IN CONVERSATION…

JERMAINE JENAS and LEDLEY KING were instrumental in our League Cup success in 2008, JJ featuring in every game and scoring twice while Ledley was back in the side when it mattered most, in the semi-final win over Arsenal and leading us to victory in the final over Chelsea. So, who better to sit down and reminisce about our 2008 triumph, starting with the emphatic win against the Gunners…

JJ: The whole semi-final is a blur. I was on fire at that time, I felt invincible.

Ledley: That was your best spell at Tottenham.

JJ: Easily. Juande Ramos put a lot of belief in me and that took me to another level. I felt the fittest I ever felt and I remember going into the Arsenal semi-final just thinking ‘no matter what, you are not going to be able to stay with me’.

Ledley: I remember you being box-to-box and just running past people.

JJ: Even with the goal in the first leg, I remember Keano used to drop off and that was like a trigger for me, I’d just go. He dropped off and I was gone and before I knew it, I was one-on-one with the goalkeeper. When I look back at it now though, when I went through, I relaxed so much just thinking it was a tap-in and the ball actually goes under the goalkeeper! Once we beat Manchester City in the quarter-finals when we went down to 10 men, the belief really started and come to the semi-finals, we were flying.

Ledley: I remember the City game but that was the start of the problems with my knee. I’d just had a big operation.

JJ: You hadn’t trained for ages leading up to the final.

Ledley: I didn’t do anything between the semi-final and the final.

JJ: I always needed that thing in my head where I’m thinking ‘I’m fit’ and I could look at the midfielder I’m playing against and think ‘you are not going to stay with me’. But I remember thinking before the final ‘how is Ledley going to get through this game?’ because you hadn’t played for weeks.