Spurs Youth 2019/20

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This is horrific news. We need to get a replacement in, whos as good if not better, than him. That’ll be a tough ask.
Definitely a big blow. The production line had slowed in recent years but no one can deny the job that John did.

Hopefully this acts as a booster shot in the arm to our sporting organisation and we get a new head of youth development and a sporting director in. Or one that can do both roles.
 
Very hard to tell for us ordinary folk (fans) if this is good or bad. It's a no brainer bad thing given all the neutral talk about McDermott which is all highly positive. It's known that many other academies have attempted to copy what John does, so only see this as an endorsement. Also, he's been hunted by many rival club trying to acquire his services, most notable was Man U who have relentlessly pursued him.

But, and please take this with a pinch of salt as I'm just an ordinary fan, questions should be asked of his role lately. The fact that he wasn't able to keep the likes of Matt Wells, McKenna, Chris Ramsey, Inglethorpe and Scott Parker. Whilst coming in the other way was Wayne Burnett, I'm not one to judge Burnett too, as for us ordinary folk it's almost impossible to do so but I've not heard very good things said about his teams. And with Mason, is he any good?

These are just open questions, there was so much blame given to Poch and his last 18months regarding the non-selection of certain players that it seemed all to convenient to point the finger at him when McDermott actually headed up the Dept. responsible.

The obvious concern is the direction of the Club right now:-
1. A dinosaur of a Manager overseeing some seriously tragic outdated football
2. No DoF
3. No Head of Academy

I think this really is quite serious.

Or maybe we are in the middle of a plan being rolled out addressing points 2 and 3 above??? Ergo, does McDermott's leaving open the door for DoF to come in and create something from scratch, just might be more appealing to the bigger names out there????
 
Very hard to tell for us ordinary folk (fans) if this is good or bad. It's a no brainer bad thing given all the neutral talk about McDermott which is all highly positive. It's known that many other academies have attempted to copy what John does, so only see this as an endorsement. Also, he's been hunted by many rival club trying to acquire his services, most notable was Man U who have relentlessly pursued him.

But, and please take this with a pinch of salt as I'm just an ordinary fan, questions should be asked of his role lately. The fact that he wasn't able to keep the likes of Matt Wells, McKenna, Chris Ramsey, Inglethorpe and Scott Parker. Whilst coming in the other way was Wayne Burnett, I'm not one to judge Burnett too, as for us ordinary folk it's almost impossible to do so but I've not heard very good things said about his teams. And with Mason, is he any good?

These are just open questions, there was so much blame given to Poch and his last 18months regarding the non-selection of certain players that it seemed all to convenient to point the finger at him when McDermott actually headed up the Dept. responsible.

The obvious concern is the direction of the Club right now:-
1. A dinosaur of a Manager overseeing some seriously tragic outdated football
2. No DoF
3. No Head of Academy

I think this really is quite serious.

Or maybe we are in the middle of a plan being rolled out addressing points 2 and 3 above??? Ergo, does McDermott's leaving open the door for DoF to come in and create something from scratch, just might be more appealing to the bigger names out there????

I agree with everything you say, it's pretty much my thoughts on the matter.

Recruitment through the club needs to improve both at youth and senior level. Like you say, maybe this will be the catalyst for it. I think him leaving has been on the cards for a while though. I'm sure I read he was being hunted by the FA a good 6 months or so ago. So with that in mind maybe we have someone lined up with any luck.
 
Definitely a big blow. The production line had slowed in recent years but no one can deny the job that John did.

Hopefully this acts as a booster shot in the arm to our sporting organisation and we get a new head of youth development and a sporting director in. Or one that can do both roles.
This is the dismantling of the set up that took us the ECL final. What comes next is more important than Jose Mourinho. If Levy is reactive as is his want we are fucked. I'm not sure where we should turn but perhaps Ryan Mason should be part of our future in some increased capacity.
 
McDermott leaving is a huge blow.

