Ive been critical of him in the past, but he's put in some very good prefomarnces recently. He was poor v LCFC in the league 0-1, but looked strong since then.
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Older brother.Who the hells Roman? Not sure who the dad is?
Let's make it 5 Spurs in the starting 11 for England. Walker over Clyne, who I thought was poor yesterday
Clyne certainly was not poor against Germany.
His one on one defending has improved immensely, the way he shepherded Arnautovic was great.
Kyle Walker: 'At first it was horrible under Mauricio Pochettino but now we run every team off the pitch'
By: Jonathan Lieu
Monday night. Hugo Lloris sends a long goal-kick down the right. Kyle Walker towers above Marc Muniesa and heads it on. Erik Lamela squirms, slithers, finds Christian Eriksen. All of a sudden, Stoke are facing an epidemic: a blizzard of blue shirts, all pelting towards goal at different angles.
Eriksen plays it through for Dele Alli. And exactly 12 seconds after the ball has left Lloris’s boot, Alli is chipping Shay Given and jogging away in celebration.
Just another deadly attack. Just another scintillating goal. Just another three points.
The following day, Walker is sitting outside a photographic studio in east London, soaking up the last of the evening sunshine. He is in a good mood: polite and unguarded, cracking gags about Jan Vertonghen’s dress sense. After beating Stoke 4-0, all the talk now iswhether Spurs can overhaul Leicester to win the Premier League. The gap is still five points, but while Leicester are scraping draws and 1-0s, Tottenham are winning with style.
If Walker is agitated by all this, he is hiding it well. Does he not feel even a little giddy at the thrill of a genuine title challenge?
“Of course,” he says. “But you have to be professional at the same time. We need to stay humble and keep doing the basics well. There’s still a lot of minutes of football left until the prize is given out.”
A tattoo on Walker’s arm hints at darker times. “To the stars through difficulties,” it reads, and Walker has come through a fair amount in his short career. Four years ago, he was named Young Player of the Year by his fellow pros. The other names on the shortlist were Danny Welbeck, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Daniel Sturridge, Sergio Aguero and Gareth Bale. That was how highly Walker was regarded. He had the world at his feet.
But things did not go quite to plan. The irresistible momentum that had fuelled Walker’s early career slowly evaporated. Errors began to creep in. Managers came and went. Tim Sherwood even tried playing him in midfield at one point. After a ridiculous tabloid furore, he was forced to apologise for a photograph that showed him inhaling nitrous oxide. Worse was to come: a pelvic injury in 2014 put him out of the game for nine months.
Walker had to watch the World Cup in Brazil on television. It was, he later admitted, the most difficult part of his career. Naturally, doubts began to creep in.
“I needed to prove to myself – to the manager, to the fans, even to my mum and dad – that I’m not just an average player,” he says now. “I need to kick on. I’m 25 years old, I’m not a little kid any more. I’m an experienced player.”
Now, hang on a minute. Walker may have had a stop-start couple of seasons, but “average player” is surely pushing it a bit, no?
He sighs. “I’m probably my biggest critic. I’m a perfectionist. I want everything done right. When it’s not done right, I’m not happy. Ask my missus, she probably takes most of it. I want to improve, I want to be the best I can be. It’s a short career.”
And so, in 2014, enter Mauricio Pochettino: Walker’s fourth Tottenham manager in two years. When Walker first clapped eyes on this curious Argentinian with his translator and his gourd of maté, he was at something of a personal crossroads. Tottenham finished fifth last season with Walker injured for large parts. Then came last summer, and the now-legendary Pochettino boot camp.
“I’m not going to lie,” Walker says. “At the start it was horrible. Horrible. When you reach the first team as a professional, it’s kind of like, ‘If you want go and do gym, do gym. If you don’t, you don’t have to’. But when he came in, gym was compulsory.”
That summer, Walker and his team-mates pushed themselves to the limit. Now, they are reaping the benefits. “We’ve got four games left, and we’re still running almost every other team off the pitch,” Walker says. “The only team close to us, if I remember correctly, is Bournemouth.
