Tottenham Player Review: Kyle Walker

There’s no talking about Kyle Walker’s season at Tottenham without the conversation centering around his possible exit this summer.

Walker traveled with Tottenham on their brief end-of-season tour of Asia, and even started in Friday’s match in Hong Kong, but speculation remains rampant.

The fact is that Walker, in a way that will seem twisted to many a Spurs fan, deserves these kind of fevered whispers.

This has been, without question, his best season in a Spurs shirt — which is saying something. Since earning the PFA Young Player of the Year award in 2012, Walker has evolved season after season until he became arguably the best right-back in England over the last 12 months.

His value to Spurs — and to whichever competing club wins his signature — is that he is a renaissance man on the pitch.

Over the years he went from an average full-back set apart by his oodles of pace, to a competent defender who timed his runs forward nicely to, finally, what he is today: an omnidirectional menace.

His latest evolution is defined by fluidity. His style varies depending on the phase of play. In defense’s he’s a keen man marker, chasing down wide threats before any crosses can become dangerous. In build-up, he often cuts inside to help with overloads through the center of the pitch. In attack he’s an ever-present source of an outlet ball while also stretching opposing defenses across the width of the pitch.

These are all the duties of a modern full-back, but Walker plays them out with such fluidity that it is difficult to paint him as just a full-back or a wing-back. He is those things and more.

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It’s easy to see why a manager like Pep Guardiola would covet a player like Walker, who responds to the game so well and with such timing. Like Danny Rose on the opposite flank, his presence in the side often makes Pochettino’s tactics possible.

If there is one strike against Walker, at least when it comes to Pochettino and his methods, it might be a lack of stamina. Rumors circulated around the time Walker was first linked with moves away from Spurs that Pochettino didn’t feel he could rely on Walker to start multiple games in one week.

For any team looking to compete on multiple fronts, that’s a significant liability. It’s especially true, though, of Spurs, a team that demands a tremendous amount of motion and energy over the course of 90 minutes. Fitness and stamina are paramount virtues among Pochettino’s squad.

Those rumors appeared confirmed over the last two months of the season as Pochettino declined — or was prevented from — using Walker in every match. Kieran Trippier — Walker’s understudy since last season — stepped up and filled in remarkably well.

While there’s still a lot of unanswered questions about Trippier, his performance in Walker’s stead will come as encouragement for Spurs fans worried about Walker’s exit.

So, too, will a deceptively obvious bit of trivia: Walker turns 27 years old on Sunday. That brings him into what will likely be his peak year as a player, with the years that follow likely ones of decline.

Next: Tottenham Player Review: Eric Dier

For youth-centric team like Spurs, that fact might just be enough to let Walker go. They will sell him at an absolute premier given the full-back-starved transfer market, and they won’t have to worry about dealing with the years to come.

That’s a callous way to talk about a player who served the club so well for so long. Such are the realities of the modern game however. If Walker wants more money and Spurs can themselves benefit monetarily while also coping on the pitch, it’s hard to see a downside to his possible exit.