Alex Pritchard...

[Mr Pink]

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...nap-up-tottenhams-alex-pritchard-8467157.html

 

[chrissivad]

Tottenham face a fight to hang on to talented youngster Alex Pritchard, who is the subject of interest from Liverpool.
Pritchard has caught the eye in Spurs’ development matches this year, notably in their remarkable 4-1 win at Barcelona in the NextGen Series, but has yet to break into Andre Villas-Boas’ first-team squad.
Pritchard turns 20 in May and with his contract running down, the attacking midfielder is weighing up his options. Alex Inglethorpe, who coached Spurs’ junior sides during six years at White Hart Lane, is now reserve team coach at Liverpool and retains an interest in Pritchard.
Pritchard will be offered a new deal but Standard Sport understands he is undecided about his future. Should he choose to leave, Spurs would be entitled to compensation because they have developed the player.
If the clubs could not agree on a fee, an independent tribunal would determine the sum for Pritchard. Meanwhile, Villas-Boas is reluctant to allow youngsters Andros Townsend and Tom Carroll to leave on loan this month and the pair could be involved in Sunday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie at Leeds.

 

[mpickard2087]

I think there have been some rumours for a few weeks now. This article has just pretty much picked up on them, it hasn't added anything of insight.

 

[HappySpur]

I wonder if we might be forced to use him in more than just FA games in order to keep him. Although this has been running all month and he hasn't made the bench that I can remember.

 

[carpediem991]

Just place him on the bench against Leeds and maybe even Norwich. You have to give the prospects some perspective

 

[AngerManagement]

It would be a massive bonus if someone like him or Carroll burst on to the scene like Wiltshire did at Arsenal and saved us the need to sign a player

I haven't watched anywhere near enough to know if any of our youngsters are good enough to become first team regulars better than we can sign though.

 

[nferno]

Just buy jj and Bentley off us then fuck off Liverpool ffs.

 

[lillywhites61]

It's tough because it is such hard team to break into now with the quality we have, he should however get given some -st team recognition if his displays recently are anything to go by, if only the bench.

I hope he stays as he looks a great prospect, losing Inglethorpe was always going to be an issue as he knows our youngsters very well, and as such could be very persuasive. Shame he left really as he did a great job at spurs

 

[GetSpurredOn]

Since Fergie was demanding £6m for Fryers, give Pritchard a game or two over coming weeks and jack up the price.
I believe Fryers had only had a handful of appearances of the bench. Or is that just cynical of me.
Then again, with Falque gone on loan, could Pritchard be an option as cover?

 

[JonnySpurs]

If we let Pritchard go we're going to regret it.....mark my words....this kid is gonna be a special player.

Don't get me wrong, not saying Levy/AVB want him to leave but we need to try and keep him on board if we can.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

I don't see why Pritchard would leave for us for Liverpool it's not like he has any better of a chance making their first team. Plus i'm sure he is a London lad so wouldn't want to move away from his fam.

 

[AngerManagement]

I don't see why Pritchard would leave for us for Liverpool it's not like he has any better of a chance making their first team. Plus i'm sure he is a London lad so wouldn't want to move away from his fam.

I guess they could offer him a bigger wage

His agents might profit from a move and be advising him its the best thing for his career?

He might see the likes of Sterling breaking in to the Liverpool team and think they're more likely to give him a chance than we are?

Who knows, but hopefully if we value him we will talk him into signing a contract for say the next two years and let him prove his worth to us and us prove to him that we value him and are willing to give him a chance to prove himself

Personally I've only seen the odd youtube clip from the nextgen series, he looks a talent but so did Bostock when looking at similar videos so its difficult to make an assessment from what I know

 

[TigerRawr]

Well, they are weaker then us. So maybe he indeed thinks it would be better in LFC.

 

[Spursidol]

I don't see why Pritchard would leave for us for Liverpool it's not like he has any better of a chance making their first team. Plus i'm sure he is a London lad so wouldn't want to move away from his fam.

Unfortunately Liverpool are playing a number of youngsters in their first team (as indeed are ManU).

As an example http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19582539 where Suso, 18, and 19-year-old Wisdom were both making their first-team debuts, with Shelvey (20) and one or two other bought in youngsters such as Boroni (21) also appearing.

Other than the away game against Carlisle (win 3-0) where Spurs played Mason (sub Carroll), Smith, Townsend, in most other games there has been little use of Spurs younger players - even when Spurs had a lot of injuries.

There has been quite a debate on the Spurs U21/u19/u18 thread where some defend AVB's need to focus on playing the first team players to the exclusion of youth whilst I and a few others have argued that unless we do involve the youth, they will need to move on foir the sake otheir careers.

Unfortunately I think we will lose some good young players over the next 6 months unless we inviolve them. My best suggestion is that as Spurs supported the increasse in subs from 5 to 7 on the basis that it would encourage more youth players - that we do exactlly that and have 2 places on the subs bench (for most matches) for youngesters, which means 16 first team players in a squad plus two youngsters some of whom will play but often will just gainn the experience of being involved with the first team.

