Scott Parker is a midfielder who plays for English side Tottenham Hotspur and England. Parker was a graduate from The Football Association’s School of Excellence at Lilleshall before joining Charlton Athletic’s youth academy. He reached Charlton’s first team and established himself while they were a Premiership side. In the middle of the 2003/04 season Parker was, at age 23, sold to Chelsea for £10 million. That season he got his first senior England cap and was also named Young Player of the Year in English football. The following season he was struggling for a place in a strong Chelsea midfield with the likes of Makélelé, Lampard, Robben and Tiago. That season he also only got one more England cap.

In July 2005 Parker transferred to Newcastle United for a fee of £6.5 million. He quickly established himself in the team and looked likely to win a place in the England squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup but unfortunately became sick with glandular fever just a couple of months prior. The following season he was made captain for Newcastle and again he delivered consistently strong performances in the Premier League. He also won his third cap for England. At the end of the season Parker signed for West Ham for £7 million.

Parker played four years for West Ham. The first was marred by several injuries but the next three seasons had him voted Hammer of the Year by the supporters. After the 2010/11 season he was voted the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year in England. West Ham were still relegated to the Championship and on 31 August he signed for Tottenham, for a fee of £5.5 million. Parker has started the season at Tottenham in fine form and has in 2011 also finally established himself as a regular in the England team. He put on a Man of the Match performance when England beat World Champions Spain in a friendly at Wembley on November 12th.

The dust has barely settled around Luka Modric at Tottenham before they have a new problem in Rafael Van der Vaart. The Dutchman was last season’s top scorer for Spurs, with a lot of their games planned around his movement and style of play. His abilities as a finisher have never been in doubt. The price Spurs might have paid last season was less play-time for their strikers and, in the end, an acute lack of goals from them (Defoe, Pavlyuchenko and Crouch).
Van der Vaart’s influence has sometimes shown to be a bit of a double-edged sword. When things haven’t gone his way he has not held back his frustrations, earning himself bookings and being sent off – indeed he has even substituted himself off and walked straight to the changing rooms. When manager Harry Redknapp has substituted a visibly tired VDV, it has sometimes almost translated to disgust from the Dutchman. His nibbling injury problems, notably with a weak hamstring, has often been a problem. The injury problems was the reason Redknapp decided to omit Van der Vaart from Tottenham’s squad for the group stages of the Europa League. Van der Vaart spoke out in the media against that decision.

When Tottenham beat Arsenal last Sunday VDV was substituted in the 63rd minute. In the 1st half he had put his team ahead with a brilliant goal but displayed his short-comings in tracking back and helping the team to defend. To facilitate both Jermain Defoe and newly arrived loanee Emmanuel Adebayor as strikers, Redknapp had deployed VDV on the right side of the midfield. Van der Vaart has expressed before how he doesn’t prefer to play in that position. After the match Van der Vaart again decided to come out in the media and criticised Redknapp for playing him in that position and for substituting him.

Harry Redknapp has responded to the media by saying,
“Yes, it does seem to be a problem. Rafa can’t run back and chase the full-back. Against the better teams it is a problem.
“Rafa’s best position is in the middle, playing just behind the front man. The only problem is that Jermain Defoe plays there too and Jermain is playing very, very well at the moment.
“So, I guess I have got a decision to make, haven’t I? I suppose it’s now between Rafa and Jermain over who plays in the team.
“Rafa is a terrific footballer. He has great skill. But if you’re in the team and asked to do a job, really, you should just do it.”

Tottenham supporters are left to wonder why this discussion goes through the media, and where is the relationship between manager and player heading next time Van der Vaart is unhappy with a Redknapp decision.

A couple of hours before the transfer window closed, Tottenham blocked Giovani Dos Santos’ pending move to Spanish club Sevilla. The 22 year old Mexican’s relationship with the Spurs manager has been peculiar, ever since Harry Redknapp arrived at the club. A move away from the club was highly anticipated and the latest development has made the player furious.

Giovani came from Mexico to Barcelona’s youth academy as an 11 year old. He made it all the way to appearences in both Champions League and La Liga for the first team, before being transferred to Tottenham as a 19 year old. (These days his younger brother Jonathan Dos Santos is in the Barcelona first team squad.) Giovani was brought to Tottenham by their then Spanish manager Juande Ramos, however shortly thereafter Ramos was sacked and replaced by Harry Redknapp. The new manager acknowledged his obvious talent but criticised his attitude, complaining that the young Mexican spent too much time in nightclubs and lacked dedication in training. Giovani soon found himself sent out on loan to various clubs; first to Ipswich Town, then to Turkish club Galatasaray. At the same time Giovani worked his way into the first team of the Mexico national team, where he time and again has been outstanding in international games.

Giovani was voted runner-up as Young Player of the Tournament in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, catching the eye of football audiences around the world. He returned to Tottenham again ahead of the 2010/11 season but again found his opportunities under Redknapp very limited. He went on a successful loan spell to Spanish club Racing de Santander for the second half of the season. After the season finished he went with Mexico to play in the Gold Cup tournament in the USA. It was another chance for him to shine and help Mexico win the tournament. In the final against the hosts he scored the best goal of the tournament.

During this transfer window several clubs have chased Giovani’s signature and it looked like Sevilla had all but secured it. According to the player himself, and his agent, this move was blocked by Tottenham with less than two hours remaining.