“That’s what I meant before about doing the basics right. We can all play football, but one of the basics of this game is that you need to run about and work for each other. That’s what’s pushed us on to the next level. Now, if he says ‘do a gym session in the afternoon’, it’s a normal thing. We just get on and do it.”
Tactically, Pochettino has devised a system that gets the best out of Walker going forward without leaving him exposed defensively. The full-backs – Walker and Kieran Trippier on the right, Ben Davies and Danny Rose on the left – have been the unsung heroes of this side, providing attacking width and tireless energy. When they go forward, Eric Dier drops back from midfield to cover them.
Yet Tottenham’s emergence as title contenders did not happen at once. A defeat to Manchester United on the opening weekend was “the kick up the behind that we needed”, according to Walker, who scored an own goal that day. After that, it would be 15 games until Tottenham lost again.
Along the way, Tottenham’s family unit has only grown closer. Walker grins as he paints a picture of the squad. “We’ve got a lot of different characters,” he says. “I’m probably one that’s known for jokes, but Dele and Eric are probably pipping me at the minute. Jan’s always there with a bit of banter. Then you’ve got the sensible ones: Hugo, Toby [Alderweireld], Michel Vorm, like parents trying to keep us on a leash. We all complement each other well. It’s just a joy to go into work every single day.”
And at the head of the family, the genial Pochettino. “It’s weird,” says Walker when asked to describe their relationship. “It’s like a friend, but you have so much respect for him because of what he’s done in his football career. The thing I’ve warmed to the most is that you can knock on his door.
“My granddad had a stroke two or three months ago. I knocked on his door and said: ‘I need to go to Sheffield to see my granddad.’ He said, ‘Never mind about the double session. Family’s more important. Go and see your granddad.’ To me, that said everything about the man that he is.” Happily, Walker’s granddad recovered.
And so, here we are now: four games to go, and two of the unlikeliest challengers in living memory. Surely a second-place finish – their best in 53 years – would be a decent result?
“If you’d said to me at the start of the season that we’d finish second, I’d have said thanks,” he says. “But with how the season’s gone? You have to give full credit to Leicester, they’re there for a reason. But there are still a lot of minutes to be played. I hope it goes down to the wire. I just hope we can keep going for these last four games, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Whatever happens in those four games, Walker’s personal redemption is complete. His career is on the rise again. He has Euro 2016 this summer, a first Champions League campaign to look forward to next season, a dressing room that feels like a second family.
“I was talking to [former team-mate] Jermaine Jenas earlier about the players we played with,” he says. “Bale, Luka Modric, [Rafael] van der Vaart. Ledley King. You’d probably have chosen that team on paper. But for work ethic and team spirit, it’s this team all day long. The enthusiasm. The hunger. We’re young, but we’re not immature.
“We’ve set the bar now, and everything below this bar is unacceptable. We’ve had so many twists and turns at the club. Managers have come, managers have gone. Now we’ve got a good foundation, a great manager, a great bunch of lads. Hopefully, we can step on for the next 10 years.”
A dynasty. In a way it is what motivates all fathers, and Walker, who has two sons, is no different. He is yet to win silverware at Tottenham, and while he has not been waiting as long as some of the club’s older fans, it feels long enough.
“I’ve been here six years,” he explains. “And it’s the closest I’ve ever come to being a Premier League champion. That’s why I signed for Tottenham. To say to my two little boys: ‘Look, on that day, daddy won the trophy’.”
By: Jonathan Lieu
Monday night. Hugo Lloris sends a long goal-kick down the right. Kyle Walker towers above Marc Muniesa and heads it on. Erik Lamela squirms, slithers, finds Christian Eriksen. All of a sudden, Stoke are facing an epidemic: a blizzard of blue shirts, all pelting towards goal at different angles.
Eriksen plays it through for Dele Alli. And exactly 12 seconds after the ball has left Lloris’s boot, Alli is chipping Shay Given and jogging away in celebration.
Just another deadly attack. Just another scintillating goal. Just another three points.