Spurs academy was very productive in the pre-Poch days, with quite a few players coming into the first team as squad players before being sold generating over £100m whilst retaining probably our only world class player Kane. With Poch banning loans to lower league clubs, retaining them to play with the first team, youngsters no longer got the playing experience they needed to be selected for Spurs first team. I'd imagine it must have been frustrating to McDermott to develop the youngsters up to the age of 18 but after a year or so at u21's to find there was no route into the first team - and also see the knock on effect of the best youngsters turning down offers of a scholarship with Spurs academy to do to the clubs. Whether that has been a significant factor, only McDermott will know - initially he had a very good close relationship with Poch but over the last 4 or 5 seasons a lot of his job satisfaction must have gone down dramatically.

Question is who will take over - we have lost some very good academy coaches in recent years including Alex Inglethorpe (Liverpool) Chris Ramsey and Les Ferdinand (QPR), Justin Cochrane (England), Kieran McKenna (ManU), Scott Parker and Matt Wells (Fulham) - and its a big job to step up to, re-ignite the spirit of the academy and re-start the production line of youngsters both into the Spurs first team and to be sold on.

I'd hope we took the opportunity to bring in a Director of Football (who could oversee to some extent the academy), an analytics team together with a top academy coach/manager and team to arrange youth loans. A big recruitment drive.

McDermott is taking on the job to oversee all age groups up to England u20's. Wish him well - and thanks for his efforts to develop Spurs academy to the level he has. Testament to his success is that many other clubs have copied his philosophy.
www.thefa.com/news/2020/mar/20/john-mcdermott-announced-as-new-assistant-technical-director-200320
 
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Interview with Noni Mandueke (former Spurs u16 captain and one of best at E u16) who moved to PSV rather than accept a Spurs scholarship - reason was better opportunities to play first team football at an earlier age than he would get in PL . Recently made his full PSV debut aged 17 and starting to replace Bergwijn at PSV.

Big loss to Spurs
 
Sad day really, McDermott was the architect of what became one of the leading academies in the country, with a completely holistic approach, a great coached ethos, energetic and aggressive tactically, focus on individual development. Some decent players through at various times, but two very memorable generations that will always stick in my memory - that group that included Kane, Pritchard, Smith, Veljkovic, Bentaleb, Carroll, Dombaxe - that effectively won the youth league (but lost to ManU - after cruising to a 2-0 lead at half time - in the play off) and then there was the KWP, Onomah, Edwards group that had to play second fiddle to an incredibly good and dominant Chelsea U18's.

I might be mixing up age groups in the first group - but I'm sure you all remember the group I mean.

Chance to revitalise things I guess, as others have said, I'd love this to be another catalyst that points Levy to getting in a really good DOF, bring in some new ideas, re-energise the academy, some more cutting edge young coaches - but I won't hold my breath.
 
Not bothered by this at all.

Any thoughts on a replacement ?

For example Fulham Academy have a good reputation for bringing players through, as do Southampton - the attraction of their academy management moving to Spurs would be bigger budgets and reputation to bring in players, we have some good prospects in the academy (even though maybe only half of the numbers we had 10 years ago) to build on and some of the best facilities in europe but the disadvantage is how to get players experience in the 18-21 year so a need maybe to build up a network of clubs trusted to take our loanees.

Ryan Mason is far too inexperienced to take on such a role, do you think there are any internal candidates - I cant think of any ?
 
Watch out for Dermi Lusala who plays RB. He used to go to my old school St Ignatius.

Yes we still have some decent youngsters coming through - aside from Dermi Lusala (RB/CB can play DM and LB) there is Nile John (was winger seems to play CM now) and Max Robson (AM/CM) who are probably the best in that year group (Academy Year 1), with Tarrelle Whitaker (winger/striker) looking not far behind before he got injured half way through the season. But at that age sometimes players don't seem to progress whilst others suddenly 'get it' and look the part.

So early days, but hopefully they can keep progressing.

Next season's likely Academy Year 1 also seem to have some decent players in it - Aaron Maguire (GK), Jordan Hackett (LB/CB), and Dane Scarlett (striker) are probably the pick of the bunch but there is also Ben Watt (CB), Rochaun Mathurin (AM/Winger) and Dante Casanova (CM?AM) not far behind either, so could be an interesting year group to watch.
 
