Konyaspor assistant manager Steven Caulker on lessons from Harry Kane, and dreams of managing Spurs

Konyaspor assistant manager Steven Caulker is targeting a return to Tottenham Hotspur as manager, and lessons he learned from Harry Kane and Ledley King have been influential in the way he approaches players.

Caulker came through Spurs' academy and played 29 times for them, scoring twice. He left for Cardiff City in 2013 aged 21, captaining the Welsh club in the vast majority of his 38 Premier League games for them.

He enjoyed a lengthy career at the elite level, mostly at centre-back, representing England and later captaining Sierra Leone. Caulker eventually retired from playing football in December 2025.

Despite his solid career, Caulker still holds regret over his departure from Spurs, which came at a time he was frustrated at a lack of first-team opportunities. He dreams of returning as a manager to re-write the script.

"I'm not in any rush. I believe that when the time is right, the door will open for the Premier League. I would love to manage Tottenham one day. I would love to return home there," Caulker told ESPN.

"I feel I've got unfinished business at the club. I feel I rushed my time there and I wanted to get out and play more games. I was young, I was immature, and I was impatient.

"I feel going back there at whatever stage will be a real nice story and a real nice opportunity to fulfill what I never did as a player and fulfill my potential as a coach.

"From now until then, I'm just looking to gain as much experience in different cultures and learn as many different languages as possible."

At the time of the defender's Spurs departure, Kane was experiencing similar struggles to break into the team. In hindsight, Caulker believes the current England captain set an example that as a coach, he would want his players to learn to follow.

Caulker said: "One of the biggest things when I reflect on Harry Kane: I think of a player that developed late. That's so important, because as coaches, as pundits, and all the rest, we can be so quick to judge players. We can see them in a training session, in a game and be so quick to rule them out or call them one of the best.

"What Harry Kane taught me was that some players develop at different periods of time and different ages. He's someone, for me, who was a bit of a late developer. He wasn't the best on our youth team - that's for sure.

"We had a really talented squad there. He wasn't someone who I would have put top of the list, but what he did have was the mentality - an incredible mentality. He was constantly focused on his goal and working towards that despite what was going on around him.

"He was very, very focused on that and he had a lot of self-belief. Through his work, he's now proven to be one of the best - in my opinion, the world's best player in the world this year. I hope he's rewarded with the Ballon d'Or.

"The lesson that I take from that [as a coach] is that players sometimes thrive in different environments in different times and it means for me that I need to be patient, I need to be understanding, and I need to have perspective when looking at players."

Caulker signed his first professional contract with Spurs in 2009 and Kane a year later in 2010. At the time, Ledley King was the first-team captain. Chronic knee problems plagued his career, but the centre-back still played 323 times for Tottenham.

Apart from Bayern Munich star Kane, Caulker singled King out as the other teammate whose defiance of circumstances left an imprint on his coaching philosophy.

"For me, the other example [of a teammate who influenced my philosophy on coaching] was Ledley King. As a youngster, I was fortunate enough to be in and around the Spurs team when Ledley King was there," Caulker said.

"The reason why I mentioned him was: if you look at all the data from this field of data today, you would say [as a coach that] he's not an option for us because he's not able to train a lot of the time and he misses a lot of games through injury - but actually, what he showed me back then still sticks with me today.

"He was able to maintain his fitness through his individual training. He was able to maintain his form. That still remains a mystery to me, but he remains a great example of how the data doesn't always match up.

"All the numbers that go into the systems today [influencing] why managers are choosing players and why clubs are signing players are data-based. Ledley King is a great example of someone who defies all odds and that inspires me to treat every case individually."

After serving as a player-manager at Málaga City (now known as CD Málaga Juniors) and a player-assistant manager at Stjarnan, Caulker has served as an assistant to İlhan Palut at Konyaspor since February.

The level in the Turkish Super Lig is a step up from Spain's fifth tier and Iceland's top flight, but what 34-year-old Caulker lacks in managerial experience, he makes up for in ability to communicate - particularly given his command of the Turkish language from his playing career.

Caulker's first club in the Süper Lig was Alanyaspor, where he revived his career after gambling and alcohol addictions had affected his spell at QPR and loan stints at Southampton and Liverpool. Caulker had a relatively uneventful stint at Dundee United before joining Alanyaspor in January 2019.

Ahead of the 2021-22 season, he moved to Fenerbahçe, but was out of favour under Vítor Pereira and Jorge Jesus. It was this stint that led to him questioning how long he had left in the game, though he continued to play and had further Süper Lig stints with Gaziantep on loan and Fatih Karagümrük. Later in his career, he even had a stint with Keçiörengücü in the second-tier TFF 1. Lig.

After hanging up his boots at Stjarnan, Caulker is excited to be back in the Süper Lig at a time when several global stars are joining the league.

"Galatasaray have dominated the league in the last four or five years where they've won it. Their squad has just been phenomenal. Fenerbahçe have been trying to play catch-up and so have Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor," Caulker said.

"I feel this year, Fenerbahçe are equally as strong, if not maybe better, so it's going to be one of the most exciting league [seasons] we've witnessed in a long time - and of course, you've got Trabzon with Mo Salah and you've got Beşiktaş with the likes of [Leandro] Trossard and many others.

"I feel, this year, there's a lot of spotlight on the Turkish league, which is great, because I think it's a good league and quite under-rated - so it's a great moment to be involved in it and I hope we can cause a few upsets against these big sides."

The Turkish Super Lig airs on ESPN's channels in Africa, as well as on Disney+ in South Africa.