The following day, Walker is sitting outside a photographic studio in east London, soaking up the last of the evening sunshine. He is in a good mood: polite and unguarded, cracking gags about Jan Vertonghen’s dress sense. After beating Stoke 4-0, all the talk now iswhether Spurs can overhaul Leicester to win the Premier League. The gap is still five points, but while Leicester are scraping draws and 1-0s, Tottenham are winning with style.
If Walker is agitated by all this, he is hiding it well. Does he not feel even a little giddy at the thrill of a genuine title challenge?
“Of course,” he says. “But you have to be professional at the same time. We need to stay humble and keep doing the basics well. There’s still a lot of minutes of football left until the prize is given out.”
A tattoo on Walker’s arm hints at darker times. “To the stars through difficulties,” it reads, and Walker has come through a fair amount in his short career. Four years ago, he was named Young Player of the Year by his fellow pros. The other names on the shortlist were Danny Welbeck, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Daniel Sturridge, Sergio Aguero and Gareth Bale. That was how highly Walker was regarded. He had the world at his feet.
But things did not go quite to plan. The irresistible momentum that had fuelled Walker’s early career slowly evaporated. Errors began to creep in. Managers came and went. Tim Sherwood even tried playing him in midfield at one point. After a ridiculous tabloid furore, he was forced to apologise for a photograph that showed him inhaling nitrous oxide. Worse was to come: a pelvic injury in 2014 put him out of the game for nine months.
Walker had to watch the World Cup in Brazil on television. It was, he later admitted, the most difficult part of his career. Naturally, doubts began to creep in.
“I needed to prove to myself – to the manager, to the fans, even to my mum and dad – that I’m not just an average player,” he says now. “I need to kick on. I’m 25 years old, I’m not a little kid any more. I’m an experienced player.”
Now, hang on a minute. Walker may have had a stop-start couple of seasons, but “average player” is surely pushing it a bit, no?
He sighs. “I’m probably my biggest critic. I’m a perfectionist. I want everything done right. When it’s not done right, I’m not happy. Ask my missus, she probably takes most of it. I want to improve, I want to be the best I can be. It’s a short career.”
And so, in 2014, enter Mauricio Pochettino: Walker’s fourth Tottenham manager in two years. When Walker first clapped eyes on this curious Argentinian with his translator and his gourd of maté, he was at something of a personal crossroads. Tottenham finished fifth last season with Walker injured for large parts. Then came last summer, and the now-legendary Pochettino boot camp.
“I’m not going to lie,” Walker says. “At the start it was horrible. Horrible. When you reach the first team as a professional, it’s kind of like, ‘If you want go and do gym, do gym. If you don’t, you don’t have to’. But when he came in, gym was compulsory.”
That summer, Walker and his team-mates pushed themselves to the limit. Now, they are reaping the benefits. “We’ve got four games left, and we’re still running almost every other team off the pitch,” Walker says. “The only team close to us, if I remember correctly, is Bournemouth.
“That’s what I meant before about doing the basics right. We can all play football, but one of the basics of this game is that you need to run about and work for each other. That’s what’s pushed us on to the next level. Now, if he says ‘do a gym session in the afternoon’, it’s a normal thing. We just get on and do it.”
Tactically, Pochettino has devised a system that gets the best out of Walker going forward without leaving him exposed defensively. The full-backs – Walker and Kieran Trippier on the right, Ben Davies and Danny Rose on the left – have been the unsung heroes of this side, providing attacking width and tireless energy. When they go forward, Eric Dier drops back from midfield to cover them.
Yet Tottenham’s emergence as title contenders did not happen at once. A defeat to Manchester United on the opening weekend was “the kick up the behind that we needed”, according to Walker, who scored an own goal that day. After that, it would be 15 games until Tottenham lost again.
Along the way, Tottenham’s family unit has only grown closer. Walker grins as he paints a picture of the squad. “We’ve got a lot of different characters,” he says. “I’m probably one that’s known for jokes, but Dele and Eric are probably pipping me at the minute. Jan’s always there with a bit of banter. Then you’ve got the sensible ones: Hugo, Toby [Alderweireld], Michel Vorm, like parents trying to keep us on a leash. We all complement each other well. It’s just a joy to go into work every single day.”
