The Spurs Youth Thread - 2017/2018

[loaderspurs]

Completely hypothetical, but what would your guys' take be if we lost edwards but managed to bring in Sancho from City?

 

[Blake Griffin]

Remind me which intake is last seasons 2nd years?

whiteman
austin
tanganga
brown
tsaroulla
marsh
duncan
roles
shashoua
edwards
bennetts
sterling

 

[JimmyG2]

One of our own.
No contest.
Lets see the lad play for us
before we hypothetically swap him.

 

[Spurzinho]

Bellerin, while excellent (if in danger of poseing his career away - no way was he as good last year), was the biggest contributor and clearly a Barca product. Coquelin and Gibbs are both past the 25 mark and still seriously average.
Wtf?! Did you even read that...

According to ArsenalFanTV and a few Gooners that I know Bellerin has been absolutely shocking bar the first few months after breaking into the side. His Barca cache seems to obscure this but most Gooners seem to want an improvement at RB ASAP. His biggest asset is his pace but defensively he is incredibly weak and apparently more than a little lazy.

Expanded on my previous post slightly.

Gibbs, Bellerin and Coquelin were definitely bought in.

Think Iwobi might be the only Arsenal youth product in the list - but then Liverpool are another team specialising in nabbing others youth efforts at the moment.

I don't class Rose as a Spurs youth product as it goes...

Are you saying we should aggressively pursue buying players in the 15/16 years category...?

Gibbs was bought in at about 14 when the original Wimbledon went tits up so its not really the same thing. Plenty of kids don't join their "proper" club until about that age. Coquelin was rescued from Lavalle in France who had suffered relegation to the Championnat National, the third division of French football which is mostly Semi-pro, so again, it wasn't exactly the same as snapping up the the best kids at Barca.

We've nabbed tons of kids from other clubs at around 14/15. Just from memory Charlie Daniels was picked up at around 13 to 14 when Norwich closed their Hertfordshire based School of Excellence. Jack Munns, Ronnie Hawkins, Roman Michael-Precil, Will Miller and Kaziah Sterling amongst many others were all plucked from Leyton Orient between 11 and 14. Jamie O'Hara & Stuart Lewis joined us from Arsenal at 16. David Button joined us from Stevenage at 14. Joe Martin joined us from West Ham at about 15. Calum Butcher joined us from Southend at around 14. Nathan Byrne joined us from St. Albans in his teens. Steven Caulker didn't join us until he was 15, I think, having been rejected at Brentford & Chelsea after trials. Jordan Archer joined us at 14 or 15 from Charlton. Alex Pritchard joined us, I think when he was about 11, from West Ham. Harry Kane was nabbed at 11 from Watford. We picked Ruben Lameiras up from some local rival at 14ish although I can't remember who. We nicked Dominic Ball from Watford at 16. Nabil Bentaleb had been playing in French non-league, when we picked him up, having failed to make the grade on the professional circuit. Ryan Loft & George Marsh, I'm pretty sure, were in Ebbsfleet's community youth system.

This is excluding players like Dean Parrott, John Bostock & Danny Rose who we very publically purchased or the numerous young lads like Oscar Jansson, Milos Veljkovic & Massimo Luongo that we brought in from abroad.

The point of this post is just to point out the sheer scale of this sort of thing and how completely normal it is. There is tons of churn at youth level. You need to separate the deliberate and unethical poaching of players like Chelski & Man Shitty have been guilty of over the last few years and the entirely normal fluid movement of young players into and out of academies.

 

[WindyCOYS]

Georgiou going on the tour seems baffling to me - do we think it's his versatility/ability to cover LB that has caused him to be selected, or do you think it's a shop window thing?

 

[coy-spurs1882]

Georgiou going on the tour seems baffling to me - do we think it's his versatility/ability to cover LB that has caused him to be selected, or do you think it's a shop window thing?

i think the "lb cover" is will miller as he played as lb during last season's usa tour and the game versus kitchee (not sure about this) in may

 

[Spurzinho]

Georgiou going on the tour seems baffling to me - do we think it's his versatility/ability to cover LB that has caused him to be selected, or do you think it's a shop window thing?

Its undoubtedly a bit of both. I think that was why Miller & Walkes went last year. Both ended up with loan deals, Walkes albeit a little later. Georgiou is going to be a very decent League One left winger. He's quick, tricky, can finish and works hard. If I was in charge of a League One club Georgiou is one of a number of our lads I'd seriously be looking at.

 

[Spurzinho]

Just remembered we picked Lameiras up from Millwall. Another one is Jake Nicholson who was at West Ham until 14ish.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Dig deeper and you will find that Sky Andrews is Company Secretary (and main power) behind Emimel sadly...

