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Player Spurs Youth 2025/26

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Spursidol said:
FT 4-1 win away at Newcastle u21's


View: https://x.com/Spurs_Academy/status/1974881958900502693

International break now but :
u15 Floodlit Cup on Monday v Woolwich
u17 PL Cup - Wed 8 October Ipswich (H) - 19.00

Doubt if we will get much information on either match except maybe the results !
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No stream ... not even a match replay.
Joe Biden GIF by Election 2020
 
therhinospeaks said:
It'll be interesting to see youth orientated Frank is. He never had the chance with Brentford B, so this will be fascinating cos Luca is knocking very loudly.
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Luka is almost exactly one year younger than Mikey (mikey dob 11/8/2007, LWB 1/10/2007) who got decent minutes last season at Spurs last season, if you adjust for the 2-3 months he was 'injured'. But the problem was whether he'd get significantly more this season at Spurs - and it would appear it was thought he would not get enough, hence the Rangers loan this season. I do not think Rangers or SPL was right choice as despite Mikey's relatively adult development he's found it physically difficult to make his mark in matches despite his excellent skills : but its english speaking which might be seen as easier. Maybe the Dutch league (where English is widely spoken) would have been a better choice ?

Will Frank and Spurs (including our fans) be able to give LWB substantially more minutes at Spurs than Mikey got at Spurs last season as after January LWB may/want to test himself at a higher level, It seems to me his body is more 'wiry' than Mikey rather than more adult developed, will that help him ?

Bergvall (dob 2/2/2006) is about 18 months older than Mikey and struggled playing first team football at Spurs in the first half of last season but by Christmas was deserving of first team starts. However prior to Spurs he had one season playing a lot of mens football in Sweden and that gave him a better platform to build on to play at Spurs - and that is the huge advantage he has over both Mikey and LWB. Same argument for Archie Gray (dob 12/8/2006) who had a season at Championship Leeds prior to joining Spurs

Its a different situation in Spain where Yamal (dob 13/7/2007) had easier games in the domestic league to ease his development which has worked fabulously well for him.

So does Frank offer Luka some playing time at Spurs after January or a loan, and if so where - is it, to say Netherlands with a less taxing (physically and technically) league, or if not where ?

As you say a fascinating time for LWB
 
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Spursidol said:
Luka is almost exactly one year younger than Mikey (mikey dob 11/8/2007, LWB 1/10/2007) who got decent minutes last season at Spurs last season, if you adjust for the 2-3 months he was 'injured'. But the problem was whether he'd get significantly more this season at Spurs - and it would appear it was thought he would not get enough, hence the Rangers loan this season. I do not think Rangers or SPL was right choice as despite Mikey's relatively adult development he's found it physically difficult to make his mark in matches despite his excellent skills : but its english speaking which might be seen as easier. Maybe the Dutch league (where English is widely spoken) would have been a better choice ?

Will Frank and Spurs (including our fans) be able to give LWB substantially more minutes at Spurs than Mikey got at Spurs last season as after January LWB may/want to test himself at a higher level, It seems to me his body is more 'wiry' than Mikey rather than more adult developed, will that help him ?

Bergvall (dob 2/2/2006) is about 18 months older than Mikey and struggled playing first team football at Spurs in the first half of last season but by Christmas was deserving of first team starts. However prior to Spurs he had one season playing a lot of mens football in Sweden and that gave him a better platform to build on to play at Spurs - and that is the huge advantage he has over both Mikey and LWB. Same argument for Archie Gray (dob 12/8/2006) who had a season at Championship Leeds prior to joining Spurs

Its a different situation in Spain where Yamal (dob 13/7/2007) had easier games in the domestic league to ease his development which has worked fabulously well for him.

So does Frank offer Luka some playing time at Spurs after January or a loan, and if so where - is it, to say Netherlands with a less taxing (physically and technically) league, or if not where ?

As you say a fascinating time for LWB
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As a 17 year old in January, would he be legally able to take a loan to the Netherlands? I'd guess not.

Which makes the situation difficult. I doubt that a Championship club would take him at that stage. Maybe L1 - but that is a physically tough league.
 
Spursidol said:
Luka is almost exactly one year younger than Mikey (mikey dob 11/8/2007, LWB 1/10/2007) who got decent minutes last season at Spurs last season, if you adjust for the 2-3 months he was 'injured'. But the problem was whether he'd get significantly more this season at Spurs - and it would appear it was thought he would not get enough, hence the Rangers loan this season. I do not think Rangers or SPL was right choice as despite Mikey's relatively adult development he's found it physically difficult to make his mark in matches despite his excellent skills : but its english speaking which might be seen as easier. Maybe the Dutch league (where English is widely spoken) would have been a better choice ?

Will Frank and Spurs (including our fans) be able to give LWB substantially more minutes at Spurs than Mikey got at Spurs last season as after January LWB may/want to test himself at a higher level, It seems to me his body is more 'wiry' than Mikey rather than more adult developed, will that help him ?

Bergvall (dob 2/2/2006) is about 18 months older than Mikey and struggled playing first team football at Spurs in the first half of last season but by Christmas was deserving of first team starts. However prior to Spurs he had one season playing a lot of mens football in Sweden and that gave him a better platform to build on to play at Spurs - and that is the huge advantage he has over both Mikey and LWB. Same argument for Archie Gray (dob 12/8/2006) who had a season at Championship Leeds prior to joining Spurs

Its a different situation in Spain where Yamal (dob 13/7/2007) had easier games in the domestic league to ease his development which has worked fabulously well for him.

