Officially official: Ledley King announced as Tottenham’s newest assistant coach

We’ve known about this for a while now — Jose Mourinho even said so in a press conference before the end of the season — but now it’s officially official. Tottenham Hotspur has a new assistant first team coach, and it’s club legend and former club ambassador Ledley King.

Ledley joins the coaching staff after one of Mourinho’s long-time assistants, Ricardo Formosinho, left the club in order to pursue a goal of becoming a head coach in football. King started pursuing his coaching badges shortly after hanging up his playing boots and worked as a coach in Tottenham’s academy for a while, but had been working as Spurs’ Club Ambassador for the past few years. Now he’ll get a chance to work with Spurs’ first team players in a new role, and one would assume his responsibilities would primarily fall on the defensive end. He’ll also work with academy players who are attempting to transition from U23 football to the first team.

In a statement on Tottenham’s website, Jose Mourinho said he was delighted to be able to appoint Ledley to fill the coaching vacancy.

“I am extremely pleased to be welcoming Ledley into the first team group as we continue our preparations for the new season.

“He has a tremendous affinity with this football club and the fans appreciate just how much he has accomplished as a true Spurs man both on and off the pitch.

“We have developed a good relationship since I arrived, and we hope to use his experience and insight to support the work we are doing with the squad.”

If Mourinho wanted to continue to ingratiate himself to Tottenham fans who (like me) are still a bit wary about his appointment as first team head coach, this is a good step. Ledley’s status as a club legend and past coaching experience make him a natural choice to step into the position, and hiring from within also makes sense financially as the club is still dealing with the financial ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We will now be officially changing the name of this blog to Cartilage Free Assistant Coach.