A former England international has now revealed that joining Tottenham Hotspur in the past was the worst mistake of his career.
Some may be surprised to learn that there haven’t been any evident horror stories at Hotspur Way in recent years.
Of course, this is unlikely to happen again in the modern period, given Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur have made significant progress.
Les Ferdinand, on the other hand, shared his own regret story during an appearance on ‘Up Front with Simon Jordan’.
Ferdinand, a former England striker, joined Tottenham from Newcastle United in 1997 and has 145 appearances for the club, scoring 38 goals.
However, as he explained on the show, things don’t appear to have started well.
Former England striker Les Ferdinand claims that joining Tottenham was a terrible mistake.
Ferdinand revealed that he had been warned about joining Spurs in the first place, and he was dissatisfied with how cozy things were.
He stated: “When I say it was the worst decision, I meant it was the worst decision for our football career.
“One of the things I tell people is that when I came there, we were sponsored by Pony, which was rather appropriate.
“I went to Tottenham, who I would have assumed were comparable to Newcastle in terms of how they did things. It wasn’t; it was so very different.
“They developed their own training ground, a new training ground, and the changing area was like entering Hackney Marshes. I recall telling Alan [Sugar] that you’d just built your own training ground and had changing rooms like these.
“I came into the medical room, which was the most pleasant room; it had six beds and TVs, and I felt it was no surprise that everyone at this football team is injured.
“They had televisions in the medical rooms. It was too comfortable.
“Everything about it, Gerry was the manager at the time, and I remember walking out on my first day of preseason and seeing a bunch of players performing keepy uppies in one corner, another in another, and another in yet another.
“There used to be a hill with a couple of boys sleeping down it waiting for the manager to come out, and I was thinking, what the hell have I come here.
“I’d been warned; a number of players had told me, Les, Tottenham isn’t what you believe. To be honest, when I spoke with Alan, he was aware that it was not what he had hoped for.
Times have changed.
Of course, those statements from a former England international must have had some merit at the time, even if similar facilities are now appreciated at Tottenham.
However, Ange Postecoglou appears to have struck the correct balance between comfort and competition, at least from the outside.
In truth, Tottenham’s project appears to be among the best in the country, as seen by their attitude to new contracts at the club.
So, while Ferdinand claims his move to Tottenham was a mistake, that is unlikely to be the case for a striker arriving in North London today – or possibly this summer.
