Shocking the big guns gives Steven Caulker a buzz he’s never had at Tottenham

On-loan defender is thriving at Swansea, helping them beat Manchester City and Arsenal this season.
Wise move: Steven Caulker, shielding the ball from Connor Wickham of Sunderland, had to join Swansea to get Premier League action
30 March 2012

Steven Caulker might be playing in the Champions League for Tottenham next season but at the moment he finds it difficult to feel any sense of attachment to the club who hold his contract.

Caulker’s performances on loan at Swansea this term have burnished his reputation as one of the most capable young centre-backs in England. Swansea play at White Hart Lane on Sunday, a match that places Caulker’s present against his possible future.

The terms of Caulker’s loan mean he cannot play, although he will watch the game from the stands. “Don’t ask me that!” he smiles when questioned about which team he will root for, and it is easy to see Caulker’s quandary.

For young players at Tottenham, breaking into the first team requires a shining talent and a fierce spirit. Ledley King was the last youth player to become a first-team regular and he made his debut in 1999.

The prize is close. Yet after such a fine campaign for Swansea, in which he has played 19 Premier League matches and would have competed in more had he not suffered knee problems last autumn, the idea of sitting on the Tottenham bench next season is difficult for Caulker to accept.

Harry Redknapp had warm words for Caulker earlier in the season but with the Spurs boss favourite to become the next England manager, the future is uncertain.

“I do have confidence that if I’m given the opportunity, I could break through at Tottenham but Ledley King was the last player to really make it there,” he said. “It depends on who the manager will be and whether he wants to give youngsters a chance.

“The main thing for me next year is to be playing, whether that is at Spurs or somewhere else. That is to be decided in the summer but the point I want to make is that I’ve loved playing regularly this season.

“You can’t replace the buzz of beating Manchester City or Arsenal, as we at Swansea have this season, so a key part is playing. The only match I’ve played for Tottenham was against Arsenal in the Carling Cup in 2010, so I have not really had a taste of the first team.

“I’ve only trained with the first team a couple of times and I don’t know many of the players all that well. Spurs development coaches Tim Sherwood or Chris Ramsey will come to watch me and I get feedback on my performance but at the moment, I’m wearing a Swansea shirt and my focus is on them.

“I have to say, though, that I’ve always admired Ledley. He was always good with the younger players and I remember asking him a few questions when I was a youth-team player; silly stuff like whether you could hear your team-mates in front of a big crowd.

“Now, I’ve played in front of 60,000 at Emirates Stadium and I’ve found that I can communicate.”

It has been an interesting path to central defence for Caulker, who was a talented 800metre runner as a teenager but chose to stick to football, partly because he became so nervous before races — something which he does not suffer in his current career.

Caulker made his first serious steps in football as a central midfielder until, acting on advice from a coach when he was playing for Hounslow Borough as a teenager, he took a few paces back before making several forward. After a single game at centre-back for that team, he was offered trials with seven clubs, including Spurs, Chelsea, Reading and Queens Park Rangers.

When Spurs offered him terms, Caulker “snapped their hand off” but much of his career since signing his first professional deal has been away from north London. Loan spells at Yeovil in 2009-10, Bristol City the following season and now Swansea forced Caulker, who turned 20 in December, to grow up quickly.

“I’ve lived in different places and it helps you mature, because there are times in football where you need a strong character,” he said.

“At Yeovil, I had team-mates who were playing for their mortgages and even though I’m in the Premier League, we have a similar thing at Swansea, because a lot of the players have come through the lower leagues.

“Of course, the Premier League is a far higher standard to League One but I like to prepare for games in a similar way to how I did back then, when I didn’t know many of the players I was coming up against. I don’t watch that much football and sometimes when I come against players, I won’t know that much about them. That’s not showing them disrespect, but if you sit there thinking about coming up against Robin van Persie on a Saturday, you’d be quaking in your boots.

“After the game, I might smile to myself and think ‘Yes, I marked Van Persie today’, but before the game, I have the same approach as I would if I was going into a day’s training. It’s only just before the whistle blows that I get my head on the game.”

One thing is for certain. If Caulker continues to progress at his present rate, opponents will know all about him, even if he is not familiar with them.

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