Until earlier in 2014, Simon Dawkins had been at Spurs for ten years since coming through the youth ranks. Rather remarkably, at the age of 26, he left the club for Derby County in the Championship without having made a single appearance for the club. That is actually an almost unprecedented statistic and it's fairly clear that he should have been released or sold much sooner, as he was never going to make it at White Hart Lane. He had several loan spells away from the club, at Leyton Orient, at Spurs MLS partner club San Jose Earthquakes, at Aston Villa and at Derby County prior to signing for them permanently. Dawkins was actually released from Spurs briefly in 2009, but returned on a non-contract basis immediately and bizarrely impressed enough to earn another contract. As well as his loan spells, he also had trials at many clubs during his time at White Hart Lane, including RC Strasbourg, AFC Bournemouth, Celtic and FC Twente but he didnt impress during any of them.