(Background Info

Aside frrom Townsend and Caroll who have had about 9 or 10 appearances, but only 2 or 3 starts each which is hardly generous, Mason has had one start and one appearance (plus one 10 second appearance) whilst players like Massimo Luongo and Ryan Fredericks have not been seen in squads, nor Alex Pritchard (Kevin Stewart has had one appearnace on the bench as a reward for good results for u 21's and Next Gen) nor Cristian Ceballos.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Unfortunately Liverpool are playing a number of youngsters in their first team (as indeed are ManU).

As an example http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19582539 where Suso, 18, and 19-year-old Wisdom were both making their first-team debuts, with Shelvey (20) and one or two other bought in youngsters such as Boroni (21) also appearing.

Other than the away game against Carlisle (win 3-0) where Spurs played Mason (sub Carroll), Smith, Townsend, in most other games there has been little use of Spurs younger players - even when Spurs had a lot of injuries.

There has been quite a debate on the Spurs U21/u19/u18 thread where some defend AVB's need to focus on playing the first team players to the exclusion of youth whilst I and a few others have argued that unless we do involve the youth, they will need to move on foir the sake otheir careers.

Unfortunately I think we will lose some good young players over the next 6 months unless we inviolve them. My best suggestion is that as Spurs supported the increasse in subs from 5 to 7 on the basis that it would encourage more youth players - that we do exactlly that and have 2 places on the subs bench (for most matches) for youngesters, which means 16 first team players in a squad plus two youngsters some of whom will play but often will just gainn the experience of being involved with the first team.

(Background Info

Aside frrom Townsend and Caroll who have had about 9 or 10 appearances, but only 2 or 3 starts each which is hardly generous, Mason has had one start and one appearance (plus one 10 second appearance) whilst players like Massimo Luongo and Ryan Fredericks have not been seen in squads, nor Alex Pritchard (Kevin Stewart has had one appearnace on the bench as a reward for good results for u 21's and Next Gen) nor Cristian Ceballos.

Look at where we are in the league compared to Liverpool. Man U only promote youngsters who are clearly talented enough.

I'm all for giving youth a chance if they good enough to compete for a first team place like Caulker. There is no point playing youngsters for the sake of it as it will affect the teams overall performance.

 

[bubble07]

Just place him on the bench against Leeds and maybe even Norwich. You have to give the prospects some perspective

problem with that is that his profile will raise and it will alert more bidders if he features and does well

 

[beats1]

Look at where we are in the league compared to Liverpool. Man U only promote youngsters who are clearly talented enough.

I'm all for giving youth a chance if they good enough to compete for a first team place like Caulker. There is no point playing youngsters for the sake of it as it will affect the teams overall performance.

I disagree, firstly liverpool are only 7 points behind us which isnt much and matched our Uefa performance despite them playing youth and our youth players arent exactly youth players they are proven at least championship hence us absolutely dominating the development league. Last time I checked we had a higher GD than the other teams goals scored, we have dominated so much we have played our nextgen team, who still beat united whose team included players proven at championship level as well as players who have played in the CL

As for Caulker he is a defender it was easier for him to get a PL loan with our flair players it is very hard for them to get a loan deal so appearances are needed to bleed them in and if they show promise then they should be loaned out to premier league teams like wilshere and etc. Playing one or two championship players against teams like coventry wont affect our team performance in any way and interestingly Sherwood said none of the championship players would be going back so clearly there is something wrong here. As they are not getting our investment back by not playing these highly rated kids. IMO our problem is we seem to have too many good kids atm. If we just had Pritchard he would of been on the bench and had a couple of appearances tbh.

Also Pritchard has had a brilliant season this year under Alex Inglethorpe with his performances against Barcelona, so its pretty much given that he would be linked with Liverpool since Alex has now moved there. Also the Pritchard has been one of the standout performers in the competition and had a bigger impact than Sterling did last year in terms of goals, so who knows what this kid can be under the right development

 

[beats1]

problem with that is that his profile will raise and it will alert more bidders if he features and does well

Doesnt help either if we have more better "youth" players struggling to get in to the first team bench

 

[Toela65]

problem with that is that his profile will raise and it will alert more bidders if he features and does well

Every club in the top few leagues are aware of Pritchard and his potential. He'll have plenty of clubs after him if he decides to leave.

A LFC ITK who is actually well respected has said we like him but think he's signing a new contract at Spurs.

 

[Spursidol]

Look at where we are in the league compared to Liverpool. Man U only promote youngsters who are clearly talented enough.

I'm all for giving youth a chance if they good enough to compete for a first team place like Caulker. There is no point playing youngsters for the sake of it as it will affect the teams overall performance.

1. Liverpool are not that far behind Spurs. More to the point the revenues are still a lot higher than Spurs - if we do not start to get youth through but they do, there is a big risk they will overtake us in a few yeasrs.

2j ManU's youth is not necessarily better than Spurs - in the hiome game against Maan U u 21's Spurs beat them 4-1, in the away game Spurs lost 2-1 to a side with 4 or players having iCL experience captained by Fletcher as one of 3 experienced over age players. For long periods Spurs wre on top with Mason/Carroll in midfield having the beating of ManU's 3 man midfield ddespite Fletcher being in it.

Playing youth is a balancing act - if you don't play them there is no point in having a youth poliicy (which is a key requirement of Sputs long term plan), play too many and we run into trouble. At present AVB has not played them enough, hence they are bnot getting the experience they need and one or two like Pritchard are apparantly considering moving on. The balance needs re-adjusting.