Dawson proved everyone wrong - Goodbye Mr Tottenham

Every Tom, Dick and Harry has written about Michael Dawson, a player they were slagging off and then saying how wonderful he was after he had left, glad to say I wasn't one of them. Now that the dust has settled you don't need me regurgitating his career stats, instead I'll content myself with a memory.

Under Andre Villas-Boas he was told he wouldn't play much and he could join QPR if he wanted. Boy did he make the right move turning them down, they were relegated, instead he said I'll fight for my place. Spurs were playing a high line defence, dropping points and shipping goals. Injuries forced AVB to pick Dawson, a player everyone said he was too slow to play the system.

The result, from the 25th November Tottenham went on a 14 game unbeaten run that included games against Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, ended by an infamous Walker back pass and a stupid penalty at Liverpool. Spurs lost just 2 games in 26 with Dawson in the side, that was the 2012/13 season. We ended that season with more points in a Premier League season than we had ever achieved before.

People were still writing rubbish recently that he was crap during that recent period, that he didn't make a difference, sorry but these people know little about football, blinded by their own petty hatreds.

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The perception is that he has refused to leave Spurs, the reality is that Spurs can't let players go until we have lined up a replacement and we can't line up a replacement until we have arranged for a player to go. Dawson was told his chances would be limited, in other words you'll be fourth choice centre-back. His words to the official site, no doubt reproduced everywhere show that he chose at this stage in his career to go and play football.

Fair play to him. A part of Tottenham has left, now we are left with the here today gone tomorrow merchants who couldn't give a brass monkeys about you and me. Where is the next Dawson, not the player but the man with the passion, the man who is Spurs? We are left with a group of players who are like the 'friends' you meet on holiday for two weeks and never see again.

The man, the character, the passion, the desire, the joy and the pain. Daws we will miss you.

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