English Premier League - Player Profile: Tom Huddlestone
Thomas Andrew Huddlestone is an English national footballer who currently plays for Tottenham Hotspurs. Huddlestone was born in Nottingham and is still quite young by footballing standards. His first club was Nottingham Forest. However despite impressing for them at an early age, he left the club when he was only 12, the reason for his departure is still touted as his physical weakness.
After Nottingham Forest parted ways with him, he went on to join Derby County who are known to be Forest’s rivals. Huddlestone played his first game for Derby on the opening day of the 2003-2004 season. The youthful midfielder did well in the match and was voted as the man-of-the-match but his team lost the match by three goals to nil.
The current Tottenham player played a total of 88 games for Derby County as he stayed at the club for a total of three years from 2002-2005. In January of 2005, Tottenham made an approach for the young English midfielder and he signed for the London club for a mere 3 million pounds, the deal meant that Huddlestone stayed at Derby until the 2005 season.
Tottenham loaned Huddlestone to Wolverhampton Wanderers for the first few months of the 2005-2006 season and ironically he scored his first goal for the Wolves in their match against his old club Derby County. In January, Huddlestone’s loan move to Wolverhampton was ended by his parent club Tottenham and he made his first appearance for Hotspurs when they played Fulham at Craven Cottage on 31st of January 2006. The match ended in a one goal to nil defeat for Tottenham.
However, Huddlestone’s first complete start for Tottenham came when he was a part of Tottenham’s starting lineup against Slavia Prague in a UEFA Cup game. Tottenham won that game against Slavia by a goal to nil. Huddlestone’s first goal for Tottenham came against Port Vale on 8th of November 2006 in a Carling Cup match. In the English Premier League, the English U-21 national footballer scored his first league goal on the 17th of December 2006. Through his consistent performances, Huddlestone soon established a place for himself in Tottenham’s starting lineup.
Tottenham’s manager Martin Jol, who managed the team through the 2006-2007 season, compared the young Englishman to German legend Franz Beckenbauer because of his playmaking abilities and his considerable shot power. During the 2009-2010 season, under Tottenham’s new manager Harry Redknapp, Huddlestone continued his brilliant form and scored four goals during the season. He was a permanent fixture in Harry’s side. Huddlestone is usually deployed in a deep playmaking role but sometimes he is also used as a center back by his manager.
Huddlestone has also played for the English National Team, as he was called up by Capello for England’s preliminary 30 man squad. However, he was left out of the final 23 man squad which went to South Africa to play in the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Thomas received his first England national team cap, when he came on as a substitute for England in their friendly match against Brazil.
He is definitely expected to be part of Capello’s plan for the Euro 2012 tournament, as the Italian manager plans to integrate more young players into the English senior team setup.
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