Former Spurs midfielder Tom Huddlestone retires from football

Former Spurs midfielder Tom Huddlestone retires from football

Ready for a blast from the past today? Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Tom Huddlestone announced his retirement from playing football today after a nearly 20-year career in the English professional game. The 37-year old Huddlestone officially hangs up his boots today, saying that he now plans to continue his career in football through coaching.

Yeah, I know! I thought he retired years ago too!

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For those of you who are newer to Tottenham fandom, Tom Huddlestone came through into professional football from Derby County, and spent eight glorious years anchoring Spurs’ midfield, from 2005-2013. He was there at the start of my Spurs fandom, and he was an integral part of the Tottenham teams that first qualified for the Champions League and started the resurgence into what Spurs are today. He played 144 matches for Tottenham before Spurs sold him to Hull City in 2013, where he made 133 more league matches in the Premier League and Championship. He even had four caps for England. Huddlestone just finished a two year stint at Manchester United’s U21 team where he was employed as a player-coach. According to Wikipedia, he just signed with Grimsby Town as a player-coach, but I guess now he’s less of a player-coach and more of a coach-coach.

Huddlestone was... well, let’s just say he was not “blessed with speed” if you know what I mean. Nor was he particularly adept at, well, “moving” or “agility” and he was something of a late bloomer. But the guy could pass. I have fond memories of watching THuddz sit at the base of Harry Redknapp’s midfields, pinging balls to players like Aaron Lennon, Jermain Defoe, Gareth Bale, and Rafa van der Vaart. He was also a physical specimen in his prime, bossing the center of the pitch putting in crunching defensive tackles to players who managed to get into his way. He was also good for the occasional long range blast of a goal; you may recall hearing about a “Thudderblast” back in the day, and he scored 15 goals for Spurs

This is very much a Remembering Some Guys™ post, but dammit, Tom Huddlestone was a big part of my early Spurs fandom, a real artifact from a different time in the Premier League. I always liked him, even when it was clear that particular skillset no longer benefitted Tottenham’s new look and status. It’s amazing and awesome that he had as long a playing career as he had, and as he transitions into what I hope is a long-term coaching career in the beautiful game, I wanted to just take some time to thank him for his service, and for giving me moments of joy at times when I didn’t fully appreciate them.

Thanks, Tom. Hope you come back to Spurs someday, that’d be swell.