And at the head of the family, the genial Pochettino. “It’s weird,” says Walker when asked to describe their relationship. “It’s like a friend, but you have so much respect for him because of what he’s done in his football career. The thing I’ve warmed to the most is that you can knock on his door.
“My granddad had a stroke two or three months ago. I knocked on his door and said: ‘I need to go to Sheffield to see my granddad.’ He said, ‘Never mind about the double session. Family’s more important. Go and see your granddad.’ To me, that said everything about the man that he is.” Happily, Walker’s granddad recovered.
And so, here we are now: four games to go, and two of the unlikeliest challengers in living memory. Surely a second-place finish – their best in 53 years – would be a decent result?
“If you’d said to me at the start of the season that we’d finish second, I’d have said thanks,” he says. “But with how the season’s gone? You have to give full credit to Leicester, they’re there for a reason. But there are still a lot of minutes to be played. I hope it goes down to the wire. I just hope we can keep going for these last four games, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Whatever happens in those four games, Walker’s personal redemption is complete. His career is on the rise again. He has Euro 2016 this summer, a first Champions League campaign to look forward to next season, a dressing room that feels like a second family.
“I was talking to [former team-mate] Jermaine Jenas earlier about the players we played with,” he says. “Bale, Luka Modric, [Rafael] van der Vaart. Ledley King. You’d probably have chosen that team on paper. But for work ethic and team spirit, it’s this team all day long. The enthusiasm. The hunger. We’re young, but we’re not immature.
“We’ve set the bar now, and everything below this bar is unacceptable. We’ve had so many twists and turns at the club. Managers have come, managers have gone. Now we’ve got a good foundation, a great manager, a great bunch of lads. Hopefully, we can step on for the next 10 years.”
A dynasty. In a way it is what motivates all fathers, and Walker, who has two sons, is no different. He is yet to win silverware at Tottenham, and while he has not been waiting as long as some of the club’s older fans, it feels long enough.
“I’ve been here six years,” he explains. “And it’s the closest I’ve ever come to being a Premier League champion. That’s why I signed for Tottenham. To say to my two little boys: ‘Look, on that day, daddy won the trophy’.”
Great interview. Walker is quite a thoughtful guy, even if that's not how he's usually perceived.
This and other interviews this year shows that he recognises he is a senior player. He is often mentioned by new arrivals as the one that helps them settle.
being interviewed now on Football Focus
Kyle Walker: ‘Under Pochettino Spurs have good foundations’
Tottenham travel to Chelsea on Monday knowing their title dream could be over by then but the defender says ‘it’s definitely been the best season of my career’
Kyle Walker: ‘Under Pochettino Spurs have good foundations’
By David Hytner
Like most northern boys, Kyle Walker knew that Tottenham Hotspur were hated by Woolwich. Like most northern boys, he did not know they were also hated by Chelsea and West Ham United. It is a curiosity that the supporters of three of London’s biggest clubs should each cite Tottenham as their fiercest rival. Walker, who moved to White Hart Lane from Sheffield United in February 2010, learned quickly.
“When I first moved down from Sheffield, obviously, you know about the Spurs and Woolwich rivalry,” Walker says. “I was getting advised: ‘Don’t buy a red car. Don’t do this. Don’t do that.’ I was thinking: ‘OK. Here we go.’ I’m a Sheffield United fan. I loved red and white!
“But I was living round Essex and I was getting West Ham fans taunting me. I was thinking: ‘Ooh. OK. I didn’t know about this.’ Of course, it was an eye-opener. With Chelsea, as well but I think it’s good that there are rivalries everywhere. We’re right on each other’s doorsteps and it’s good for football – and it’s only going to get bigger and better.”
Walker jokes that he has a solution to the car colour problems created by his professional allegiance. “I’ve just got a push-bike,” he says, tongue firmly in cheek. “I come to work on my push-bike. What colour is it? It’s a white one.”
