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Spurs Youth - 2019/20

Spurzinho

Well-Known Member
Jan 24, 2016
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Its due to opportunity. The article says that Real Madrid Castilla produce the most from the "Big 5" leagues, but it isn't true, both they and Barcelona B play in Third tier Spanish league, so there is not 1 team from the "Big 5" leagues in that top 19.

2 things at play here. 1) The successful academies are teams aren't challenging at the top of the top tier leagues, so don't have the same pressure to succeed. 2) They have to produce players to sell to make money, so there is almost more risk not playing a youngster with high potential than playing him, where as the more competitive teams, it's vice versa.

Also, not sure what their criteria is, but we have Kane, Winks, Townsend, Daniels, Smith, Bentaleb & Veljkovic just off the top of my head, yet aren't on the list, where as teams with 2 players are.

Edit: and Fredericks

I'm not sure what the criteria was but you didn't mention Skipp or Tanganga. Carroll played in the premier league, Caulker and Livermore got England caps didn't they? There's Edwards of course and Harrisson who's playing in the Eredivisie. KWP is at Southampton. Ruben Lameiras is playing in the Portuguese Premier Division. William Troost-Ekong is at Udinese. Alex Pritchard played in the Prem for Huddersfield. Paul-Jose Mpoku has played in the Belgian top league and Serie A. John Bostock (debatable whether he's home grown but he did play for our U18s) played in the Belgian Premier League and Ligue 1. Ryan Mason played in the Premier League and Ligue 1. Danny Rose played for U18s and has obviously had quite the career. Nathaniel Clyne and Reece Oxford have played in the Premier League and in Oxford's case the Bundesliga. Ismail Azzaoui and Keanen Bennetts have both been on the bench in Germany, Azzaoui has also played in the Eredivisie. Yuri Berchiche played in Ligue 1 and also La Liga. Tomas Pekhart played in the Bundesliga. Jamie O'Hara and Charlie Daniels have both played in the Premier League as did Phil Ifil and Michael Kightly. David Martin recently made his Premier League debut at 34. Mark Bunn played in the Premier League for Villa. Ludwig Norbert played in Ligue 1. Stephen Kelly and Dean Marney played in the Premier League as did Johnnie Jackson and Peter Crouch. Yannick Kamanan played in Ligue 1.

I'll stop there but you get the picture. We've had plenty of players play top flight football in the big leagues.
 

spurs9

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
11,840
34,012
I'm not sure what the criteria was but you didn't mention Skipp or Tanganga. Carroll played in the premier league, Caulker and Livermore got England caps didn't they? There's Edwards of course and Harrisson who's playing in the Eredivisie. KWP is at Southampton. Ruben Lameiras is playing in the Portuguese Premier Division. William Troost-Ekong is at Udinese. Alex Pritchard played in the Prem for Huddersfield. Paul-Jose Mpoku has played in the Belgian top league and Serie A. John Bostock (debatable whether he's home grown but he did play for our U18s) played in the Belgian Premier League and Ligue 1. Ryan Mason played in the Premier League and Ligue 1. Danny Rose played for U18s and has obviously had quite the career. Nathaniel Clyne and Reece Oxford have played in the Premier League and in Oxford's case the Bundesliga. Ismail Azzaoui and Keanen Bennetts have both been on the bench in Germany, Azzaoui has also played in the Eredivisie. Yuri Berchiche played in Ligue 1 and also La Liga. Tomas Pekhart played in the Bundesliga. Jamie O'Hara and Charlie Daniels have both played in the Premier League as did Phil Ifil and Michael Kightly. David Martin recently made his Premier League debut at 34. Mark Bunn played in the Premier League for Villa. Ludwig Norbert played in Ligue 1. Stephen Kelly and Dean Marney played in the Premier League as did Johnnie Jackson and Peter Crouch. Yannick Kamanan played in Ligue 1.

I'll stop there but you get the picture. We've had plenty of players play top flight football in the big leagues.
The Article said players currently playing in the Big 5 Leagues (Prem, La Liga, Bundesliga, Seria A & Ligue 1) hence most of the players on your list aren't included.

I don't think we can include Clyne and Oxford, that would be like Arsenal claiming Kane.

I was also only included players that were regularly getting minutes (due to the currently playing criteria), so didn't include Skipp, Tanganga, KWP & Bennetts.

Rose & Berchiche were both 17 when they joined, so I left them off (forgot about Berchiche though).

How long was William Troost-Ekong here?
 

Spurzinho

Well-Known Member
Jan 24, 2016
2,513
8,342
The Article said players currently playing in the Big 5 Leagues (Prem, La Liga, Bundesliga, Seria A & Ligue 1) hence most of the players on your list aren't included.

I don't think we can include Clyne and Oxford, that would be like Arsenal claiming Kane.

I was also only included players that were regularly getting minutes (due to the currently playing criteria), so didn't include Skipp, Tanganga, KWP & Bennetts.

Rose & Berchiche were both 17 when they joined, so I left them off (forgot about Berchiche though).

How long was William Troost-Ekong here?