Who is Richard Allen?



The full interview (over one hour).

Richard Allen was one of the 'original' coaches who came to Spurs Academy shortly after John McDermott joined, so worked alongside the likes of Alex Inglethorpe and Chris Ramsey, but left Spurs a few years ago to take up a role with the FA and now at Loughborough University. Fascinating wide ranging interview if you are interested in Academy recruitment/selection and coaching matters etc - and being at Spurs had a few snippets regarding Harry Kane and Japhet Tanganga.
 
Spurs u23's have 4 matches left to play this season and Spur u18's have 5 matches left this season, so if they resumed playing by 31 May, both u23's and u18's could finish off their seasons before 30 June when most of the development squad's contracts come to an end and most of the Academy Year 2 scholarship contracts come to an end - with a handful who already have longer term contracts.

In practise I really cant see them finishing the season by 30 June, so their future will be determined by the matches they've played so far.

Nothing really hangs on completing their seasons, but it might determine a few of the lads future as to who will be awarded a contract and play for Spurs u23's or loaned out.....and those who are released.

At the moment many of the players futures are sorted out - and I'd guess this is the results :

Retained :

Goalkeepers (5)

Austin (to be loaned out), De Bie, Oluwayemi, Kurylowicz, (Edit - Whiteman (to be loaned out) )

Defenders (7)
Eyoma CB/RB (to be loaned out), Cirkin (LB/CB), Walcott (CB), Lyons-Foster (CB/FB), Hinds (RB/LB), Okedina (CB/RB), Skinner (CB/DM)

Midfield (7)
White (DM), Bowden (DM), Bennett (AM), Cooper (AM), Roles AM (to be loaned out), J. Clarke AM (to be loaned out) Markanday (CAM),

Forwards (5)
Parrott (first team/loan), Etete, , Mukendi (one year out injured, repeat year), Richards (winger/FWD), (Edit Sterling (to loan out)

Total - 24 (including 6 to be loaned out or in first team)


Maybe Released, a few retained (Total 10)

Dinzeyi (CB), Statham (CB), Tainio (RB), Pedder (CM/AM), Patterson (AM), Clark (AM), Pochettino (AM), Thorpe (AM), A Shashoua, (CM/AM), Asante (Fwd),

Sold (total 5)
Carter-Vickers (CB), Amos (CM), Marsh (DM), Georgiou (Winger), Tracey (utiity),

There's maybe space for 3 out of the 10 players provisionally put into the 'Released' category to be retained as part of the u23 squad to play next season (eg Patterson, Tainio - injured) - perhaps more if additional players are loaned out. The objective is to keep the number of development squad players at 20-25 to ensure they get playing time - the above gives 18 players in u23's and 6 loanees, allowing some younger players space to get u23 experience.

Only 2 of the released list are from this years Academy Year 2, the others have had one or more years experience of u23's

Only a couple of this seasons Academy Year 1 (next seasons Academy Year 2) have played u23 football, so for at least the first few months of next season its unlikely many will play for u23's.
 
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Needed a clear out of the development squad as this years u18's team has largely been the preserve of the Academy Year 2 players, as there hasn't been places in the u23's.

And that in turn means that only 6 players of the Academy Year 1 have started more than 10 u18 games - Cesay, John, Lusala, Muir, Robson and Whittaker.

And in turn only 4 of this seasons u16's have played even a game for u18's - Cassanova, Hackett, Mathurin and Scarlett - due to the number of current Academy players competing for game time..

Full 14 man squad of Academy Year 1 :

GK - Timothee Lo Totula, Isak Solberg

Defenders - Dermi Lusala, Marques Muir, Kalum Cesay, Jeremy Kyezu

Midfield - Michael Craig, Matthew Craig, Romaine Mundle, Yago de Santiago Alonso

Attacking Midfield - Nile John, Max Robson, Eddie Carrington-Alberdi

Striker - Tarrelle Whittaker
 
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