Tottenham’s visit to Chelsea on Monday night will be framed by the usual hostility but there has been a twist. This year, for the first time in a long time, it is Tottenham who have the Premier League title aspirations and the imperative for Chelsea is to derail them.
At Bournemouth last weekend, the travelling Chelsea fans chanted to their players that they had better beat Tottenham while there have been comments from the club’s caretaker manager, Guus Hiddink, and the players Cesc Fàbregas and Eden Hazard to the effect that they would prefer Leicester City to win the league.
It has needled some people at Tottenham, particularly as Chelsea still have to play Leicester at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season – although the title race might not last that long. It will not last beyond Sunday afternoon, if Leicester were to win at Manchester United. Walker, however, takes a different line.
“It is a compliment, in a way,” he says. “And it gets you fired up. We need to show the fighting spirit that we’ve shown all season and go to Chelsea and get a result. It’s been a long time since we’ve done that so, hopefully, we can put it right.”
Tottenham have to go back to 1990 and the old first division for a league win at Stamford Bridge. Since then, they have drawn eight and lost 17. But Walker says this is a much-changed Tottenham; they are a group that is sturdier and more together. Walker’s last appearance at Stamford Bridge was the 4-0 drubbing in March 2014, after which the Spurs manager at the time, Tim Sherwood, questioned the character of his players. Under Mauricio Pochettino, the mentality is different.
“If you watch Tottenham week in, week out, I think you can see that,” Walker says. “It’s a completely different work ethic now. The lads are much closer. We’re going for a title and, worst-case scenario, hopefully it’s the Champions League. Who would have thought I would have been saying that two years ago? So it’s positives. This club is built on good foundations now. We’re not building on sand.”
Pochettino’s announcement on Friday that he had agreed a new contract until 2021 reinforced the sense of permanence and there are now likely to be a clutch of players committing to new deals. Pochettino has become one of the most coveted managers in Europe and it had been easy to detect a nervousness within the squad over recent weeks while his fresh terms remained unsigned. Walker’s reaction, when told of the news, spoke volumes.
“I’ve been waiting for someone to say that for ages,” he says. “Thank God for that. I’m over the moon about that. For me, he’s not just the manager on the pitch but it’s how he is off the pitch. He is the man to take this club forward and on to new levels. It’s just everything about him; his aura, as well. This is a relief and it’s what I was saying about the foundations. They are set now – and he is a big part of that.”
Walker has been a big part of what Tottenham have achieved this season and his all-action performances for a manager who demands that his full-backs press high have been built on sound fitness. The 25-year-old was frustrated for almost all of 2014 when he laboured with a serious abdominal problem. He says that he played in pain from the beginning of the year, taking “painkillers for two or three months” before he succumbed in March.
He did not play again until December and was ruled out of Roy Hodgson’s England squad for the World Cup in Brazil – the second major finals he had missed through injury. Hodgson had been ready to take him to Euro 2012 only for Walker to damage a toe on the final day of the domestic season against Fulham. How hard was it for him to watch those tournaments? “I don’t watch them,” Walker replies.
Walker struggled for rhythm in the second half of last season, after his comeback, because he was “always playing catch-up” in terms of match sharpness. He adds: “You’re itching to get on the pitch but when it does come, you’re thinking: ’This is a bit different. People have got quicker and stronger. The game has changed.’ Obviously, a new manager had come in and he was playing a different way. The team that I came back into wasn’t the team that I left.”
However, Walker was able to enjoy a full pre-season last summer and has not looked back. It is sometimes forgotten that he was voted the PFA’s Young Player of the Year in 2011-12, ahead of Gareth Bale and Sergio Agüero, and he feels he is finally back up to those levels.
“I think that I’m getting back to where I should have been, you know, a couple of years back,” Walker says. “Hopefully, I can move forward and show people my full potential. I feel stronger than ever and my stats are the best they’ve ever been. It’s definitely been the best season of my career.”
