I would genuinely like to have seen Alan Hutton succeed at Spurs and indeed, there were times during his stay at the club where he looked like a fantastic player and a real asset. However, now that he has moved on and we’ve had time to fully assess the situation, the simple truth is that these occasions were too few and far between and that he never found the consistency necessary to be considered Tottenham’s first-choice right-back.
Hutton’s had a fair amount to say since he left Spurs to join Aston Villa and his latest outburst has been particularly damning of the club and Harry Redknapp in particular. He has targeted the club’s tendency to excess:
“At one stage there were five right-backs there – me, Kyle Naughton, Kyle Walker, Pascal Chimbonda and Vedran Corluka. In what first-team squad do you ever get that? It’s usually two. I spent four months there doing nothing. It is a massive knock to your confidence.”
He also paints a rather unflattering portrait of Harry Redknapp:
“The last time I spoke to Redknapp, he told me, “I don’t want you to train with us any more. I want you to train with the kids… I don’t think anybody should be treated like that. So many people there [at White Hart Lane] feel unwanted. I’ve never experienced anything like that anywhere I’ve been. Is that a good reputation? I don’t know.”
And there’s plenty more where that came from. He suggests that Redknapp wasn’t approachable and didn’t answer his questions. He suggests that he was frozen out as a result of one poor game (against Fulham last January) and that he was never given an opportunity to rebuild his confidence.
So does Hutton have a point or are his remarks the words of an opportunist trying to claw back some of his reputation? It strikes me that Hutton wasn’t too keen to leave Rangers in the first place. At Rangers he was a top player who really stood out. When he joined Tottenham he was one of a number of players with ability, vying for a position in the squad. In essence when the going got tough, Alan Hutton was found wanting.
The extra competition was too much for Hutton who was never really able to cement a first-team position in the squad. It’s unfair to suggest that he wasn’t given enough opportunities. Hutton may claim that he was cast asunder by the club as a result of one bad game, but this isn’t really the case. Don’t forget that he made 26 appearances for Tottenham last season.
Hutton didn’t just have one poor game, he was subject to a number of them and this would have been on Harry’s mind when he decided that he wasn’t good enough to make it at Spurs.
This may well be your classic, ‘Now that I’ve left the club, I can have a little dig’, but Hutton’s remarks really seem off-base here and strike somewhat of self-pity. I hope that Hutton makes something of himself at Aston Villa, but to criticise Spurs for the way he was treated just isn’t kosher.
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Bashing dad; Columbian Flu; Overinflated ego and a positional disaster defensively totally overbalance his good forward runs & crosses..I cannot remember how often he was caught out at RB. Corluka for all of his slowness was more secure at RB and even young Walker is more secure defensively.