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Rewarding Youth Development Is Giving Tottenham Hotspur The Best Chance Of Long Term Success
Raj Bains | January 13, 2016
Following in the footsteps of Danny Rose, Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb, Eric Dier and twice Harry Kane, the much loved and hyped Dele Alli has been handed a contract extension by Tottenham, healthily improving his current terms. Having only signed this time last year and immediately loaned back to Milton Keynes for the remainder of the season, it’s a huge endorsement of his impact at the club that Spurs were in such a rush to reward a player that they already had tied down for five years.
Now an England international and scorer of a beauty on his debut, Dele Alli has fast become a household name, and with that comes a level of pressure he won’t have previously been exposed to. The transfer rumours have already started, the endless discussion about his best position and the extent of his potential, and that’s not going to slow down if he carries on playing the way he is. Having kicked in the door of the Spurs first team and stayed there, making himself one of the most important components, nothing seems to be able to stop his meteoric rise at the moment.
Almost certain now to be a part of the England squad this summer for the Euros, perhaps even as a starter, it’s easy to forget that just a few months ago, Alli didn’t know anything beyond playing for Milton Keynes in League Two, so he was hardly groomed to an elite level. His enthusiasm for the game, his ability to learn in a short amount of time and stick to task are attributes beyond his years, and the sense that his youthfulness has allowed him some fearlessness in the face of some of the more daunting challenges he’s faced certainly seem to have worked out for the best.
In times gone by, Tottenham would’ve ruined a talent like Dele Alli through neglect, releasing him at the end of a contract nobody wanted to buy him out of with five minutes of competitive action under his belt, ending a run in the reserves only bettered by Jonathan Obika, all the while attending a support group in his time off chaired by Bongali Khumalo, probably. It’s a little bit different these days, though. With developing and investing in youth now a priority – rather than the afterthought it had been previously – younger players come and play for Tottenham safe in the knowledge that first team football isn’t a pipe dream.
Bu rewarding the younger players they have with bigger deals, Tottenham are incentivising development in a healthy way. Unlike other clubs, an 18-year-old prospect won’t be given enough money to wipe out world debt after five promising games, but will be given a long term deal and fair crack at proving himself beyond that, being regularly given a fresh deal as and when he becomes more valuable to the club. By giving a young player something to play towards, with realistic goals and targets, the coaching to get them there and following through on improved terms, everyone knows exactly where they stand.
Reportedly now earning £25,000-a-week, Dele Alli is probably still on less than some Championship players, but the payment structure in place isn’t something new at Tottenham, and has been in place for some time. In fact, right until the season that Spurs qualified for the Champions League, they were only playing Luka Modric £16,000-a-week, which was topped up by almost double when the likes of Chelsea came calling. We joked about it earlier, but Harry Kane has recently signed two separate contact extensions at the club, and all that’ll have changed is the amount of money he’s earning, jumping up a little at a time.
While there’s no doubt Mauricio Pochettino deserves an awful lot of praise for the work he’s done in identifying the young talent Tottenham already had and helping them to grow as players in a way that nobody expected, some of that goodwill should be reserved for Daniel Levy, too, who’s only really mentioned when he’s in the news for forcing yet another club to overpay for one of his various castoffs. By backing his coach so readily and regularly as he has been doing, Tottenham fans now celebrate contract extensions with more excitement than brand new singings, which is an endorsement of the policy that many can’t have been expecting.
With the exception of Tom Carroll – who’s deal is currently due to expire this summer – there isn’t a young player in the Tottenham first team that is on a contract you’d describe as anything other than ‘long term’. In the dog eat dog world football has become, that not only ensures that Tottenham aren’t in any danger of losing their players for free, but guarantees them a much higher fee should anyone attempt to take any players away from them. Older players, the likes of Hugo Lloris and Jan Vertonghen, both have deals with plenty of years still to run, with Lloris having renewed his deal recently, and Vertonghen with a 2-year clause to extend ready and waiting to be triggered on his own.
Tottenham look primed and ready to kick on to the next level with how they’re playing on the field, and the level of positivity on all fronts surrounding the club is intoxicating, if not slightly surreal. Behind-the-scenes, Spurs have built and created an understanding and platform that is feeding directly in to the growing culture and success of the club, safeguarding their future. In films about boxing, the lead character usually takes a couple of rounds of having their arse kicked before getting back in to the fight and building towards a knockout. Tottenham, then, have just started pushing themselves forward off the ropes.
