Michael Dawson: "I can't wait to see the fans again - and to thank them..."

There was a familiar face on the touchline at Burnley recently... Michael Dawson. Nine years a Spur, over 300 appearances, captain, leader, fans’ favourite, Spurs through and through.

Michael was on Sky Sports TV duty at Turf Moor, delighted to be so close to the action presenting from pitchside, with that welcoming smile and a big ‘hello’ to everyone he knew in a Spurs kit.

Part of the group of players who led us into the Champions League back in 2010, ‘Daws’ wore the armband on that famous night in February, 2011, when we beat AC Milan – Ibrahimovic et al – at the San Siro, keeping a clean sheet in the process, one of his many highlights with us between 2005-2014.

More recently, think Michael and the Champions League, and our fans will smile at the memory of him as a studio guest on Sky Sports News, covering our crucial group stage match against PSV in November, 2018. He could barely contain himself as Harry Kane scored a late winner to keep us in the competition. “The dream’s still alive!” he beamed. That dream took us all the way to the final.

Say it quietly, but Michael is now 36. And believe it or not, he left us six years ago this August.

It all begs the question ‘what next?’ for Michael. He’s seen friends and former team-mates like Jonathan Woodgate and Robbie Keane take up management posts at Middlesbrough, another friend, Andy Reid, is coaching at Forest and with the Republic of Ireland. Jermaine Jenas, Paul Robinson, Stephen Kelly, Alan Hutton, Darren Bent and Jamie O’Hara have all stepped into media work – Jamie mixing his with managing Billericay Town.

And there’s another bracket for his former team-mates – the likes of Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon are, like Michael, still playing and, coronavirus aside, that’s all he’s thinking about at the moment.

“Over five years already? It’s mad, scary,” said Michael, reflecting on the day he said goodbye back in the summer of 2014 and moved to Hull City. “As a family, we moved back to Yorkshire. We had a little boy at the time and he’s at school now! I don’t know where the time goes.

“Do I know what I want to do after playing? It’s about opportunities. It always comes down to that. It’s okay saying what you want to do and then not getting the opportunity. It’s funny, I sat down with Robbie and Woody after we played Middlesbrough (2 March), it was just after the League Cup Final and I said to them ‘do you remember where we were this time yesterday, 12 years ago?’ What memories - Woody scoring the winner, such a great day and a great night, your paths cross now and you wish them all well. I just want them to be successful.

“Everyone says to me ‘play as long as you can’ because one day, there won’t be another contract. I still love football. I want to play. I know I can’t play every minute of every game week in, week out, because there are a lot of games and this is a tough, tough league, but from my point of view I love working with the manager, Sabri (Lamouchi), he’s a brilliant guy on a personal level as well as a manager. I’m with a great group of lads and I want to help as much as I can.

“I’m fortunate. I train every day, I don’t have any of the ongoing knee injuries, for example, that players have to deal with on a daily basis. I love to play in the garden with the kids and hopefully when I’m finished I’ll be able to do that, because a lot of players play through the pain barrier to get out on the pitch on a Saturday, and that’s every footballer, at every level.

“I’m lucky enough to have played in the Premier League for nearly 10 years with Spurs, then a couple of years at Hull. In that time, I had two relegations (2015, 2017), for me, the worst days of my career, but also had one of the best days when we got back to the big time with Hull (he captained the team in the play-off final at Wembley, 2016). It’s where every player wants to be and to be promoted with Forest would be incredible. Who knows what will happen now though? All I’ll say is that your health is most important at the moment and that everyone stays safe.”

As you’d expect from a player who made 324 appearances for us, including 236 in the Premier League, Spurs are never far from Michael’s mind.

“I’ll always be thankful to Forest,” he added. “I signed when I was 14 and always dreamed of stepping out at the City Ground. I did that from the age of 18-21 and then got the dream move to Spurs in 2005.

“Everyone knows what that meant to me and it was the hardest day of my career to leave. I could have just sat there... it wasn’t always easy times, and it got to a situation where it looked like I might not play, and that’s something I’ve always loved. I didn’t want to sit around just picking my money up so as much as I loved Spurs, and still do, the time was right. You are a long time retired in football and you want to play for as long as you can.

“I always thought about going back to White Hart Lane, but we’d just been relegated with Hull City (in 2017) and I just felt it wasn’t the right time. It was so hard to watch (the Finale, May 2017) because I wanted to be there but Hull were my employers and out of respect after the relegation, I didn’t think it was right to be seen at White Hart Lane that day, however much I would have loved to have been there. It would have been a chance to see the fans again and thank them because they were always amazing to me. It will be great to come back to Spurs and walk out at that amazing new stadium. I can’t wait for that day.”