Aaron Lennon was part of some very good Tottenham sides during his decade at White Hart Lane, but he admits that there was one side he particularly enjoyed playing in, crediting Gareth Bale for helping to bring the best out of him.
Aaron Lennon made 266 appearances over his 10 years at Spurs after joining the club from Leeds United back in 2025. For a significant chunk of that time, he was one of the most exciting wingers in the Premier League.
The home crowd at White Hart Lane would rise expectedly whenever Lennon got on the ball, with the winger regularly managing to beat full-backs on the outside by keeping things simple rather than attempting stepovers or doing anything fancy.
He regularly had the beating of the best left-backs in the Premier League, including the likes of Ashley Cole and Patrice Evra, and the winger has now provided an interesting reason why he was able to thrive in N17.
Aaron Lennon credits Gareth Bale for buying him space
Lennon was part of some impressive Tottenham teams during his spell at the club, but he does not hesitate to name the one he was part of during the latter part of Harry Redknapp’s rein as the best side he has played in.
The 37-year-old admitted that those were some of the best nights of his life and explained how the attention given by opposition teams to stop Gareth Bale on the other flank, allowed him to fly under the radar and hurt teams.
Lennon explains to Football.London: “It worked unbelievably with me and Gaz out wide because before Gaz got there, there were games when I could get man-marked, I could get doubled up on, sometimes two or three players would come over to my side and they would literally block the ball coming my way.
“But when you had Gareth on the other side, you can’t cover both sides. So it just allowed us to play with a lot more freedom because if you block one side, we shift the ball out to the other side and he’s one vs one, and vice versa. It was one of the most exciting teams that ever I played in with me and Gareth down the wings.
“Obviously we had Luka Modric in the middle of the park, Scott Parker and Rafa van der Vaart. The team was so exciting. To play in that team honestly, it brought some of the best nights of my life.
“To play in that team was a joy, even training was a joy, but some of the games, with that front four, front six, we could blow teams away within 30 minutes. So a really, really strong team.”
Lennon reminisces about Champions League win over AC Milan
When asked to name Lennon’s best moment in a Tottenham shirt, many fans will immediately think of his assist at the San Siro which helped the Lilywhites overcome AC Milan in the round of 16 stages of the Champions League back in 2011.
The winger was set off on a counter-attack by Luka Modric and proceeded to skin Mario Yepes before squaring the ball to Peter Crouch, who had the easy task of putting the ball in the back of the net.
Interestingly, Lennon will have an opportunity to take on the Rossoneri again as he is set to be part of the Spurs Legends side who will take on AC Milan Glorie at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 23 March 2025, at 2 pm kick-off.
When asked about things coming full circle for him 13 years on from his heroics against the Serie A club, the former Spurs man said: “When the [upcoming] game got mentioned, it was just like, wow, because that obviously is an amazing memory for me. I absolutely loved it.
“All the Champions League nights were special under the lights, but obviously, the AC Milan game and the Inter games were really special. So to go full circle and be saying ‘look, I’m going back to the Spurs stadium now to play against Milan again’ is quite funny. I’m really looking forward to it.”
“So to go full circle and be saying ‘look, I’m going back to the Spurs stadium now to play against Milan again’ is quite funny. I’m really looking forward to it.”
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