Time has not told on Ben Davies.
When he meets The Athletic in an air-conditioned room away from the scorching heat of the Japanese leg of Tottenham Hotspur’s Asian tour, he looks like the same 21-year-old who arrived from Swansea in 2014.
The hair is the same. His gentle south Welsh lilt has survived a decade in England. Around him, however, everything about Tottenham has changed — most obviously, the manager (four times, not including caretakers) and the stadium.
Davies has been a steady beat, but the 31-year-old has not simply survived at Spurs. He has quietly and continuously reinvented himself, becoming whatever each coach needed him to be.
An orthodox full-back under Mauricio Pochettino. A third centre-back for Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and, often, Wales. Last season, his first under Ange Postecoglou, he did a bit of everything, becoming an ‘inverted’ full-back along the way.
Is Davies underrated? Yes, but partly because he undersells himself.
“I’ve never been the most physical player in the world,” he says. “I’m not the best athlete, but I’ve had to adapt to different managers, different roles. When I have guidance — when a coach gives instructions — I’m good at understanding why a coach would have that thought process.”
If Tottenham are grateful for Davies’ versatility on the pitch, they also surely appreciate who he has become away from it. He has helped set the squad’s culture, especially as they integrate 18-year-old signings Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall and, from January, Yang-min Hyuk.
“Young players will look up to you as an older player in the dressing room,” Davies adds. “One thing I’ve always tried to do in my career is behave well and do the right things. Don’t be late — I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been late to a lunch or meeting the whole time I’ve been here. These are the little details: the standards in training, the gym, the everyday things that have probably helped me stay at this level for so long.
“Hopefully, it rubs off on these young guys. I hope the new guys see me as someone they can ask advice from if they ever need anything. It can be quite daunting, coming to a big club like Spurs, so having someone to lean on can only help.”
More on Tottenham’s ambitious young signings
Lucas Bergvall’s road to north London: ‘My gut feeling was always Spurs’
Inside Archie Gray’s transfer and a manic 48 hours
The transfer plan is clear — they are focused on the future
Davies knows how valuable that can be.
In 2014, he joined a club that was rebuilding under Pochettino after a season of turmoil when Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood were sacked.
For a player with only two seasons of first-team football to his name at Swansea City, the transfer was a blur and the transition that followed was jolting.
“I was in Chicago with Swans and then Spurs were in Seattle and I flew cross-country, got checked into a hotel on my own and then met everybody at breakfast the next morning. It was quite a whirlwind for a 21-year-old to walk into that dressing room with really senior players.
“When I got on the training pitch I realised this was a step up. Everything: the scrutiny, the intensity, the fanbase. We were in Seattle first, then went to Toronto and all the fans were at the hotel. You’re like, ‘Right, this is different’.”
The conversation turns to the influences upon his career, the players who had a profound impact on him whose effect he wants to replicate. He talks about senior players at Swansea, such as Ashley Williams and Leon Britton, together with Garry Monk, who went on to manage the club.
“I’ll always remember Garry saying, ‘Don’t let anybody criticise you for being busy. You do your career for you. They’ll be the ones who get left behind’,” Davies says. “He was right. When I got to Spurs there were some talented players who probably didn’t take much care of themselves and had gone the other way. It was a bit of a wake-up call.
“But then you see someone like Michael Dawson, who was club captain at the time and was just a brilliant guy. He genuinely cared for and looked after people. He didn’t play long under Mauricio Pochettino, but you could feel his impact around the place.”
GO DEEPER
Ben Davies: Tottenham’s 'Mr Reliable' when chaos and crisis look near
Talking to Davies brings back so many Tottenham memories. When he talks about the Pochettino years and the rise to the Champions League final, his eyes dance with the memory of how powerful and destructive those teams could be, particularly during the final season at White Hart Lane.
“It was just fun, we were all young guys and grew together for a couple of years. We were going on the pitch knowing we were going to win.”
But Davies is not nostalgic. His versatility means he should have years left as a player, but he has already been planning for what happens next. In 2021, he earned a business and economics degree from the Open University. There was no specific goal in mind, he just wanted it “in his back pocket” and began studying for his coaching badges towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. He received his UEFA A Licence this year.
