Don't Look Back, Tanganga

Exclusive interview with young defender Japhet Tanganga, who has been through ups and downs in his formative years – but wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty on his way to becoming a Premier League player.

- Billy Shaw

Japhet Tanganga played the waiting game while learning the beautiful game in our Academy – and has quite literally built his fledgling career from the ground up.

With us since the age of 10, the athletic young defender made his debut for our Under-18s as a 15-year-old in 2014 – co-incidentally against this evening’s opponents, Norwich City – and gradually progressed up into the Under-23s, where he’d been a staple for some two-and-ahalf years before seizing his first team chance this season.

Some might say it’s been a long time coming. Aside from a fleeting appearance in a low-key pre-season friendly in Girona the summer before last, the Hackney-born youngster had a comparatively late introduction to first team football.

While others moved on, Japhet crucially kept his head down, kept grafting in the Development Squad and when an opportunity finally opened up for him on our summer tour to Asia – with senior defenders Davinson Sanchez, Eric Dier, Serge Aurier, Ben Davies and Danny Rose all absent from the trip – he grasped it with both hands. Outstanding in showcase matches against Juventus, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Inter, his competitive debut​ followed at Colchester United in the Carabao Cup in September.

And after a number of appearances on the first team bench in the months that followed, he was thrust into the side for his Premier League bow against table-topping Liverpool earlier this month, following that up with a Man of the Match display in our FA Cup replay win against Middlesbrough here last week where he touched the ball more times than any other player on the pitch. He could even have scored as well!