There remains the sizeable incentive of a place in Hodgson’s squad for Euro 2016 and, next season, a likely first taste of Champions League football. Walker was on loan at Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa in 2010-11 – Tottenham’s only previous campaign in Europe’s elite competition. More immediately, Walker refuses to give up on the title dream, despite Monday’s wobble in the 1-1 home draw with West Bromwich Albion.
“For me, personally, it’s been hard – that result settling in,” Walker says. “But it’s not over until the fat lady sings. Manchester United are still chasing something while Everton are not going to want to lose at Leicester next weekend. Everton, probably, have a point to prove, having not had the best of seasons and Chelsea, likewise. So, hopefully, they’re not easy games for Leicester. But, first and foremost, we need to go to Stamford Bridge and win.”
Tottenham travel to Chelsea on Monday knowing their title dream could be over by then but the defender says ‘it’s definitely been the best season of my career’
Kyle Walker: ‘Under Pochettino Spurs have good foundations’
By David Hytner
Like most northern boys, Kyle Walker knew that Tottenham Hotspur were hated by Woolwich. Like most northern boys, he did not know they were also hated by Chelsea and West Ham United. It is a curiosity that the supporters of three of London’s biggest clubs should each cite Tottenham as their fiercest rival. Walker, who moved to White Hart Lane from Sheffield United in February 2010, learned quickly.
“When I first moved down from Sheffield, obviously, you know about the Spurs and Woolwich rivalry,” Walker says. “I was getting advised: ‘Don’t buy a red car. Don’t do this. Don’t do that.’ I was thinking: ‘OK. Here we go.’ I’m a Sheffield United fan. I loved red and white!
“But I was living round Essex and I was getting West Ham fans taunting me. I was thinking: ‘Ooh. OK. I didn’t know about this.’ Of course, it was an eye-opener. With Chelsea, as well but I think it’s good that there are rivalries everywhere. We’re right on each other’s doorsteps and it’s good for football – and it’s only going to get bigger and better.”
Walker jokes that he has a solution to the car colour problems created by his professional allegiance. “I’ve just got a push-bike,” he says, tongue firmly in cheek. “I come to work on my push-bike. What colour is it? It’s a white one.”
Tottenham’s visit to Chelsea on Monday night will be framed by the usual hostility but there has been a twist. This year, for the first time in a long time, it is Tottenham who have the Premier League title aspirations and the imperative for Chelsea is to derail them.
At Bournemouth last weekend, the travelling Chelsea fans chanted to their players that they had better beat Tottenham while there have been comments from the club’s caretaker manager, Guus Hiddink, and the players Cesc Fàbregas and Eden Hazard to the effect that they would prefer Leicester City to win the league.
It has needled some people at Tottenham, particularly as Chelsea still have to play Leicester at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season – although the title race might not last that long. It will not last beyond Sunday afternoon, if Leicester were to win at Manchester United. Walker, however, takes a different line.
“It is a compliment, in a way,” he says. “And it gets you fired up. We need to show the fighting spirit that we’ve shown all season and go to Chelsea and get a result. It’s been a long time since we’ve done that so, hopefully, we can put it right.”
Tottenham have to go back to 1990 and the old first division for a league win at Stamford Bridge. Since then, they have drawn eight and lost 17. But Walker says this is a much-changed Tottenham; they are a group that is sturdier and more together. Walker’s last appearance at Stamford Bridge was the 4-0 drubbing in March 2014, after which the Spurs manager at the time, Tim Sherwood, questioned the character of his players. Under Mauricio Pochettino, the mentality is different.
“If you watch Tottenham week in, week out, I think you can see that,” Walker says. “It’s a completely different work ethic now. The lads are much closer. We’re going for a title and, worst-case scenario, hopefully it’s the Champions League. Who would have thought I would have been saying that two years ago? So it’s positives. This club is built on good foundations now. We’re not building on sand.”
Pochettino’s announcement on Friday that he had agreed a new contract until 2021 reinforced the sense of permanence and there are now likely to be a clutch of players committing to new deals. Pochettino has become one of the most coveted managers in Europe and it had been easy to detect a nervousness within the squad over recent weeks while his fresh terms remained unsigned. Walker’s reaction, when told of the news, spoke volumes.
