Ben Guest
Spurs legend Ledley King is reportedly set to join Jose Mourinho’s backroom staff.
The 39-year-old is a bonafide club legend, spending his entire playing career with the north London side, though troublesome knee injuries restricted him to 320 appearances for the club, forcing his retirement aged just 31 back in 2012
He has continued to be connected to the club, acting as an ambassador while has also having worked as a coach and a mentor within the club’s academy set up.
However, with Jose Mourinho’s assistant and tactical analyst Ricardo Formosinho set to leave to pursue a role as a head coach in his own right, the Portuguese confirmed that someone ‘connected with the club’ would be joining his team.
“Ricardo is leaving and he’s leaving because he feels that he would like to have, in this stage of his career, probably one of his last opportunities, due to his age, to be a head coach,” the Spurs boss said at his Friday press conference.
“I’m not going to say where of course, that’s up to him, but he’s leaving and we all wish him all the best.
“Who is coming to replace him? I prefer that it’s the club that’s going to inform you about that but my decision was to go again in one direction that I had before in other clubs which is to help local people to develop, instead of bringing one more assistant with me.
“So it’ll be someone with a history with the club, connected with the club and let’s try to give him an opportunity because I’m not really a fan of people moving with a lot of assistants and forgetting local talent and people from the house.”
According to the Evening Standard, that person is set to be 21 cap former England international, King, though his role isn’t set to be ‘specifically a coaching role’.
King is said to have ‘impressed the Spurs manager while working with the defensive players since the suspension of football in March’.
Spurs finish their Premier League campaign with a trip across London to face Crystal Palace, still harbouring hopes of European qualification, though they will require favours from elsewhere.
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