Spurs' history shows that effective captains rarely fit the same stereotype
Son is the latest in a long line of Spurs captains who break the bravado mould
What makes a captain? Is it the chest-thumping, blood-stained head-bandaged type we associate with the likes of Terry Butcher in an England shirt? Or is it something more complex?
Spurs have had a wide variety of captains over the years. In the 1920s, Arthur Grimsdell had the honour for almost a decade while Ron Burgess skippered the club for nine years from the 1940s into the 1950s.
Tottenham have had famous managers in the game in Arthur Rowe and Alf Ramsay wear the armband for a couple of seasons before the likes of Danny Blanchflower and then Dave Mackay provided different types of longer-term skippers throughout those successful 60s.
Following on from three-to-four-year stints for Alan Mullery and Martin Peters, Steve Perryman emerged as Mr Consistency, holding the armband for over a decade until Gary Mabbutt did the same from 1987 onwards to take Tottenham into the Premier League era.
Mabbutt was a softly-spoken battler, one who the players respected and listened to what he had to say. When he hung up his boots so the armband passed between a few well-known hands, starting with that chap who later decided to head up the road to Arsenal, then Teddy Sheringham took it on before Jamie Redknapp wore it through a couple of injury-hit seasons.
Then the King reigned. Ledley wore that armband for seven years until he retired in 2012, in those latter years doing so with just one knee, as the song goes.
"When I was 23 and made captain I felt like it was my team and my responsibility to take it on," said the centre-back in the months after he retired. "I never felt like I needed to move. I thought we were going places. I think we still are."
King was another softly-spoken leader, one who made his point when necessary but mostly led by example. When fit he was one of the best players on the pitch and, when he wasn't, everyone respected what he put himself through to get back out among them.
King's retirement brought a more traditional booming-voiced captain in the shape of Michael Dawson before Mauricio Pochettino came along and the former Nottingham Forest man's time at Spurs came to a close.
Pochettino let the squad vote for their own leader after Dawson's departure to Hull. They selected Younes Kaboul with Emmanuel Adebayor as his vice-captain. That perhaps proved that players should not elect their own skipper.
Experienced players can be the ones that young players look to within a squad but that does not mean they should be captain.
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