most under rated spurs players

as the winter draws closer, i get more bored.

so to pass my boredom, i want u to all name the most under rated spurs player u can think of? (if u say corluka im deleating this thread forever!)am i the only 1 who says cor-luka & not chor-luka like the commentators do?

had a family gathering this weekend.this weeks minor topic of conversation was under rated spurs players.

this was my uncles opinion in short-espen baardsen. what a reliable keeper! why did we get rid of him! he had so much potential & would have matured & developed in to a top keeper! to make matters worse we dropped him for that curtain muppet ian walker!

the name didnt ring a bell to me.(no, not curtain muppet, espen baardsen!)so i looked him up on wiki. this guy gets even more interesting. my uncle thought he was born & bred in norway. no! he was born in californi-a.

even mr wiki backs up my uncles argument that we shouldnt have got rid of him.

quote from the all knowing mr wiki, who is never ever wrong.

"Despite good performances, including a 0–0 draw away to rivals Arsenal, he was unable to become the team's first-choice keeper. Baardsen won the Worthington Cup with Spurs in 1999."

espen's case for most under rated spurs player gets even more compelling. he was loyal beyond belief to us! tell the folks why, mr wiki?

"In 2002, he went on a short loan spell to Everton. In his sole game for the club he conceded 4 goals in a 4–3 loss to his former club Tottenham Hotspur

yes, u heard right! in his debut game for everton he deliberately let spurs score 4 goals! that proves how much he loved the club. it turned out to be his last ever game!

but sadly this sacrifice came at a huge cost-

"Baardsen retired from the game aged only 25 and went travelling around the world for a year, claiming he had lost interest in the game"

thats right, he turned his back on football & travelled the world which goes to show how open minded & interesting mr clean sheet away to the gooners, really is!

if u wondered what he is up to know-

"He is currently a partner and fund manager for Eclectica Asset Management, a London-based asset management company. He is a frequent guest on the business television network, CNBC."

thats right, he is still in london close to his beloved spurs!

so espen baardsen is the 1st name put foward for the title of most under rated spurs player!

is my uncle & mr wiki seeing something that no one else saw in this shot stopper?

do any of u remember this scandanivian yankie?

was he useless or does my uncle have a point?

now its up to u to throw your own name in to the ring in the battle of the most under rated spurs player.

While there are (mnore than?) a few over-rated players in the current England team does anyone recall Bobby Robson saying he wanted to build his team around Hoddle - and then only played him every other game! I rated Robson as a manager compared to some, but that decision was just bizarre.

I agree that Hoddle was a great player with an ability to strike the ball better than just about anybody else which translated into superb passes and shots. That, alongside his quick thinking and ability to see the pass made him great.....BUT.....he had his weaknesses such as tackling, heading and tracking back to help out his defence.

Put it all together and I am not sure why he is being mentioned in a thread about under rated players. He was rated very highly by most. This thread is about under rated players that didn't get the recognition that players like Hoddle did. Mentioning Hoddle in here is like saying "Blanchflower" or "McKay" and in this thread that would be silly.

If the thread was about Spurs greats (and we have had those in the past) Hoddle would be in that as well along with Blanchflower and McKay and that is where he belongs - not on here IMHO obviously.

I understand what SB's Gramps says, he did set a new standard for midfielders and was a worldwide influence! As already stated, he was only underrated by England at the time, as were many "flare" players before him and after, Rodney Marsh was a notable example! Glenn was definitely not underrated by any lover of of pure football. Youtube has some great clips.

HODDLE, not by Spurs fans, but by England..should of had twice as many caps...Pele once said he would walk into the Brazilian team at the time, yet England only want carthorse, not thoroughbreds....Still the most gifted English midfielder I ever saw....( gee, I think I'll get the old videos out, especially that game against Watford in the 70's....)

Totally agree John. When you look back and see how many caps a 'work horse' like Bryan Robson got, and then think of the silky skills of Hoddle. How strikers like Steve Archibald and Clive Allen must have loved playing with him - Hoddle'd spot the runs and lay the ball on a plate with enough back spin to stop the ball dead - all from 40 yards.What could he have done for England - but at that time, the ethic was 'work work work' and that's only just changing now (and even Capello still thinks we don't have the depth of skill in this country to compete at that level).

I remember Espen Baardsen. He's a good friend of my boss's daughter and although I've not met him I'm told he's a really nice guy (well, he was a Spurs player so I'm not at all surprised!). Although he was at Spurs for a few years in the late 90s I don't think he really stood a chance of displacing the mighty Erik Thorsvedt.

It seems at Spurs we have a knack of letting players go who subsequently go on to be pivotal influences elsewhere - Pedro Mendes springs to mind. But I guess a lot of other clubs experience the same.

Just to point out the Wikipedia mistake - although Baardsen played a few games during the 99 Worthington Cup run, it was actually Ian Walker who played in the final.

That aside, Hazard and Mendes agree were both underrated. I'm also gonna add Alen Nielsen and Steffen Freund to the list. Also, this may be unpopular for many, but Jenas as well - everyone always moans about him but I remember he pulled it together during Ramos' short-lived reign and always seemed to just get on with things when he wasn't playing. He was instrumental during our 2008 Carling Cup final victory over Chelsea but didn't seem to get much credit for it.

And BAE of course - most Spurs fans can see how classy a player he is, but there isn't a single pundit out there who seems to rate him, which is unfair. IMO he is a better left back than Clichy (who I have grudgingly accepted is a bloody good LB!!)

Two or three come to mind, SB, The most notable one for me was a lad called Jimmy Pearce, back in the late sixties/early seventies. He played right midfield, or right wing, and whenever the ball got to him, there was a murmur of disapproval round the ground, and cries of "Don't give it to HIM!" IMO, it was very unwarranted, as he was a very creative player, and later, some of my mates conceded that he wasn't that bad after all! I saw Jim score some good goals, but none better than the one at Selhurst Park...(Yes, I used to go anywhere in those days!)...where he swervd the ball in from a ridiculous angle with the outside of his boot. Others who weren't popular,where I used to stand at least were Mickey Hazard, who I thought was a fine player, who had a touch of the Hoddles about him and, before him a nippy winger called Jimmy Neighbour.More recently, David Bentley, who I know had more about him than we got to see!