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The King of White Hart Lane - (Book Review - "King")

Ledley King's new book is simply called KING

The King of White Hart Lane (Review of "King")

Ledley King has a new book; an autobiography entitled simply "King", co-written with two-time winner of magazine editor of the year Mat Snow (FourFOurTwo and Mojo), which will be published on 12th September, 2013 by Quercus.

Less than a week after the latest transfer window has closed, there could not be a more appropriate time to extol the virtues of one of that rare breed "The one club football player". I refer to no less a mortal than the one and only Ledley King; immaculate and much-respected footballer; one-club player; and Tottenham Hotspur legend.

Gareth Bale has just left Spurs for a world record transfer fee, and whilst he has given us 6 years of his time, most of which featured wonderful football and memorable, match-winning goals, Bale is never going to be remembered in the affections of Spurs fans in the same way as will Ledley King.

Ledley King was born on 12th October, 1980 in Bow, a true cockney and East End London kid. Still not quite 33 years old, Ledley finally had to hang up his boots prematurely at the end of the 2011/12 season. Ledley's long-running battle with injury is well known, but now you can read the man's story told as only he can tell it - honestly and from the heart.

Look at the cover picture of Ledley's book. The picture has the same characteristics of Ledley King the footballer. Calm, handsome, un-flustered, and simply immaculate.

Ledley was hailed by one of his greatest opponents, Thierry Henry in these terms:- "Ledley King will get the ball off you without even noticing. No contact, no fouls, but still strong. For me, that is a good defender!

Henry of course played for Spurs' greatest rivals, Arsenal. Another player who played with Henry was Sol Campbell, and Ledley writes quite a lot about Campbell's character and his departure from Spurs. Personally, I think it's a shame that both the popular fans' chants about Ledley related to Campbell and John Terry, and I never quite understood why we never sang about him "Born is the King of White Hart Lane".

Campbell's controversial departure did give Ledley a regular place in the Spurs team, and ultimately the captaincy.

Speaking of John Terry, he was another former Senrab FC player, like Ledley, although he joined two years later than our hero. It was a club named after Senrab Street in Stepney, but spookily spells Barnes backwards. John Barnes was one of Ledley's footballing heroes. Another was Paul Gascoigne.

I have a file of Ledley King's bookings. It is very, very small, and would occupy a fraction of the space needed to list the footballing misdemeanours of Terry. Ledley's league bookings were in single figures. Okay, he didn't play as many games as he could because of his fight with injury, but he did play in 268 league games for Spurs. Immaculate, and also fast, that was Ledley. Fast enough to score the fastest Premier League goal against Bradford in December 2000. Fast enough to chase Chelsea's Arjen Robben from 10 yards behind and cleanly take the ball of Robben's feet as he was about to shoot from well inside the penalty area.

Ledley writes frankly about Glenn Hoddle's time as Spurs manager, and confirms what we heard at the time, that the atmosphere behind the scenes was not always harmonious, although Ledley is quick to say that he respected every manager he played for. That's the nature of Ledley King; honest and respectful loved and respected.

"King" is the first book by a player whose career started and ended during the time Spurs Odyssey has been online. His footballing career can be mapped out by visiting our archives page. Now you can read not only about his memories of his football career, but read more about the man, his family, his England experiences and more. There are some great photographs of Ledley growing up and as a footballer.

It is fantastic that Ledley has been recognised by Tottenham Hotspur, and has been appointed as the club's ambassador, which means we will continue to see him at White Hart lane for a long time to come. It's just a shame that Ledley's knee deprived us of more time watching him play.

I wholeheartedly commend this book to you, which will be available through all the usual channels, including the Amazon link to be found on this page!

Ledley will be signing copies of the book at a number of forthcoming events.

He will be at the Spurs Supestore from 11.30am on Saturday 14th Sept, at Waterstones, Leadenhall Market, from 12pm on Thursday 19th Sept, and at the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green from 12pm on Saturday 21st Sept.

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