Elena Vasilescu

Jesmond's Tom Threlkeld: The Best Defender Nobody Argues About

There is a kind of centre-half who never makes the argument-of-the-week segment because he never does anything dramatic enough to argue about. Tom Threlkeld is that defender. Twenty-six, no theatrics, no lunging last-ditch tackles — because the tackle was made positionally, ten seconds earlier, when nobody was looking. Jesmond will spend the season being called dull. They will also spend it being very hard to beat, and the two facts are the same fact.