“I’ve been waiting for someone to say that for ages,” he says. “Thank God for that. I’m over the moon about that. For me, he’s not just the manager on the pitch but it’s how he is off the pitch. He is the man to take this club forward and on to new levels. It’s just everything about him; his aura, as well. This is a relief and it’s what I was saying about the foundations. They are set now – and he is a big part of that.”
Walker has been a big part of what Tottenham have achieved this season and his all-action performances for a manager who demands that his full-backs press high have been built on sound fitness. The 25-year-old was frustrated for almost all of 2014 when he laboured with a serious abdominal problem. He says that he played in pain from the beginning of the year, taking “painkillers for two or three months” before he succumbed in March.
He did not play again until December and was ruled out of Roy Hodgson’s England squad for the World Cup in Brazil – the second major finals he had missed through injury. Hodgson had been ready to take him to Euro 2012 only for Walker to damage a toe on the final day of the domestic season against Fulham. How hard was it for him to watch those tournaments? “I don’t watch them,” Walker replies.
Walker struggled for rhythm in the second half of last season, after his comeback, because he was “always playing catch-up” in terms of match sharpness. He adds: “You’re itching to get on the pitch but when it does come, you’re thinking: ’This is a bit different. People have got quicker and stronger. The game has changed.’ Obviously, a new manager had come in and he was playing a different way. The team that I came back into wasn’t the team that I left.”
However, Walker was able to enjoy a full pre-season last summer and has not looked back. It is sometimes forgotten that he was voted the PFA’s Young Player of the Year in 2011-12, ahead of Gareth Bale and Sergio Agüero, and he feels he is finally back up to those levels.
“I think that I’m getting back to where I should have been, you know, a couple of years back,” Walker says. “Hopefully, I can move forward and show people my full potential. I feel stronger than ever and my stats are the best they’ve ever been. It’s definitely been the best season of my career.”
There remains the sizeable incentive of a place in Hodgson’s squad for Euro 2016 and, next season, a likely first taste of Champions League football. Walker was on loan at Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa in 2010-11 – Tottenham’s only previous campaign in Europe’s elite competition. More immediately, Walker refuses to give up on the title dream, despite Monday’s wobble in the 1-1 home draw with West Bromwich Albion.
“For me, personally, it’s been hard – that result settling in,” Walker says. “But it’s not over until the fat lady sings. Manchester United are still chasing something while Everton are not going to want to lose at Leicester next weekend. Everton, probably, have a point to prove, having not had the best of seasons and Chelsea, likewise. So, hopefully, they’re not easy games for Leicester. But, first and foremost, we need to go to Stamford Bridge and win.”
Brilliant little quote from Walker here (not gonna lie, he's not the first person I'd expect to come out with such wisdom...)
:walker:
It's why anyone with a brain would rather be a Spurs than a Leicester fan going into next season, and all their intolerable nouveau fans can go fuck themselves.
Let me paraphrase.Brilliant little quote from Walker here (not gonna lie, he's not the first person I'd expect to come out with such wisdom...)
:walker:
It's why anyone with a brain would rather be a Spurs than a Leicester fan going into next season, and all their intolerable nouveau fans can go fuck themselves.
Kyle Walker: "The first castle (Redknapp) sank into the swamp"
"The second castle (AVB) fell over, then sank into the swamp."
"The third castle (Tim) burned down, fell over, THEN sank into the swamp."
"But the fourth one stayed!"
Awesome moment to slip in a supremely appropriate Holy Grail reference. I am impressed!
Is this guy ok? Like mentally ok?
Ok so he kicks out against West brom for nothing and is lucky the ref doesn't see it...he sees Alli get hit with a ban.....then he decides to kick out again the very next game??
Ok so he kicks out against West brom for nothing and is lucky the ref doesn't see it...he sees Alli get hit with a ban.....then he decides to kick out again the very next game??
The cocaine that he was on during the game?