The Spurs Youth Thread - 2018/19

[SpunkyBackpack]

And this is exactly why we need to introduce B teams into the football league system. Imagine if we had the ability to retain a 23 man squad of under 23 year olds playing League 1 or Championship football, players like Bennets and Griffiths would see opportunity there to make a name for themselves and have ample opportunity to develop.
If you limit the squad size (ie only 25 players allowed) you end the stockpiling of talent whilst giving you option to develop

I cant disagree with this enough. It's bad enough that Premier League under 23's get to play in the Checkatrade Trophy. The lower leagues are not a playground for the elite to send their reserves off to muck about with the great unwashed in the name of 'experience'. Its the football equivalent of Rebecca and Edwin going off to Africa on their gap year to take pictures with smiley local kids and then bugger off back to Oxford having accomplished nothing except some boring stories to tell at brunch.

That would truly send the message to the rest of football that you mean nothing unless you are in the Premier League, it's the same arrogance that people have been accusing the super league breakaway lot of showing, just down one level.

You want a player to get experience at a football league team? Great, there's 72 to choose from, pick one.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Why does Skipp not get into the England squads again?

 

[Tottenhamboy85]

Why does Skipp not get into the England squads again?

Abundance of CM/DMS that are probably better at his age

 

[Tottenhamboy85]

Paris called up to England u18s

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Abundance of CM/DMS that are probably better at his age

Such as?

 

[therhinospeaks]

BLF is a fantastic prospect. I just love watching him play. Could be a DM in the future.

Binks looks a player to me and Walcott has looked decent also.

You'll never find a braver player than Tanganga. Sure to have a very steady career at a decent level.

Not a fan of Eyoma.

 

[Tottenhamboy85]

Such as?

@IGSpur can let you know but if I was you I’d give the extra inch youth part 2 a listen where he goes through the list.

 

[Locotoro]

Will never happen in this country. We would be better off copying Chelsea who virtually own Vitesse in Holland. City are doing something similar with Girona but not on same scale at the moment. The owners of Leicester also own a club in Belgium.

And this for me would be the next best thing after B teams. Didn't ENIC own large stakes in Glasgow Rangers and Slavia Prague at one point and had to sell them? I know Girona is run by Peps brother, whether that association will continue after Pep has left I don't know. Even Watford owners are in on it with Udinese and a few other clubs

 

[Locotoro]

I cant disagree with this enough. It's bad enough that Premier League under 23's get to play in the Checkatrade Trophy. The lower leagues are not a playground for the elite to send their reserves off to muck about with the great unwashed in the name of 'experience'. Its the football equivalent of Rebecca and Edwin going off to Africa on their gap year to take pictures with smiley local kids and then bugger off back to Oxford having accomplished nothing except some boring stories to tell at brunch.

That would truly send the message to the rest of football that you mean nothing unless you are in the Premier League, it's the same arrogance that people have been accusing the super league breakaway lot of showing, just down one level.

You want a player to get experience at a football league team? Great, there's 72 to choose from, pick one.

I see your logic and part of me wouldn't want to diminish the importance of the football league system. But you have to have a better plan than loaning them out to any old club who may or may not play football the way you want your boy taught.

The other issue with the loan system is that it encourages stockpiling. How many players have Chelsea got on loan? 30? I have no idea but it's close to being an entire squad of players. The ruling they have for 25 player squad limit should be a hard limit. If a player is not registered in the squad list he should be entitled to a transfer to another club (I don't know - but something that will stop clubs buying up all the players and not developing them in competitive football.

 

[SpunkyBackpack]

I see your logic and part of me wouldn't want to diminish the importance of the football league system. But you have to have a better plan than loaning them out to any old club who may or may not play football the way you want your boy taught.

The other issue with the loan system is that it encourages stockpiling. How many players have Chelsea got on loan? 30? I have no idea but it's close to being an entire squad of players. The ruling they have for 25 player squad limit should be a hard limit. If a player is not registered in the squad list he should be entitled to a transfer to another club (I don't know - but something that will stop clubs buying up all the players and not developing them in competitive football.

Placing a limit on the amount of players a club can have on its books at any one time is a good place to start i guess, it might mean players end up slightly lower down the leagues and get more experience that way, its just of no benefit to the big guns so wont happen.

If you want your player taught a certain way and are worried about who they play with then don't send them on loan, keep them at the club. The lower leagues don't exist to serve another clubs youth system, they got their own crap to worry about like not going out of business.

