3/1 To Win
The excitement in the summer was palpable. Twelve years after leaving Tom Huddlestone was returning to where it all began. The academy boy wonder was back as an experienced man.
It was at Pride Park Stadium that the midfielder made his name over a two-year period and forged a reputation as one of the best talent’s outside the top-flight.
Tottenham Hotspur recognised it and brought him to White Hart Lane and after a difficult first year he began to blossom into the player everyone thought he would be.
Since then a lot has happened. Champions League football, silverware, FA Cup Finals, international recognition, relegation and promotion. It’s been quite a career.
In this exclusive interview, The Ram sat down with Huddlestone to look in-depth at his career leading up to his return to Pride Park Stadium, how he made the grade at Derby County, the early lessons he had in the Premier League, his career highs and THAT crazy hair cut!
TR: To begin with Tom, when you look back at your career and how it has taken shape, did you ever think this would have all been possible as a 12-year-old that had just been let go by Nottingham Forest?
TH: No, I didn’t really – especially at that time when I had just been released at such a young age. It was a kick in the teeth. The release was strange too; I had been there for four years and I felt that there were two or three of us that were the better players in the age group, but they weren’t 100 per cent on me, it was devastating. The only thing on my mind at that point was getting in to a YTS (Youth Training Scheme) and trying and secure my two years for when I left school. I didn’t think I would have a career in football. I obviously hoped that I would, but never did I think I would spend my whole career playing in the top two leagues. One of my last games for Forest was against Derby and, ironically, it was probably my best game. Gary Bowyer, who I still speak to now, was the man in charge of my age group at the time at Derby and was happy to take me on and give me a chance.
TR: You mention Gary Bowyer earlier in that answer, how important was he and Terry Westley for you?
TH: When I first signed, because my mum didn’t drive, I would get the train over for training at Derby as often as I could. Gary was my Under-13s manager and he lived in Nottingham at the time, so he would often bring me in too. John Peacock was actually the academy director and Terry came through door later on, but what was good for me was that I had Gary remain as my coach for a number of years. When he was the Under-17s boss, I was with the Under-15s, but he promoted myself, Nathan Doyle and Lee Holmes. I was with him, and Pat Lyons, for a number of years. I owe a lot to Gary. Again, with Terry, when I was still at school he was pushing for me and those that I mentioned to be put into the first team squad by John Gregory. Without Terry being on his case, I’m not sure John would have taken notice of three 15-year-olds!
TR: Ok, so you break into the team, after all the pushing that Terry has done to get you into that position, how was you feeling at the time? Was it a bit surreal?
TH: I remember during that pre-season we played Ajax towards the end of it and I was still in digs. There was around 11 of us at that time. We trained that morning and then, as we normally would, we would have a walk around town. I was treating it like I would any normal game and all the lads were badgering me about getting back to the digs and getting my rest in! I just wanted it to be another game. I came on against Ajax, started the game against Real Mallorca, who had just finished third behind Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga, a week later. I wasn’t sure I would be starting the first game of the season, but thankfully, George Burley put me in. All I remember is that we got battered 3-0 by Stoke! That said, in the last 10 minutes there were a couple of tackles where I thought if I went in for it, this was the sort of thing that could make sure that I was in the team for the next week. I didn’t want to just give up. To be fair to George, he stuck with me through the rough spells that I had during the full two seasons that I was here.
TR: Half way through the second season, Tottenham Hotspur came knocking. What were you thinking at that point? Things were going well here so did you want to go?
TH: It was awkward, because in the Premier League you had your top four nailed on at the time. There was Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea and they just chopped and changed in those positions. Then you had the likes of Everton, Newcastle and Tottenham. I knew it was going to be a big challenge. At the time, because Derby were in a good position, I was saying that I would have rather got promoted and stayed than go to Tottenham. When I was weighing up the pros and cons of it, however, I decided it was an opportunity that might not have ever come around again.
TR: You were 18 at the time you moved and at the beginning you weren’t playing a lot, were there any doubts creeping into your mind at that point?
TH: There were a few. One of them wasn’t moving down, though. Because I had signed in the January it gave me plenty of time to go and look at apartments, so it meant I avoided having to stay in hotels and things like that. I had played with Aaron Lennon for three years since the Victory Shield with England and had got on well with him. He signed at the same time and we apartments below and above each other. The transition was smooth. Off the pitch, everything was fine. On it was a different story. I had been playing regularly for two years at Derby and I had gone from that to not even being in the first team changing room. I would probably train with the first team once or twice a week and that was tough to take.
