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If he gets in he will have a good run since defence is such a joke. Plus judging balls off of astroturf will maybe make him an even better shot stopper.
Why this country plays mostly on astroturf baffles me.
84'
Post update
Attempt missed. Harvey White (Portsmouth) left footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high from a direct free kick.74'
Post update
Attempt missed. Harvey White (Portsmouth) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right from a direct free kick#67'
Post update
Attempt missed. Sean Raggett (Portsmouth) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Harvey White with a cross following a corner.
Wasn't there gossip that Muir was leaving?
Looks like that's all it was...just gossip.
Good news. We are tying down some of our Academy Year 2 players to professional contracts
LOAN | SPURS TRACEY JOINS UNITED FOR REST OF 2020/21 - News - Cambridge United (cambridge-united.co.uk)
Shilow Tracey at Shrewsbury has ended and he is now at Cambrifge
Future England captain per Rio Ferdinand
where did it all go wrong ?
Not sure we want him as a club trained player !
We were pretty poor at developing talent in those years
Bostock came from Palace, and then his career completely stalled.
Wasn't there a player we took from QPR's academy about the same time where the same thing happened?
Yes, Dean Parrett.
Thankfully we've improved immeasurably since those crap days
Dean Parrett - Wikipedia
Wealdstone
Parrett joined Wealdstone on 21 November 2020 on a non-contract basis.Barnet
The following month, the Stones allowed Parrett to begin talks with Barnet over a move. Parrett joined the Bees on a short term deal on 12 December 2020. He was released on 8 January 2021 after only two appearancesDean Parrett - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Wealdstone
Parrett joined Wealdstone on 21 November 2020 on a non-contract basis.
Barnet
The following month, the Stones allowed Parrett to begin talks with Barnet over a move. Parrett joined the Bees on a short term deal on 12 December 2020. He was released on 8 January 2021 after only two appearances
When he was in u23's Parrett looked quite decent (nothing like as good as we had been led to believe when he first joined), but has picked up quite a few injuries over the years which may well have sent him backwards.
We tried buying a few youngsters to fast track ourselves including E u16 centre forward Michael Malcolm - Wikipedia and a speedy winger E u16 Owen Price (footballer) - Wikipedia both standout youth prospects at the time, and I rather recall Spurs paid 6 figure sums for both. Price I think had quite a few injuries whilst with us, both disappeared after Jol joined I think.
Lots and lots of these through the years.
However easy it is to blame development staff, serious qyestions should be asked from the scouting staff.
Few of these players made it anywhere, sometimes barely even making pro careers.
Thyer, Dixon, Parrett, etc.
It's only post Jol that they started making it to the first team, then to other clubs in the PL or Champo.
Realistically we should be very proud of constantly churning out someone like O'Hara, Livermore, Mason, Bentaleb, Caulker, Carroll, Townsend and a few others on PL level.
I am anxious to see where it will go now both of Inglethorpe and McD is gone.
Scott Thyer is an odd one, looked best player on the field as Welsh no 9 in an England v Wales u 16 match, joined Spurs from Swansea a few months after and within months called up for Wales u19 and played for Spurs reserves......all the signs of a potential top player. Rumours surfaced of him not turning up for training or turning up or turning up late and I think may not have done his 2nd year of academy.
Apparently tried to go back to Swansea but not accepted back..... and disappeared off the football map completely.
Whether he wasn't properly looked after in London by Spurs (must be a big change aged 16 to moving city) or not motivated enough/friends were bad influence etc is not clear - the first I think is better done now but the motivation and friends with bad influence will always be a problem.
I think its one reason why most of Spurs intake at age 16 are close enough to Spurs to live at home.
Dixon was just unlucky with a chronic knee injury. Whether that should have been better picked up before signing might be a question, but equally sadly a % of players drop out of football from injury - not all from injuries in football. Certainly medical facilities for all players are light years advanced from what they were 10 or 20 years ago.
Moving back to the current, the basics of the Spurs academy are there - other than Chelsea and Man City who throw monies at their academy players, Spurs are probably at the next layer down along with ManU, Woolwich, Liverpool et al. No doubt some things can be improved on including recruitment.
However what most academies, including Spurs, do less well than they should is moving kids from 18 through to first team at age 21/22 - and I have my own views on that which include :
- A specific coach/manager ensuring appropriate development is given to players in that 18-21 age range.
- An agreement with the manager of the day to meet certain targets, which might include (say) 2 young players being on most benches (bearing in mind out of 7 or 9 subs), number of minutes young players play over a season etc.
Lots of detail to flesh out with any manager but its like any manager in industry accepting targets in their job, and might even feed back into their pay.
But right now we do have a number of players who could bridge the gap to get into the first team - Skipp being the obvious one - but others in that 18/19/20 bracket probably include :
Cirkin (LB) - played pre-season
Walcott (CB) - Cameo v Leipzig last season, sadly inured and just resumed playing
Eyoma (RB) - Played pre-season 2018 suffering a 'train no play' and then injury filled time with a short cameo under Poch. Currently on loan with Lincoln.
White (CM) - Played pre-season 2018 and 2019, a few games under Poch and JM, on loan at Portsmouth
Parrott (striker) - On loan at Millwall
Austin (GK) - E u21, successful 6 month loan last season, now on loan in MLS
There's a couple of others who could join that group, such as Bennet (AM). Realistically not all will make it but 50% might over the next 2 or 3 years ? (ie 1 or 2 a year).
And after that is the current academy where Scarlett and Devine are the obvious ones but there's probably another half dozen - although its more realistic to assess them at aged 18 after being in the academy for 2 years.
Obviously we would like to improve on that - and might 'buy' in some players at age 18 to 'polish' up a some other academies do. But that's a different strategy Spurs haven't really indulged in so far .