Danny Murphy has spoken glowingly about Robbie Keane's captaincy - even putting him in the same bracket as Steven Gerrard.
Murphy and Keane were at Spurs together for the 2006-07 season when the Ireland legend had the armband at the North London club.
And Murphy, who also played for a long time with Gerrard at Liverpool, said that Keane had a tougher job at Spurs.
He told Talksport: "Robbie Keane was a brilliant captain. He had more to do than Steven Gerrard at the time, who had a team of good players and other people who could help out, whereas Keano was at times dragging that Spurs team.
"He had a great ability to lead with his energy, like Beckham did for England. I'm going to press, I'm going to run back, I'm going to make something happen.
"But he was also a very good talker. Keano had a great ability to know when to give you a rocket and when to give you a little pat."
Murphy has spoken in the past about how he quickly built up a close friendship with Keane in his short spell with Tottenham.
In particular Murphy told of how Keane helped him to come to terms with the death of his father.
"Keano was brilliant with me because he had lost his dad a few years earlier, so he understood and became a really good friend of mine.
"It was a nice friendship to have at that moment - great support. The club was phenomenal, a brilliant place to work, and I deeply regret not showing the fans that I had more to offer."
He added: "Bringing up the subject of someone's death is always very difficult. Obviously, we have all got different stories.
"The normal thing was that when I went back, lads would be a little tentative. Keano would just openly talk about it. I might not play for a couple of weeks, or I'm on the bench, and then he would say 'come on, come to mine - we're having some food, a few beers and a night out.'"
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