness situation myself it's hard to form a definitive opinion, but if the rumours of potential chronic injury problems have any truth to them then I would [very reluctantly] have to conclude that we should look to sell him, as harsh a stance as that may be. For the last few seasons we have all seen the effect of regularly chopping and changing our defensive personnel as we accommodated Ledley whenever he was fit, and regularly switched things round to bring a replacement CB into the team on the many occasions where he wasn't. As majestic as King was whenever he was fit enough to turn out for us, I'd suggest that if we'd had a competent (evidently inferior to Ledley) but fit pair of central defenders who could be relied upon to partner each other in the majority of games, our defence might have been better than it was for having the brilliance of Ledley one week and then A.N.Other filling in for him (in a defensive line that didn't have the familiarity of playing together every week) the next. And as much as I think a fit Kaboul is a fantastic defender, equally he's no Ledley King. Better to have an 8/10 defender who'll be there every week than a 9-10/10 defender who'll play once every 3 or 4 games, IMO.
Obviously all of the above is based on the assumption that Kaboul won't be able to get back to playing to his former standards for sustained runs of games in the future - I would love that to be all wrong and to see Younes leading our defence out for years to come, and that may indeed happen.
What do you guys think? Will Kaboul ever recover to form and long-term fitness? And if he doesn't, should we stick by him and play him when we can, or should we look for other options?