TR: You mention having played regular at Derby and then moving to Tottenham, was there anything you learned that you had to change pretty quickly if you were to be a success in the Premier League?
TH: I learned that straight away. There was a lad called Lee Barnard, who was recently at Southend United, and I was up against in a training match. I was playing at centre half and just his movement had me all over the place. Without sounding disrespectful, I was thinking that if this lad, who I had never heard of, was doing this to me what were the likes of Frédéric Kanouté, Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe going to do? Not long after that, I was being seen as a midfielder again and thankfully I didn’t have to face them as a defender. Can you imagine what that would have been like!
TR: You went out on loan to Wolves during that season too, how important was that in turning your fortunes around at Tottenham so to speak?
It came at the perfect time, because I was having doubts and my head was going a little bit. Paul Ince had got injured and they needed a midfielder on a short-term deal. They had just been relegated from the Premier League, but they had a strong squad. There’s the likes of Ince, Joleon Lescott, Kenny Miller and Colin Cameron. There were a lot of senior professionals to learn off. Mentally, the move to Wolves helped me out a lot.
TR: You enjoyed a lot of success at Tottenham. There was getting into the Champions League, getting that elusive fourth place finish, beating Chelsea in the Cup Final, so, again, do you have a standout memory?
TH: The Cup Final was special. That was my first trophy, but qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in 2010 was unbelievable. We had a long tough season, it was the one I played the most games in, and it was the first time that the club had ever achieved that. It was the club’s highest finish in the Premier League too, so being part of that is hard to top. The timing of my injury killed it a little bit. That season, that we had just spoken about, we had finished fourth, I had got into the team, played pretty much every game and even captained in some of the Champions League matches the following year. I had a problem with my ankle, though, and I had to have an operation that ruled me out for the rest of that season and the year after that. By the time I was back fit, we had a new manager in André Villas-Boas and I have to admit that I wasn’t up to full speed from day one of pre-season. I don’t think he ever saw the best of me to be fair. At that point, I knew the time was right to move on and have a new challenge.
TR: Hull City was that next challenge and it was a very different one. You had gone from competing at the top to joining a team that had just been promoted. Was it that different?
TH: It was, certainly in terms of the expectation levels and the mindset going into games. With Hull, it was a case of that we had to accept that we weren’t going to have a lot of possession, knew we had to outwork the opposition and we had to be clinical when we had our chances. Steve Bruce set us up well, especially during the first six months. We were doing well and were around ninth or tenth going into Christmas, whilst we also went on to reach the FA Cup Final too. I had an enjoyable time there. We had a close-knit group. Everyone came into work, got on with the task at hand and we all got on away from the pitch. When I signed, there were seven of us that were living out of hotels for a couple of months. We would be going to training and then we would all be going out and doing stuff with each other in the evening. That brought all of the players closer together.
TR: Same question as I did about Tottenham, do you have a standout memory from your time there?
TH: The best memory I have was the FA Cup Semi-Final game we had against Sheffield United at Wembley. We beat them 5-3 and the emotions of that were unreal. We were Premier League and they were League 1 at the time, but we found ourselves 2-1 down at half time and got a right rollicking. It had the desired effect and we equalised within about five minutes, I then scored the third goal, which to score at Wembley was like a dream come true in itself, and then we got the fourth. I actually thought the game was over at that point. Sheffield United then went and pulled it back to 4-3, before we got the fifth and I could actually relax. That was the best game I have probably been involved in.
TR: Just finally, let’s talk about goals now. You’ve still not scored for Derby County! A few years ago, you let your hair grow until you scored to raise money for charity, are you going to end up having to do the same thing here?
TH: I wasn’t thinking about it until now! A few weeks ago, I was debating whether or not to not have a shave for a few weeks and leave it, but if that went on for two-and-a-half years like my hair did it would be crazy! I ended up putting too much pressure on myself to score in the end! It was all good fun, though. Initially, when I did it, I was playing regularly for 18 months in a team that was winning and after my initial operation I was told I would be out for four months. I was cool with that. Before I knew it, though, a four-month injury had turned into an 18-month injury and that played a massive part as to why it became so wild and out of hand. It would be nice to do something similar for charity again, but there’s no way it will be involving my barnet!
