Ryan Fredericks wake-up call

It happens a lot in cricket when youngsters are paid a decent wage and suddenly they think thye have made it and stop working as hard on their game, the result is they don't progress their careers forward until the penny drops or they leave the game.

Ryan Fredericks wake-up call


Ryan Fredericks isn't the first youngster who has needed a wake-up call, Zeki Fryers was another who needed one as Tim Sherwood pointed out and Fryers has now left the club after failing t progress.

Back in 2012 in a pre-season friendly that Fredericks missed with a knee injury, Middlesbrough thrashed Tottenham U21's 5-0 in Penina in the Algarve region of Portugal. Fredericks credits that game as the wake-up call he needed and determined to get himself out on loan to get some valuable first-team experience.

“I was there at the time but I didn’t play in the game. It didn’t go too well for us and that was the wake-up call that I needed to go out on loan and play some proper football. 
“I was injured at the time, I think I was recovering after fracturing my knee so I was doing re-hab. But even just looking on I could see the difference in size between our lads and the Boro players and the way they played, it was so different I just wanted to go and play proper football.”

Since that game he has been out on loan at Brentford, Millwall and now Middlesbrough where he has been asked to specifically work on his defensive positioning, something Middlesbrough have agreed to help him with. He has settled there really well.

“It’s all open roads and no traffic, which is nice, but it is very different from being back at home. I’ve settled in really well, all the lads are really good here, they’ve take to me really quickly, asked me out for dinner and what not so I’ve been getting on the lads really well and that’s helped me settle quite a lot. 
“This time it’s been easy (to settle), after one or two days I was thinking ‘this is my club’. 
“I thought it might take a few weeks to come in and get a game but I feel like I’m gelling with the team now and know what players can do what and how they like to play so that’s helping me as well. I feel like I’m adapting to the team.”

He has adapted well and instead of being the right-back cover he was signed for he has found himself as first choice right-back with Damia Abella suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury.

“It’s never nice to come into the team that way but sometimes that happens and I suppose it’s his loss and my gain. 
“That’s a nice thing, I haven’t got to think ‘will they keep me on’ from month-to-month. I’m here for the season so I can get my feet under the table and get playing. 
“My aim was to cement a starting place and then show everybody what I can do, to take each game as it comes and do my best in every game I play and whatever comes from that I will have to take. 
“My first game was more about showing I could be trusted to play so I was more playing safe and showing what I can do defensively. 
“But now the games have opened up a bit and I can show what I can do offensively.”

It's an interview that reveals a little of the mind of an up and coming footballer and aspects such as showing I can be trusted are equally as important at first-team level at Tottenham for a new recruit. Fans just expect the best from game one without a thought about any subtleties like proving oneself trustworthy.

Little point showing yourself to be brilliant offensively if you equally show you can't be trusted defensively,depending upon the position you play of course.

Ryan Fredericks was speaking to the local Gazette.