“I was very surprised that with two hours left, my coach has changed his mind,” Giovani said in an interview with Fox Sports. “In three years at Tottenham I have not been taken into account and there has not been confidence in me at all. So I hope that this time I hear the truth when talking to him and we can get down to football. To be honest I already felt at another club, Sevilla, and we had already completed more than 50 per cent of negotiations. Almost everything had been agreed but then Spurs changed their minds, something I found very odd. Both myself and my agent have been left disappointed, sad and angry at the way Tottenham have acted. After such a long time without having any confidence in me I am now going to get my chance, which makes me feel weird. Even so, I mean to take this opportunity out of respect to the Tottenham fans and also because of the professional I am.”

Interestingly, the Tottenham fans have repeatedly called for Giovani to be given a chance to display his talent, like he already has done for Mexico and Racing Santander. So far Redknapp has seemed highly unlikely to utilise his talents. This season Redknapp has indicated that he intends to rotate his squad more, to be competitive both in the domestic league and cups and in the Europa League. Whether this will include Giovani Dos Santos we’ll have to wait and see.

Watch Giovani Dos Santos score in the Gold Cup final for Mexico:

Luka Modric has again come out in the media and expressed his desire to leave Tottenham for Chelsea. This time in an interview with the Croatian newspaper Sportske Novosti, Modric claimed that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy doesn’t even want to listen to him. Modric also claims that they made a gentleman agreement last summer, when Modric signed a new six year contract, to sit down and talk should offers from big clubs come in.
Modric had a short meeting with Daniel Levy when he returned for pre-season training last week. Modric claims in the interview that Levy simply told him, he would not be sold and if he didn’t accept that he would find himself on the bench or in the stands.

All this leaves more questions than answers. Levy is known as an astute businessman. Could he have given some loose promise to his player, just to get an extended contract with him and such boost his transfer price? In today’s football market it seems inconceivable that anything would be agreed outside a carefully drafted, written contract. Is it instead Modric who is playing dirty against the Spurs chairman?

What we do know is that both Levy and manager Harry Redknapp repeatedly have insisted that Modric, or any other top player, is not for sale. Levy will have some difficulty backtracking on such statements. However, nothing is not for sale forever. Modric might not have been for sale last month, he could be for sale the next, or in the January transfer window. Having a disgruntled player in the squad can be very damaging. That scenario is not strange to Tottenham either. Modric’s fellow croat, Niko Kranjcar, has long been unsettled due to lack of playtime. The same could be said about Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko. Have Redknapp and Levy done enough to communicate and work with their prized players? Will Levy indeed play hardball and place Modric in the stands, so that he won’t see any first team football until he succumb to what the club wants from him? Or will the club be dictated by player power, as it has happened so often in professional football, and have to release him from the contract he has signed?
In the meantime Modric is fast losing popularity with the Spurs faithfuls. It could turn uglier before it is resolved.

On May 15th Ledley King was back at centre back for Tottenham, helping the team to a first win away at Liverpool since 1993. King had not played since October 16th when he got injured in an away win at Fulham. Still after a seven months break he seemed to slot effortlessly back into the team. A commanding performance from King, his centre back partner Michael Dawson, full backs Younes Kaboul and the young Danny Rose kept Liverpool’s Suarez, Carroll, Kuyt and Maxi Rodriguez subdued.

Ledley King is Tottenham’s longest serving player. He joined the club as a seventeen year old in 1997. His debut came in a 2-3 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in May 1999. He started out as a midfielder and established himself as a regular after a 2-1 win against Liverpool in November 2000. The 2001/02 season saw King moving to the centre back position, after Sol Campbell moved to Arsenal. By the end of the season he was called up for England and regarded as one of the country’s best young centre backs.
In the 2003/04 season Glenn Hoddle was sacked as Tottenham manager and the new management moved King back into midfield. He was still called up as centre back for England. The following season he was in his preferred role as centre back again and had an outstanding season for Tottenham. They conceded only 41 goals in the Premier League and King played the full 90 minutes of every match. In January 2005 he was appointed as Spurs’ captain.

In the 2005/06 season a young Michael Dawson paired up with King in the Spurs central defense. They were both hugely impressive before King broke his metatarsal (foot) towards the end of the season. That was unfortunately the beginning of King’s long standing injury problems. He then injured his knee in pre-season before braking his metatarsal again. His appearances on the field became very sporadical but he captained his side to win the League Cup final in 2008. One of only ten appearances that season. King’s knee troubles had become chronic and unrepairable. Since then King doesn’t train with his team mates but works out in the gym. After each match his knee blows up like a balloon and has to be managed for him to have any chance to get ready the following week. Still King kept coming back into the team, delivering top performances every time. However his injuries made it difficult for him getting picked for his national side.
Several outstanding performances during the 2009/10 season saw him picked for England’s provisional World Cup squad. He scored in a friendly against Mexico on May 24th and was eventually picked for the World Cup in South Africa. He played the first 45 minutes in England’s opening match against USA, before pulling out with a groin injury. This was his last appearance in an England shirt.

King keeps managing his chronic knee injury and started out well in Tottenham’s 2010/11 campaign. That was until the groin injury kept him out from October until his come back at Anfield yesterday.
King’s injury troubles have seen Robbie Keane and later Michael Dawson as Spurs skipper every time he has been absent. His outstanding ability has kept him in the squad and it makes you wonder what might have been, without all the injuries. King is perhaps the most outstanding centre back the Premier League has seen. An interesting fact is also the fair play reputation he has. In his entire career King has only got 8 yellow cards. He has still got one more year in his contract with Spurs. It looks like that will be honoured and we still have some more outstanding performances coming.