I think you possibly have your wires a little crossed. Costas Toffis was company secretary of Skylet Andrew Ltd, appointed in 2001 when the company started but resigned in 2010, one year later Emimel is formed by Toffis as sole director and shareholder. There is no mention of Sky Andrew on any company documents I have looked through from incorporation to now (though I haven't looked at every years return) there have been no filings for changes of director/secretary since inception, just two change of addresses for Toffis.

 

[WindyCOYS]

Its undoubtedly a bit of both. I think that was why Miller & Walkes went last year. Both ended up with loan deals, Walkes albeit a little later. Georgiou is going to be a very decent League One left winger. He's quick, tricky, can finish and works hard. If I was in charge of a League One club Georgiou is one of a number of our lads I'd seriously be looking at.

I hope you're right but think he's more likely going to 'do a McEvoy' than 'do an Obika'.

 

[WindyCOYS]

i think the "lb cover" is will miller as he played as lb during last season's usa tour and the game versus kitchee (not sure about this) in may

I'd hope that Brown and Georgiou are more likely to turn out at LB this time around, but I could be wrong.

 

[Spurzinho]

I hope you're right but think he's more likely going to 'do a McEvoy' than 'do an Obika'.

McEvoy was always lacking something for me. I rarely saw him take someone on with skill successfully. He had surprisingly poor balance and nimbleness for one so small and so quick. His biggest asset seemed to be knocking the ball past a defender or running onto a ball played into space, which is fine...as long as there is space to run into. It made him very predictable and easy to play against. Georgiou is much better at handling the ball in tight spaces. He can cut inside and go down the line and get a cross in, giving defenders the dummy on the way. I like him. McEvoy was also pretty one footed where as I've seen Georgiou use his right foot quite effectively.

 

[Spurzinho]

According to a minor Spurs blog former U16 defender Marcel Elva Fontaine has joined Reading. I can't find any other confirmation of this.

 

[Paulinho'sAgent]

I had never heard of Shashoua until he was on the bench at the end of last season but I have since watched the old youtube videos and he looks genuinely impressive.

 

[Flashspur]

Pritchard wasn't over hyped. He was a damn good little player who I'd swap for 30m Sissoko yesterday if I could. He excelled at every level tested. League 1 loan, Championship helped the club with the smallest budget in the VChampiobship into the play offs and made the Championship team of the year (I'm pretty sure he also had something like the most assists or key passes in the league) and even last year when he finally got games he did some great stuff. Pritchard was just typical of the policy of the club and PL clubs in general who seem more comfortable buying a raw French kid with 15 games for 10m, or a shit older one for 30m than just give him some game time.

Pritchard was over hyped dude...live with it

 

[Spurzinho]

Pritchard was over hyped dude...live with it

He wasn't actually. When he joined the academy full time I don't remember him being talked about. Fredericks, Luongo, Oyenuga and to a much lesser extent Kane where the names people were checking the team sheet for. As I remember it Pritch had a fairly uninspiring first year, a reasonable second year. A better first year as a pro and then in his second year with the U21s started having a few standout performances, especially in Europe. When he went out on loan to Swindon I don't seem to remember people thinking it was the start of something big, fans just hoped he'd do well enough to get another contract. His Brentford move was where he really came of age and people started to take notice and think that he might well make it with us.

 

[Lilbaz]

He wasn't actually. When he joined the academy full time I don't remember him being talked about. Fredericks, Luongo, Oyenuga and to a much lesser extent Kane where the names people were checking the team sheet for. As I remember it Pritch had a fairly uninspiring first year, a reasonable second year. A better first year as a pro and then in his second year with the U21s started having a few standout performances, especially in Europe. When he went out on loan to Swindon I don't seem to remember people thinking it was the start of something big, fans just hoped he'd do well enough to get another contract. His Brentford move was where he really came of age and people started to take notice and think that he might well make it with us.

He tore the next gen series up in 2012. People were hyped by him and there was talk of barca wanting to sign him.

 

[beats1]

Georgiou going on the tour seems baffling to me - do we think it's his versatility/ability to cover LB that has caused him to be selected, or do you think it's a shop window thing?

He's been poor for a while but when he moved to LB he has shown glimpses of being decent and with us having only Davies, its why him and Brown made it to the squad

I cant see why he would be taken as a winger, and would be worried if he did

 

[BC11]

According to a minor Spurs blog former U16 defender Marcel Elva Fontaine has joined Reading. I can't find any other confirmation of this.

https://twitter.com/youthhawk/status/886569862662946820

 

[Spurzinho]

He tore the next gen series up in 2012. People were hyped by him and there was talk of barca wanting to sign him.

Yes and no.

Pritchard joined the academy in 2009. So as I said his first 2 & a half/3 years at the club were fairly low-key. He came to the attention of non-regular youth watchers in the 2012 edition of that youth Champions League thingy. No one other than click baity web sites and lazy journo's looking for a filler story on a slow day suggested that Pritch was interesting Barca. It never had any substance.

Its just simply not a fact that Pritchard was hyped. There was only a clamour for him to play for our first team well into his Brentford loan.