So does Frank offer Luka some playing time at Spurs after January or a loan, and if so where - is it, to say Netherlands with a less taxing (physically and technically) league, or if not where ?

As you say a fascinating time for LWB
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Maybe Mikey should go on loan to Bergvall’s old club. Didn’t do Sheringham any harm playing there and I guess we have a relationship with them now.
 
Grim54 said:
As a 17 year old in January, would he be legally able to take a loan to the Netherlands? I'd guess not.

Which makes the situation difficult. I doubt that a Championship club would take him at that stage. Maybe L1 - but that is a physically tough league.
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All of which might mean that LWB may need to be found first team playing time at Spurs, tricky as there are no easy games in PL but we do face Monaco, Slavia Prague and Copenhagen in CL League stage, all on one point currently and not looking strong where sub appearances might be possible. But equally those 3 matches we probably need to win o get into top 8, so its not an easy call
 

Acad internationals:

Thursday 9 October​

Armend Muslika – Albania Under-17s home friendly against Slovenia – kick-off 10am
Leon Myrtaj – Hungary Under-19s home friendly against Greece – kick-off 12.30pm
Jun’ai Byfield, Tynan Thompson and Elijah Upson – England Under-18s home friendly against France – kick-off 6pm

Friday 10 October​

Harry Byrne – Republic of Ireland Under-19s away friendly against Albania – kick-off 11am
Jamie Donley – Northern Ireland home 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Slovakia – kick-off 7.45pm
Aaron Maguire – Republic of Ireland Under-21s home European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Slovakia – kick-off 7.30pm

Saturday 11 October​

Mikey Moore and Callum Olusesi – England Under-19s friendly against Belgium in Spain – kick-off 10am
Armend Muslika – Albania Under-17s home friendly against Slovenia – kick-off 10am
George Feeney – Northern Ireland Under-19s friendly against USA in Spain – kick-off 3pm

Sunday 12 October​

Harry Byrne – Republic of Ireland Under-19s away friendly against Albania – kick-off 11am
Jun’ai Byfield, Tynan Thompson and Elijah Upson – England Under-18s home friendly against France – kick-off 2pm
Leon Myrtaj – Hungary Under-19s home friendly against Greece – kick-off 2pm

Monday 13 October​

Jamie Donley – Northern Ireland home 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Germany – kick-off 7.45pm

Tuesday 14 October​

Mikey Moore and Callum Olusesi – England Under-19s friendly against Wales in Spain – kick-off 11am
George Feeney – Northern Ireland Under-19s friendly against Switzerland in Spain – kick-off 6pm
 
Spursidol said:

View: https://x.com/Spurs_Academy/status/1975260048789024875

Might to be seen to be incomplete without LWB (E u18) plus loaneee Donley (NI) and indeed Vuskovic (Cro) whilst Myrtaj seems to have changed from Albanian u17 to Hungarian u19 ..... possible but seems unlikely ? And hasn't Feeney moved rom being NI to Wales or am I misremembering ?
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Hungary have been after Myrtaj for a couple of years, his mother is Hungarian. Eligible for Slovakia and England too. Feeney has represented both before but decided on Northern Ireland last season. Not sure if LWB has pulled out, not on this graphic or on the club's full list.
 
White Van Jan said:
Does he have a good track record? Chalrton used to have quite a good reputation but that seems like a long time ago
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He is replacing Danetta Powell who has been at Spurs for 2 years and before that at Birmingham City - she seemed to be looking after areas such as education (ie schooling), administration, training (quite likely organising training of academy coaches) and 'care' etc so everything other than directly coaching footballers - what you might call backroom operations which keep the wheels turning rather than being on the pitch.

Tom Pell who is coming in seems to be filling an Academy Director type role at Charlton ie heading up everything including coaching. So its not clear if he is going to fill the outgoing Danetta's role (ie Spurs departments of education, admin, training etc are so much larger than at Charlton so Pell is taking on a 'narrower' role than he is at Charlton but much more volume of work in those areas) or if he takes on a broader role than Danetta had.

Unless we ask a Spurs academy coach, we may never know if its a good change or not !
 
Spursidol said:
As you possibly already know, in the last few years its become more and more common for bigger clubs to 'acquire' players in the 13/14/15/16 year old age groups to augment their own academy kids.

Assessing whether the kids will go on to become successful footballers is bound to be a bit of a lottery in these age groups, eg. kids slightly taller or stronger at that age might look better than their contemporaries but as they grow and lose that advantage, will look no better than others in that age group.

Its been apparent in last few years that Spurs have become more active in these lower age groups than they used to be, and we may be seeing some results already with some good u16's playing up in u18's (eg Oscar Sandiford signed from Palace in 2024 and Phoenix Offiah signed about 18 months ago). However it maybe a year before we see much of current Spurs u15 players playing up in u18's and can assess them, but reports are that they are winning matches by a lot of goals which cannot be bad and we know we've got 3 (?) players called up for E u15's and one called up for Portugal u15's which is a good sign.

Signing the kids so young is a long term project, so all we can do is to hope our recruiters are better than those who saddled us with the likes of Egan-Riley, James and likely Batty and Furnell-Gill at an older age.
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The problem with signing young talents is that there are almost no correlation, or probably even a negative correlation between being successful at 14/15/16 and being successfull as a senior. Most senior players in PL wasn't among the best or the most talented at 15.
 
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