He found himself on Zoom calls with former Premier League players including Yohan Cabaye, Yaya Toure and Gael Clichy, who were studying at the same time. In the years after, with the help of Simon Davies, Tottenham’s former head of academy, he worked with the club’s under-16s and under-18s in the afternoons and evenings at Hotspur Way.
He talks of how important it is to keep young players engaged and how the novelty of being a Premier League player quickly wears off if sessions are not designed well enough.
Davies does not exist purely within the football bubble, but he is enthused by what he has seen from Spurs in Asia — we are talking before Saturday’s 3-2 win over Vitesse Kobe — and at the prospects for the coming season. Last season had its moments, but it was a year of adaption under Postecoglou. During the Japan leg of the tour, players spoke of a growing understanding of Postecoglou’s methods and instinct for how he wants them to play.
“The feel of the players and the external feeling around the club has got a lot better,” Davies says. “You can feel it when we get good results playing exciting football. There’s just been a weight lifted off of us.”
That positivity drew Gray and Bergvall, the two big summer additions, to the club. For Davies — and this might be an insight into the kind of coach he becomes — the communication from Postecoglou and his staff has played a big part.
“He has a real effect on the team in the meeting room when he lays out his ideas very clearly and sets his standards. There’s no hiding if it’s on the videotape. There’s no harsh judgement or deep criticism, it’s just made very clear what he expects.
“It’s a more corrective style. If you make your mistakes trying to do the right things, that’s completely fine because there’s an acceptance that — just like in real life — mistakes happen. He’s more about how you react to them.”
Son Heung-min is part of that change in mood, too.
Son has become an icon within the sport and one of Tottenham’s modern emblems. But, as with Postecoglou’s personality and coaching style, his egoless captaincy — of a team that is now extremely young — feels like the right chord played at the right moment.
Like Davies, Son will soon celebrate his 10th anniversary at the club and while they outwardly make for an odd couple — the global icon from Seoul and the boy from Neath — they are extremely close. Son is godfather to Davies’ infant son, Ralph.
Son has described Davies as “a family member, someone I can really trust. If I’m struggling, if I need some advice, I’ll always ask Ben”.
Davies’ smile broadens when he talks about Son and, from his description, it’s easy to understand why he entrusted him with such a significant role in his son’s life.
“His public persona is the nicest guy in the world and that’s who he is. He has got a proper heart of gold and he’s really, really down to earth. I know he’s this global superstar who everyone loves, but he’s also the guy that when we’re in the dressing room, we give him stick and treat him like a normal guy. He’s probably got a harder life than most of us given all the stuff he can’t do because of who he is.”
The dimensions of Son’s celebrity in his home country are difficult to appreciate until witnessed first-hand. Davies has, so he can describe how it is difficult for Son to make dinner plans in Korea “in case people accost him”.
“That must be so tough,” he adds. “We probably can’t even relate to how challenging it is, but when he comes to spend time with my family and when we force him to put a cap on and come out with us, his life can sometimes be pretty normal.”
Recently, to celebrate a decade at the club, Tottenham asked players past and present to give their one-word associations with Davies. To a man, they described his dedication to his career, his professionalism and the example he continues to set.
That feels unjust in a way — such praise arguably disregards the quality of Davies’ passing, the sturdy, snappy tackling Spurs have been able to call upon since 2014 and how, for 10 years, Davies has subtly changed the way he plays to maximise his value to the team.
Ask Davies about his best moments at Tottenham and he will not talk about himself. He has played in the Champions League, at the World Cup and spent a decade at the highest point of a ruthless sport — but when he talks of what he remembers, the stories are about the teams he was part of, not what he did within them, and what still might be achieved.
“We’re building towards something special and the fans have been understanding,” he says. “There were times last year when it wasn’t what we wanted. We had a couple of tough results, but they stuck with us and can see that things are growing. Hopefully, we can do something special together.”
‘We’ rather than ‘I’, as always.
(Top photo: Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)