Spurs expect 40,000 as King hails club’s global pull in Auckland

Tottenham legend Ledley King says the prospect of a record crowd for today’s game against Auckland FC is amazing but also a reflection of the global appeal of the Premier League and North London club.

The crowd for the pre-season fixture between Spurs and the A-League champions at Eden Park is tipped to top 40,000, which would make it the largest for a men’s football match in New Zealand.

King is now a club ambassador and is in Auckland for the first of three transtasman games.

While nothing tops the reception received in South Korea when Son Heung-min was at the club, the former Spurs skipper says the response he has also experienced in other countries such as India, the United States and now New Zealand underlines the popularity of the league and club.

“I got a great reception when I came out [to Auckland for the announcement of the match], which shouldn’t surprise me because I do a lot of travelling around the world and I’ve gotten to see how well we’re supported,” King said. “It’s fantastic to travel so far and and still feel at home.”

Tottenham had nine players at the World Cup and five have not made the trip Downunder, including the three who featured in last Sunday’s third-place playoff or Monday’s final.

But the other four – Mickey van de Ven, Jan Paul van Hecke, Kevin Danso and Lucas Bergvall – are in Auckland, with club record signings Mateus Fernandes ($195 million) and Sandro Tonali ($213m).

Today’s game serves a serious purpose, as Tottenham attempt to revive their fortunes after consecutive 17th-place finishes. King believes last season’s close call with relegation can be a turning point.

“The club has been working really hard to try and put things right and make sure we’re not in the position we’ve been in the last couple of seasons.

“We believe we have one of the best managers out there [Roberto De Zerbi] and we’ve really backed him over the summer and brought in some top-class players. There’s a buzz amongst the fans that we could have a really special season.

“Everyone connected with the club had a feeling at the end of the season that once we’d survived, this could be a turning point and we could really now start to look at what’s gone wrong over the last couple of seasons and put that right.”

King struggles to pinpoint why Tottenham struggled so badly in the past two Premier League campaigns.

“We suffered a huge number of injuries [up to a dozen players out at the same time] but we still shouldn’t have been in the position we were last season.”

King, who played at the 2010 World Cup, said England’s performances in North America probably met the pre-tournament expectations of most fans.

“If you’d asked me before the World Cup where I think England would finish, I would have said probably the semi-finals. Once the tournament kicks off, the excitement grows, but it becomes very tight once you get to the later stages, it can go either way, and unfortunately it didn’t go our way.

“We played a very good Argentina team that have arguably the best player we’ve seen in the game [Lionel Messi] who was able to make a difference.”

The former centre back had some sympathy for England manager Thomas Tuchel, who copped criticism for defensive substitutions when leading their semi-final against Argentina.

“We probably put ourselves under more pressure earlier in the game than we would have liked, but when you’re struggling as a team, you’re hanging on, your instinct as a manager is to try and shore things up, to put in another defender to help the team. As a manager, you live and die by your decisions, and unfortunately it didn’t work out for us in this game.”

King also thought the All Whites did about as well as could be expected at the World Cup.

“It was always going to be difficult for New Zealand, especially against Egypt and Belgium, and even Iran are a decent team, so you were always going to be up against it. But that experience is going to put you in better stead for the next tournament to hopefully go one step further.”

Given his ability – Thierry Henry called him the most difficult defender he faced in the Premier League – King finished with a relatively modest 21 England caps across eight years and 323 appearances in 14 seasons at Tottenham, his only club.

His career was greatly hampered by injuries, particularly issues with his knees, and incredibly, he didn’t train during his final five years as a player.

“It wasn’t easy, but when you love what you’re doing, you do what you can to stay in the game. And the only way I could keep going was to play at the weekend, then spend the rest of the week recovering in the gym, in the swimming pool, and try and be back out there the next weekend.”

His predicament was common knowledge in football but many did not realise the extent of his isolation from his teammates.

“I kind of stopped playing for England for a period until I finished the [2009-10] season really strong, felt good and was asked to go to the World Cup. I don’t think the England players really believed that I didn’t train until we went on that trip and I didn’t see them for three weeks. I was doing my own thing while they were on the training pitch – it was quite a strange experience.”

King retired aged just 31 in 2012, having received no red cards and only eight yellows in 268 Premier League games.

The second half of his final season coincided with Ryan Nelsen’s brief stint at White Hart Lane during the All White’s eight years in the English topflight.

“He was a top bloke and really helped the team at the time. He’s one your country should be proud of, performing at such a high level for such a long time in the Premier League – only good memories of him, and a great professional,” said King of Nelsen.

Many would characterise King in similar fashion.