Younes Kaboul - what Spurs are getting

Right then, since there appears to be a bit of a dearth of info on Kaboul I thought I'd do a bit of research. I managed to track down a copy of the Toulouse v Auxerre Ligue 1 game from April. Bear in in mind, of course, that these are observations based on one game.......

First thing to say is, those who have suggested that perhaps Kaboul is going to break the Dawson/King partnership can forget it. I seem to recall a few suggestions that perhaps he may edge out Dawson, but he's nowhere near that level (unless he has made monumental progress over the past month). So we're looking at £8million for a first reserve centreback at best, in the short term at least.

In terms of the type of player he appears to be, those Rio Ferdinand comparisons certainly have a degree of substance. He moves in a very similar way to Ferdinand, has pretty good technique and looks comfortable with the ball like Ferdinand aswell. He probably doesn't have Ferdinand's pace, but the good news is that he's not the slow, cumbersome giant that has been suggested by some. He's pretty quick for a player of his size, maybe lacking a bit of acceleration over the first yard, but his bigger stride probably compensates. Sadly, like Ferdinand, his relaxed attitude looks like it may get him into a few scrapes, particularly in possession where it's pretty clear that he views himself as a ball playing centre back. Those who get frustrated with Dawson's eagerness to play the ball long from the back are in for a treat, since Kaboul looked for a long, highly ambitious pass to the flanks or forwards virtually every time he had the ball, and with little evidence that he was actually capable of executing them - I don't think he managed to complete a single one over the whole game.

Other general observations were that his positioning is not great, which is maybe to be expected from a young player, and it has to be said the rest of the Auxerre defence weren't exactly helping him in this respect by being generally disorganised. On a more positive note, he has a decent shot on him - he cracked a few free kicks in from forty yards, though the only effect was to nearly decapitate the players in the Toulouse wall, and sent one just wide in open play. Shooting ability in a central defender is obviously just a bonus though really, not cause for great celebration.

The biggest positive I'd say is that he's clearly not going to be out of his depth physically in the Premiership. As I said, his pace is OK, and he's strong enough to handle the physicality of the English game. I'd have no worries about him in that respect, and I wouldn't expect him to need any time to adapt to that part of Premiership life. The increased pace of decision making and decreased chance of escaping unpunished from mistakes would be a bigger worry.

Onto the game itself, and Kaboul's performance, and it's pretty bad news, I'm afraid. The first Toulouse goal was entirely his fault. As last man he tried to clear a high through ball with his right foot, but misjudge the height and flight of the ball and hit it straight into the path of Emana, who went on and finished past the keeper. No other to describe it other than a total cock up on Kaboul's part.

A few minutes later in the first half, Kaboul lost his man, Elmander, on the far post on a free kick, allowing Elmander to finish. Fortunately for him, Elmander was marginally offside, and the goal was ruled out.

The second Toulouse goal came from a barnstorming solo run from Elmander. He went past Kaboul, along with several other Auxerre defenders, rather easily, but in fairness to Kaboul, had he gone in with more conviction he would have been liable to give away a penalty.

Overall then, I'm not entirely convinced that Kaboul is an £8million defender. I think we're very much paying for the potential and the reputation, rather than the guy's present ability. There's certainly no chance of him displacing our first choice defenders at his and their current level, and I'm not entirely sure that he would walk past Rocha and Gardner at the moment either (well, OK maybe Gardner is stretching it). He clearly has some potential, and as I said, I don't think the physical aspect of the Premiership will be a problem for him, but it looks to me like he's going to require some serious work and improvement on the training pitch before he's ready to be thrown at the deep end.