‘He was something else’… Tottenham told they had an ‘unbelievable’ defender who was better than Rio Ferdinand

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Steven Caulker has labelled a former Tottenham Hotspur defender as the best Premier League centre-back of all time.

Tottenham have had some exceptional players during the Premier League, particularly when it comes to talented attackers.

The likes of Harry Kane, Gareth Bale, Heung-min Son, Luka Modric and Dimitar Berbatov are all rightly considered greats of the past 20 years. But while we’ve been lucky to witness so many brilliant forwards and midfielders, we’ve seen fewer defenders that can be held in that regard. 

Of course, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen both formed what probably remains the best centre-back partnership we’ve seen at Spurs for the past 30 years.

Yet, Ledley King has continuously received praise from former teammates due to his exceptional abilities as a centre-back, despite his recurring knee injuries.

And former Tottenham man Steven Caulker has claimed that King was a better defender than Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand. 

What Caulker has said about King and Ferdinand

Speaking on talkSPORT, Caulker reacted to Gerard Pique’s recent claim that Ferdinand is the best centre-back of the Premier League era.

The former Spurs defender believes just one man ranks above the United legend and that’s King.

“He [Ferdinand] was unbelievable, by the way, he was incredible,” Caulker said. “I’m just going to put one name before him, which might surprise people, and that would be Ledley King.

“For me, Ledley King, if he was able to stay fit, he was just unbelievable. The fact he only trained one day a week and would go out on Saturday and would get MOM [Man of the Match]. He was something else.”

He added: “He was unbelievable but Rio [is] very, very close second. Unbelievable player.

“I was fortunate enough to play with him towards the end of his career at QPR. Great guy on and off the pitch.” 

We’ve seen some similar remarks about King of late, with Joe Cole claiming the former Spurs skipper could have been one of the best English defenders of his generation if it wasn’t for injuries.

Peter Crouch also labelled King as the best player he’d ever seen at Spurs during his academy days back in November.

While King didn’t achieve what Ferdinand managed in his career, you can’t help but wonder what could have been had he avoided injuries.

Towards the end of his career, King barely trained with Tottenham in an attempt to give him the best chance of performing on the weekend.