on Spurs.
An emotional goodbye from a player who loved the club, was loved by the club, and stayed until the job was done and that trophy was won.
Thanks Sonny.
Ten years, 454 appearances – placing him 7th on the list of most appearances for the club, the highest placed non-English player – 173 goals, which puts him 5th on the goal scoring chart, he’s second, behind Kane, for the most European goals. He sits 16th for goals scored since football began in 1992.
With Kane, Dele and Eriksen, the Spurs’ “core four” that brought great hope, during the Poch era. And to think, some wanted him gone after the first season because he only had 8 goals – two of them coming on his debut. He averaged over 18 goals per season for the following 9 seasons. Even when he wasn’t having a good season, he was in double figures by the end of it.
Ten seasons in which he didn’t miss many games averaging 45.4 per season, 33 in the league. Most of the absences coming from international call ups and strangely suspensions. For a player who only received 17 yellow cards – one a season average in the league – he was shown 3 red cards, and none of them from a second yellow.
Add in 101 assists and that almost telepathic link up with Kane, which saw them beat the overall and single season Premier League record for assists between two players.
Of course it was all wasted by Levy.
And just look how they’ve managed Son’s exit. Yes you’ve got shiny, tearful, videos but they’ve also known this was gonna happen but they let it drift on, get that one last far east payday out of the way before the announcement. While not getting a replacement. There was an ideal one out there, a player who can play left and central but Man U got in quick and got him. A team that finished not much off Spurs 17th place last season, didn’t win a trophy and don’t have European competition, never mind Champions League this season. But Spurs had to dither about this and also binning off the useless lump Ange.
Of course the irony being that Levy bought Sonny and probably only for those Asian fans, not for any actual footballing reasons. But we got the best of him, during a decade that promised so much.