Is it about time Andy Dawson was appreciated a bit more?
There is plenty of admiration for Dawson, whose longevity, consistency and professionalism has made him one of the great Hull City survivors. Yet somehow his contribution, sterling and unmatched as it has been, still seems a little underrated.
This is only natural when you pitch someone of Dawson's quiet disposition and more workmanlike career path against some of the big guns of the current Tigers squad, the international stars and glamorous personalities that are currently attempting, with a struggle, to re-affirm the club's name as a bonafide Premier League member.
Yet Dawson has been as much of a success as any of the immense talents that have worn the fabled black and amber in the mot recent of times and it's about time he was given the appropriate credit for it.
He's 31 this year and one begins to wonder whether his shelf life as City's left back is now dependent on City's general progress in the top tier. He has a contract to see him through a good while longer yet, but if the Tigers are still in the Premier League in two years' time then it's hard to imagine Dawson still being the trusty of the left back position.
Dawson has created his own power in the left back role. Phil Brown has never tried to sign another orthodox left back during his time in charge, though that was always less of a concern for as long as Sam Ricketts was part of the squad and alternating his side of the defence depending on whether he was in City or Wales kit.
With Ricketts now gone, only the right side of the rearguard was left bare, something which has only just been satisfactorily remedied in the last fortnight by the arrival of Paul McShane. Yet the left back cover is there when required thanks to the presence of Kevin Kilbane, a player who is set in stone as his country's number three yet unable or unrequired to replicate that role thanks to Dawson's presence at City. Kilbane has been more impressive for the Tigers on the few occasions he has been needed in defence than he ever has been in the midfield role he more commonly fills, yet Dawson is the chap who holds the aces.
It's hard to imagine the level of value for money Dawson has given City, considering he arrived from Scunthorpe United in 2003 after allowing his contract there to expire and, six years and three promotions later, remains in place. Peter Taylor is perhaps more complimentary of Dawson than he is of any other of his ex-charges at the KC, stating that Dawson was always capable of being a Premier League player as long as he believed in himself. Dawson displaced the well-regarded Andy Holt in the bottom division, saw off the threat of ex-Taylor charge Roland Edge (signed as back-up because Taylor always believed that left back was the hardest position to fill in the event of an injury) upon elevation to League One, and then recovered sufficiently from injury and a period of uncertainty to maintain Taylor's faith as Alan Rogers impressed on loan in the former manager's swansong season.
Experience is often a much undervalued commodity, and Dawson has buckets of it. There was a school of thought that lower league experience counted for nothing when debuting as a top flight player at the age of 30, but Dawson shelved this notion, performing very well in a topsy-turvy season, and against Stoke City managing a first Premier League goal with the type of free kick which was a Dawson trademark in the other divisions but practised less regularly in the top flight due to Geovanni's arrival. He has started the new campaign in his usual unfussy and effective manner and will be his manager's easiest pick of the season, especially after the departure of Michael Turner.
Wayne Jacobs will be adored forever by the Tiger Nation but must now step aside and hand the title of the club's finest left back over to the current incumbent. And despite his age, the club should regard Dawson as a highly-prized asset and value him as such, although it should be quite proper to want Dawson, who doubles up as a good guy as well as a fine footballer, to stay at the club until the day he retires from the game. Judging by his form, appetite and general demeanour, that's a fair while away yet.
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