Rewarding Youth Development Is Giving Tottenham Hotspur The Best Chance Of Long Term Success
Raj Bains | January 13, 2016
Following in the footsteps of Danny Rose, Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb, Eric Dier and twice Harry Kane, the much loved and hyped Dele Alli has been handed a contract extension by Tottenham, healthily improving his current terms. Having only signed this time last year and immediately loaned back to Milton Keynes for the remainder of the season, it’s a huge endorsement of his impact at the club that Spurs were in such a rush to reward a player that they already had tied down for five years.
Now an England international and scorer of a beauty on his debut, Dele Alli has fast become a household name, and with that comes a level of pressure he won’t have previously been exposed to. The transfer rumours have already started, the endless discussion about his best position and the extent of his potential, and that’s not going to slow down if he carries on playing the way he is. Having kicked in the door of the Spurs first team and stayed there, making himself one of the most important components, nothing seems to be able to stop his meteoric rise at the moment.
Almost certain now to be a part of the England squad this summer for the Euros, perhaps even as a starter, it’s easy to forget that just a few months ago, Alli didn’t know anything beyond playing for Milton Keynes in League Two, so he was hardly groomed to an elite level. His enthusiasm for the game, his ability to learn in a short amount of time and stick to task are attributes beyond his years, and the sense that his youthfulness has allowed him some fearlessness in the face of some of the more daunting challenges he’s faced certainly seem to have worked out for the best.
In times gone by, Tottenham would’ve ruined a talent like Dele Alli through neglect, releasing him at the end of a contract nobody wanted to buy him out of with five minutes of competitive action under his belt, ending a run in the reserves only bettered by Jonathan Obika, all the while attending a support group in his time off chaired by Bongali Khumalo, probably. It’s a little bit different these days, though. With developing and investing in youth now a priority – rather than the afterthought it had been previously – younger players come and play for Tottenham safe in the knowledge that first team football isn’t a pipe dream.
Bu rewarding the younger players they have with bigger deals, Tottenham are incentivising development in a healthy way. Unlike other clubs, an 18-year-old prospect won’t be given enough money to wipe out world debt after five promising games, but will be given a long term deal and fair crack at proving himself beyond that, being regularly given a fresh deal as and when he becomes more valuable to the club. By giving a young player something to play towards, with realistic goals and targets, the coaching to get them there and following through on improved terms, everyone knows exactly where they stand.
Reportedly now earning £25,000-a-week, Dele Alli is probably still on less than some Championship players, but the payment structure in place isn’t something new at Tottenham, and has been in place for some time. In fact, right until the season that Spurs qualified for the Champions League, they were only playing Luka Modric £16,000-a-week, which was topped up by almost double when the likes of Chelsea came calling. We joked about it earlier, but Harry Kane has recently signed two separate contact extensions at the club, and all that’ll have changed is the amount of money he’s earning, jumping up a little at a time.
While there’s no doubt Mauricio Pochettino deserves an awful lot of praise for the work he’s done in identifying the young talent Tottenham already had and helping them to grow as players in a way that nobody expected, some of that goodwill should be reserved for Daniel Levy, too, who’s only really mentioned when he’s in the news for forcing yet another club to overpay for one of his various castoffs. By backing his coach so readily and regularly as he has been doing, Tottenham fans now celebrate contract extensions with more excitement than brand new singings, which is an endorsement of the policy that many can’t have been expecting.
With the exception of Tom Carroll – who’s deal is currently due to expire this summer – there isn’t a young player in the Tottenham first team that is on a contract you’d describe as anything other than ‘long term’. In the dog eat dog world football has become, that not only ensures that Tottenham aren’t in any danger of losing their players for free, but guarantees them a much higher fee should anyone attempt to take any players away from them. Older players, the likes of Hugo Lloris and Jan Vertonghen, both have deals with plenty of years still to run, with Lloris having renewed his deal recently, and Vertonghen with a 2-year clause to extend ready and waiting to be triggered on his own.
Tottenham look primed and ready to kick on to the next level with how they’re playing on the field, and the level of positivity on all fronts surrounding the club is intoxicating, if not slightly surreal. Behind-the-scenes, Spurs have built and created an understanding and platform that is feeding directly in to the growing culture and success of the club, safeguarding their future. In films about boxing, the lead character usually takes a couple of rounds of having their arse kicked before getting back in to the fight and building towards a knockout. Tottenham, then, have just started pushing themselves forward off the ropes.
