Tom Huddlestone

Thomas Andrew Huddlestone (born 28 December 1986) is an English former professional footballer and coach, who is currently a first team assistant coach at Birmingham City. He played as a defensive midfielder. Having progressed through the youth ranks at Nottingham Forest and Derby County, Huddlestone began his professional career in 2003 with the latter club. He quickly broke into the first team, and made 88 league appearances before switching to Tottenham Hotspur in 2005. Having spent some of the 2005–06 season on loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he made 13 league appearances, he began to break into the Tottenham team during the 2006–07 season, and became a regular player for the club. However, he struggled with injury problems during the 2011–12 season, and fell out of favour. He joined Hull City in August 2013, having made 144 league appearances for Tottenham. In 2013, Huddlestone joined Hull City where he played a role in helping the club reach the 2014 FA Cup final, scoring a goal in the FA Cup third semi-final victory, as they ended up runners-up in the competition, this cup run ensured Hull would qualify for Europe via the UEFA Europa League for the first time in the clubs history, Huddlestone would spend four years at Hull and would play 161 times, scoring 8 goals. In July 2017, Huddlestone returned to Derby County, but after two failed play-off campaigns to gain promotion to the Premier League in 2018 and 2019, Huddlestone left Derby in July 2020 after rejected a contact offer, in his second spell at Derby, Huddlestone played 90 times, scoring 3 goals. After 13 months out of game, Huddlestone returned to Hull City in August 2021, where he spent a season, before ending his career with a two-year spell at Manchester United where he coached as well as playing for its under-21 team. Huddlestone represented England at under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-20 levels before making his under-21 debut in 2005. He was a regular for the under-21 team between 2005 and 2009, and made 33 appearances. He made senior full England debut in 2009, and made three further appearances, his last being in 2012.