I think its great that players are starting to wise up to the fact that playing meaningless games for 5 years at training grounds is doing them no good (other than their bank balance) and are now looking to get real opportunities at smaller clubs, more power to them.

 

[HarryKane]

Drawn Millwall (away) in the FAYC played 15th Dec, KWP and Onomah in the England U21 squad playing Italy and Denmark:

http://www.thefa.com/news/2018/nov/09/fa-youth-cup-third-round-proper-draw-091118

http://www.thefa.com/news/2018/nov/09/england-u21s-squad-named-for-italy-and-denmark-091118

 

[allpaths]

Why does Skipp not get into the England squads again?

only a guess, but i'd say the england hierarchy relatively like sticking with the same group of youngsters throughout the lower age groups. My geuss that like to play the long game and not put too much pressure on their favourites to perform for club and control all the time. Allowing them to keep focusing on their development.

It's not till they reach the u-20 level which is basically the u-21's b team that you see the teams be picked on merit imo.

 

[allpaths]

agree with edson and allpaths on lyons-foster, he's out on his own at the top for me. my only reservations with him are how he develops physically(he's still a skinny lad relative to the others) and if this rb experiment is going to continue. i know a lot of people think it's good for them to play in different positions and i'm not saying there's no merit in doing so but i can't help but feel that when we do it we just end up halting their progress/rhythm and as a result the player loses confidence and form.

from what i've seen i don't think there's many cbs in any of england's age groups as smooth on the ball as he is. the other striking thing about blf is his composure defensively, so many defenders his age(and in general to be fair) are so keen to jump in as soon as they have a sniff of winning the ball whilst blf just stands ups and bides his time making the attacker commit. the areas he needs to work on are strength as sometimes he can get roughed up a bit by physical strikers and maybe just be wary of taking chances on the ball, he knows how comfortable he is in possession but occasionally he does overdo it.

spot on, I'm not worried with BLF's physique, just like I'm not worried about Foyth's, both of them will grow into their bodies.

As you know I'm a big fan of our CB's having runs at fullback to learn how to defend in wide areas and to help their balls skills. But as you said BLF doesnt need to improve in those areas at all and he should just be played in the middle (prefereable on the left side) so he can focus on becoming the best CB possible.

 

[Blake Griffin]

Why does Skipp not get into the England squads again?

he's competing with gallagher(chelsea) and i think harper(west brom), not really seen the latter but gallagher is a good player albeit a little more box-to-box, i think even @chelseayouth has said though that if it's one or the other then it should be skipp. mceachran, kirby, gibbs-white and smith-rowe are all quality but are more progressive/creative types so not really those he's competing with. also, not sure if this affects their decision but skipp is a club year below the other centre mids in the squad. it's a bit annoying that he keeps being overlooked but it's not a massive deal, as long as he doesn't get lost in the pochettino training loop then he should come back into the fold at some point, especially if he starts getting games for spurs.

should probably also point out that tob, who has been a mainstay of this group(not just in the squad but as a starting player) isn't being picked now, he also seems to be falling down the pecking order with us as well which shows just how things have gone for him recently.

 

[IGSpur]

John started for the England u16s as they beat France 3-1 and Watt came on later in the match

Albert Rachi has been playing for Albania u16s

Michael Craig has been called up for Scotland's Victory Shield squad. I assume his brother would also but not sure. Imagine the squad will be announced in the next few days

As I suspected Matthew Craig has also been called up. Hopefully they stream these matches, so we can watch them play. They will likely start which is good

 

[edson]

As I suspected Matthew Craig has also been called up. Hopefully they stream these matches, so we can watch them play. They will likely start which is good

A few weeks ago one of the Craig twins had a bit of a nightmare in the home match vs Norwich,he tried to turn his way out of trouble inside his own box twice and got caught out both times and Norwich scored from them both,don't ask me which brother it was.

As you know Both players look very good and one of them has played CB very well for a few games.

 

[coys200]

Think Skipp is weird tbh. How many just turned 18 yr old CM are getting on PL top 6 benches ? Foden ? Honestly can’t think of another.

