It really is most odd that the greatest right back in Hull City's history is currently unable to get in the team. Sam Ricketts has, for the first time, got proper competition for the role in the side which has been his and his alone for the last two years.
Paul McShane's arrival coincided with Ricketts' viral problem while away with the Wales squad, so the loanee from Sunderland with ginger hair, a place in the Republic of Ireland squad and potential for abysmal Hi-De-Hi jokes slipped into the old No.2 role, playing well at Newcastle but less so against Everton. Ricketts has been the defensive cover on the bench, getting on to the pitch on neither occasion.
Now, my view is that you can ask a Hull City supporter of any vintage who our greatest right back is, and even those who go all dewy-eyed at the mention of Chilton and Wagstaff and still claim that those gifted but unfit legends of the 1960s represent our finest era, will almost certainly pick Ricketts ahead of the likes of Frank Banks, Gordon Nisbet, Peter Daniel, Charlie Palmer or Mike Edwards.
There is, among the older generation, the Andy Davidson issue too. Davidson played at right back for most of his 15 senior seasons with the Tigers in the 1950s and 1960s, and as the man who tops the League appearances list for the club, has been both by default and on merit regarded as our greatest right back, despite admitting himself that he despised playing there. No matter now, as he's not any more in the starring role.
Ricketts was an impressive bit of business by Phil Parkinson, though his £300,000 fee (compared to £350,000 for Michael Turner and half a million for Dean Marney) meant he was initially overshadowed by his fellow new arrivals in the summer of 2006. His CV had an element of caution within it too; having left Oxford United (who were then still in the League), he'd been forced to drop into the non-league pyramid with Telford United (now defunct) to restart his career prior to being picked up as a very good find by Swansea City, the team whom Parkinson then approached to bring him to the KC. Yet while Turner was initially slow to settle and the homesick Marney on the brink of spontaneous combustion, Ricketts slotted in as if he'd been born and raised a City player.
A tremendous worker, Ricketts is a fine attacking full back who has mastered the balance between supporting via the overlap and maintaining a safe defensive position. His tackling is as impeccable in timing as I've ever seen in Hull City colours, and 2008 was a personal triumph for him, as it was for the whole back four, as City won promotion at Wembley through the policy of having a defence which refused to be breached - Ricketts' clearance in the 90th minute from his own six yard box as Darren Byfield shaped to score will stick in memories forever.
His facility to get up and down the field suggests a marvellous, enviable stamina. Once he's up there, he can cross the ball too, especially on the run, and has set up his share of goals thanks to pinpoint accuracy after a late, lung-bursting gallop down his flank. Last season he chipped in balls for Nick Barmby at Coventry City, Dean Windass against Blackpool (though Ricketts was unlucky to not to claim that himself) and Caleb Folan against Watford in the play-offs to score. Ricketts himself has only one goal to his name - the fourth in a 4-0 win over Southend two seasons ago which was hardly noticed because Windass had bagged the other three.
Versatility is another key aspect to Ricketts' game, even though it is still only a burgeoning versatility for City. He has been at right back throughout his time at the KC, yet plays with equal comfort and effectiveness at left back for his country. How often he has ever filled in on the right for Wales I've no idea; but he's never started a game at left back for City, and has rarely shifted across for tactical or injury reasons midway through a game (though Blackburn Rovers away this season was one example of him doing so). He maintained his position even when Parkinson signed the talented but divisive ex-England right back Danny Mills, a World Cup quarter finalist, who instead became the smallest central defender in Hull City history during his brief, eventful and retrospectively acrimonious stay. Even though Phil Brown has never had Ricketts down as his left back of choice - Andy Dawson's second wind has solved that problem before it even starts - it does City nothing but good to know that we have a full back who can and does play both sides without any detriment to the team's balance or compromise to Ricketts' own standards.
Lastly, Ricketts' reputation is also assisted by Hull City's appalling previous for recruiting bad right backs. Since Peter Taylor's merciless release of a crocked Edwards, a hero of the Great Escape defence, we've seen Alton Thelwell, Marc Joseph and Mark Lynch occupy the role despite all being entirely unreliable due to lack of fitness, lack of ability, or both. The brief period where Stev Angus came in on loan turned into a spot of relief, even though Taylor chose not to sign him permanently. Such was Taylor's problem in getting the right back spot nailed down, he found himself frequently selecting Ryan France, who for all his positional issues, turned into a far better bet than the supposedly naturalised candidates also in the squad.
Upon Taylor's departure and Parkinson's arrival, Ricketts turned up and the problem has never re-surfaced - until now. Clearly illness played a part, but there was open criticism of Ricketts for a slow start to the Premier League campaign when, as an international full back, he was perhaps expected to acclimatise more quickly than some of the other top-flight debutants. When Dawson's injury against Blackburn prompted a rare switch to his country position, Ricketts looked at his most comfortable, which is odd considering his club career currently consists of next to no experience on that side. Then, against Wigan, he swiped a corner into his own net, despite Boaz Myhill's shout behind him, and then the international break and his own brush with shingles prompted Brown, as unsentimental as they come, into a tough decision.
McShane's defensive attributes have looked sharp enough but he lacks pace and his distribution seems, at first glance, to be weak. It may well be that Ricketts has served both a punishment for poor form and a period of recovery after his virus, and by the time we go to Arsenal this weekend he will have reclaimed his spot. Given that Theo Walcott will be operating one flank and then another, someone with a soupรงon of pace in the wider defensive positions is a must. That is still Sam Ricketts, and maybe a day out with the England star-in-waiting is just what he needs to administer the last of the boot leather in the region of his backside, and re-establish his credentials as Hull City's greatest right back. Because that's precisely what he is.
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