3 and a bit years.
 

thekneaf

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2011
1,933
3,878
Yeah, I actually think our academy is doing pretty well now. I'm more interested in getting back to loaning out players and blooding them properly rather than hand wringing about players ability and our ability to spot it at grass roots.
 

ralphs bald spot

Well-Known Member
Jul 14, 2015
2,777
5,177
Oduwa. Now there's a player that didn't live up to his potential. His technique was outrageous. He wasn't as effective as Edwards but he looked more snazzy doing his thing. I remember watching him as an U14/15 and he was just jaw dropping. His touch was sublime. The trouble was he always seemed more interested in humiliating the opposition fullback than getting in a shot or a cross.

For me he was badly coached - he should have been moved into a central striker role he had everything to offer there perhaps apart from belief. For someone with so much talent and for me he was better than Edwards it was a travesty that he didn't progress.
 

coy-spurs1882

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
3,989
10,442
Yeah, I actually think our academy is doing pretty well now. I'm more interested in getting back to loaning out players and blooding them properly rather than hand wringing about players ability and our ability to spot it at grass roots.
i always think that our academy stalled when poch insisted to keep young players in the club. players like onomah kwp edwards should had been loaned out to gain experience
 

Spurzinho

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Jan 24, 2016
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According to the usually very reliable Lilywhite_Rose on twitter U16 defender Ben Watt has joined Oxford on a scholarship. Bit surprised as I thought Watt was pretty decent. He's very similar to Tariq Hinds. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him progress into the Oxford first team over the next 18 months.
 

Spurzinho

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Jan 24, 2016
2,513
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coulibably, musa yahaya and bruno uvini suddenly came to my mind... :LOL:

I'll see you a Bruno Uvini and raise you a Rodrigo Defendi. Going even further back I remember getting ridiculously excited, under Hoddle, we took a Brazilian lad on trial by the name of Diego Bortolozzo. I was sure we'd unearthed the next Kaka but as it turned out he wasn't even better than Rohan Ricketts.
 

Spurzinho

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Jan 24, 2016
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8,342
That makes five confirmed. Jez Davies, Jordan Hackett-Valton, Dane Scarlett, Dante Cassanova and Roshaun Mathurin.
 

SpunkyBackpack

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Dec 8, 2005
7,831
9,372
Is it a requirement now to play in our youth team to be named like an anime character? I assume Dante Cassanova has a gun that is also a sword and is possessed by a dragon or something.
 

coys200

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2017
8,436
17,403
Tom mentioned Jez otherwise never heard of him. Did he come from orient ?
 
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Spurzinho

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Jan 24, 2016
2,513
8,342

Anyone know anything about Aaron Skinner?

Versatile defensive player. He can play centre back, defensive midfield and right back. I think what caught our eye is that he can handle a football and bring it out as well as being defensively solid.
 

razzmaster

Well-Known Member
Jun 21, 2008
2,311
13,051
Versatile defensive player. He can play centre back, defensive midfield and right back. I think what caught our eye is that he can handle a football and bring it out as well as being defensively solid.

Sounds like Eric Dier. Are we snapping up more youngsters from other clubs now? Etete, Skinner and Davies spring to mind.
 

Spurzinho

Well-Known Member
Jan 24, 2016
2,513
8,342
Sounds like Eric Dier. Are we snapping up more youngsters from other clubs now? Etete, Skinner and Davies spring to mind.

I think its situational at the moment. We brought in Skinner because we knew that Binks planned on leaving and Skinner was available what with his former club Bury Going bust. Skinner had signed a short term deal with Bolton but I don't know if we paid them any compensation or not.

Etete had built a reputation at Notts County and we had a striker issue what with injuries, international call ups and the probability of Parrott being called up to the first team so it made sense for us to bring him in.

Davies I know very little about other than he turned out for Orient U18s last season, albeit just a couple of times. Others have described him as a versatile player who can cover right back, defensive midfield, central midfield and right wing. He's clearly very skilful. Again, given that our group of new scholars was looking very small it made sense to take a chance on him.

An interesting factor is that all three are bigger than we typically produce. Under McDermott we had a structure that tried to create number 8s or otherwise known as box to box midfielders because McDermott believed that regardless of what position they ended up in having that all round skill set was the best technical, tactical and physical skill set to possess. This meant that players with a low centre of gravity (typically short arses) were favoured over more cumbersome or rangey players. Prior to McDermott's spell everyone was trying to create a squad or 10's. The idea being that 10's had the best technical skillset (which was a response to to FA's review of the English academy system and our relative failure to produce technical players consistently.) McDermott had other ideas. Its quite possible that the game has once again evolved and producing 8's is limiting us. It'd be funny if we ended up heading back toward where we were to begin with before the FA's review and everyone starts creating specialists again. So you start a kid as a winger at 7 and that's his skillset until the day he retires.

Bit of a detour there but I do think there are moves afoot to change our academy philosophy from top to bottom.
 

coys200

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2017
8,436
17,403
What age are the intakes normally cause Dante Cassanova isn’t 16 till end June. Aren’t they normally late 16 or 17 ?
 
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