 

[Blake Griffin]

Think Skipp is weird tbh. How many just turned 18 yr old CM are getting on PL top 6 benches ? Foden ? Honestly can’t think of another.

what do you mean weird?

recently turned 18 yr old cms on pl top six benches is a very specific set of parameters so there's not going to be many others who fit that same criteria but if we slightly widen the goalposts to 18 yr old cms at all pl clubs in all comps then smith-rowe has 5 apps(312 mins) for arsenal, foden 8 apps(226 mins) and gibbs-white 7 apps(221 mins). if we extend it further to include other positions then you can also add sessegnon 13 apps(1007 mins) and even hudson-odoi has 2 apps(35 mins) to skipp's 1 app(6 mins).

plus, as we know, skipp has only been on the bench due to a plethora of injuries.

 

[IGSpur]

Such as?

Well the ones selected ahead of him, then there's players like Gomes at United who is in great form who is missing out too.

only a guess, but i'd say the england hierarchy relatively like sticking with the same group of youngsters throughout the lower age groups. My geuss that like to play the long game and not put too much pressure on their favourites to perform for club and control all the time. Allowing them to keep focusing on their development.

It's not till they reach the u-20 level which is basically the u-21's b team that you see the teams be picked on merit imo.

Tbf to England I think they are fairly good at giving new players opportunities to play if they are good enough. There aren't many players I can think of who are playing top quality football that aren't getting a look in. We have a bit of a gripe with Skipp but you're also forgetting this age group has Englands greatest depth imo. As BG said it's missing two players that went to the Euros in TOB and Denny (someone that Skipp is a lot better than) and then there's Gomes as mentioned above, and even O'Riley who I know was much hyped but has suffered a lot of injuries. But even he has played as many first team minutes this season as Skipp. TOB was/is arguably this age groups most talented midfielder, and without pointing fingers, he has dropped down the order so they are happy to move people about and give chances if people have earned them or proven to be better than the others.

he's competing with gallagher(chelsea) and i think harper(west brom), not really seen the latter but gallagher is a good player albeit a little more box-to-box, i think even @chelseayouth has said though that if it's one or the other then it should be skipp. mceachran, kirby, gibbs-white and smith-rowe are all quality but are more progressive/creative types so not really those he's competing with. also, not sure if this affects their decision but skipp is a club year below the other centre mids in the squad. it's a bit annoying that he keeps being overlooked but it's not a massive deal, as long as he doesn't get lost in the pochettino training loop then he should come back into the fold at some point, especially if he starts getting games for spurs.

should probably also point out that tob, who has been a mainstay of this group(not just in the squad but as a starting player) isn't being picked now, he also seems to be falling down the pecking order with us as well which shows just how things have gone for him recently.

I haven't seen a lot of Harper either I vaguely remember seeing him play last year, or highlights of a game where they had 2 other academy players and he got great reviews. Even this season he's played 250 minutes. chelseayouth knows so much more but it seems there's little to split Gallagher and Skipp apart. Gallagher won the World Cup though so why drop him? I imagine though being at Chelsea if Poch is serious about Skipp then he would start over taking Gallagher if he plays more, but then an even more likely possibility is Gallagher goes on loan abroad and plays well to stay in the team, while Skipp stays here and doesn't play any games. Or more likely an as yet unknown player in the EFL starts getting games and leap frogs both of them.

I would love to see Skipp back in it, especially in a competition year but he needs to be doing more. As I've said many times before the fact that he can't get in though arguably should, is a testament to the age groups depth

Think Skipp is weird tbh. How many just turned 18 yr old CM are getting on PL top 6 benches ? Foden ? Honestly can’t think of another.

Who do you think he should be ahead of? And why would getting on a top 6s bench mean you should play for England. You can stick anyone on a bench it doesn't mean anything if they aren't playing

 

[allpaths]

Tbf to England I think they are fairly good at giving new players opportunities to play if they are good enough. There aren't many players I can think of who are playing top quality football that aren't getting a look in. We have a bit of a gripe with Skipp but you're also forgetting this age group has Englands greatest depth imo. As BG said it's missing two players that went to the Euros in TOB and Denny (someone that Skipp is a lot better than) and then there's Gomes as mentioned above, and even O'Riley who I know was much hyped but has suffered a lot of injuries. But even he has played as many first team minutes this season as Skipp. TOB was/is arguably this age groups most talented midfielder, and without pointing fingers, he has dropped down the order so they are happy to move people about and give chances if people have earned them or proven to be better than the others.

I dont think it's a bad policy. As I think it gives a lot of motivation to those like Skipp that get overlooked, while also keeping the pressure off of their favs. And as long as their is more merit at the older levels than I dont see the problem in the philosophy. Of course there are the odd example of people moving up and down the order, I was just think as a general term.