Spurs Youth 2021/22

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Loans out are a bit concerning, currently its just :

Kion Etete, L1 Cheltenham Town
Troy Parrott, L1 MK Dons
Nile John, L1 Charlton
Jack Clarke, L1 Sunderland

Players who really need loans include :

Harvey White - had a decent loan at L1 Portsmouth last season
Jamie Bowden - was on a decent loan at L2 Oldham first half of season
J'Neil Bennett - was on a decent loan at L1 Crewe first half of season
Alfie Whiteman - was on a decent loan at top Swedish side first half of season, doesn't make sense for both Whiteman and Brandon Austin to stay at Spurs competing for the non playing 3rd GK position.

All the 4 above could have decent 2nd loans at an EFL with the experience they already have. Doubt if any will get much playing time under Conte in 2nd half of the season, although White has made bench a couple of times.

A few others could/should go out for a first loan, but seems they will stay playing PL2/u23's only

Crazy not to try developing the kids
 
Just a reminder that very few academy players actually do make the "grade".
Here's the Barca team that won the UEFA Youth League in 2014. Only Adama Traore "made it".
PS! It is in Spanish but one can easily recognize the names.

 
Just a reminder that very few academy players actually do make the "grade".
Here's the Barca team that won the UEFA Youth League in 2014. Only Adama Traore "made it".
PS! It is in Spanish but one can easily recognize the names.

A recent Spurs game had Kane, Skipp, Winks and Tanganga starting.
Of course the vast majority of academy players will flop.
This thread just discusses the players, that's all.
 
Harvey White attracting attention from several clubs for a loan out :

Championship - Hull, Luton
League 1 - Sunderland, Portsmouth (where he was last season).

White retained by Conte to bolster first team squad - hope he gets some minutes in first team, he's been training with them and appeared on the first team bench.
 
Just a reminder that very few academy players actually do make the "grade".
Here's the Barca team that won the UEFA Youth League in 2014. Only Adama Traore "made it".
PS! It is in Spanish but one can easily recognize the names.


It really is quite insane how narrow the path to the top in football is, and how many that are investing their entire childhood and youth in trying to achieve their dreams and ambitions. That is something I wish more so-called supporters would be mindful of while sitting on their fat asses and talking about players in top clubs as being "shite" just because they aren't quite living up to their potential.
 
It really is quite insane how narrow the path to the top in football is, and how many that are investing their entire childhood and youth in trying to achieve their dreams and ambitions. That is something I wish more so-called supporters would be mindful of while sitting on their fat asses and talking about players in top clubs as being "shite" just because they aren't quite living up to their potential.
Indeed.
Below is a list of all the squads at the WC U-17 in 2017 that England won. Well, England had quite a few really good players - in Foden, Sancho, Odoi-Hudsen, Smith-Rowe and Conor Gallagher - but rest, well, didn't do much. Spurs had Tashan Oakley-Boothe, Timothy Eyoma and Nya Kirby in that squad.

From the German squad no one "made it" big. From the Brazilian squad also no-one yet made it "big" (not a single player so far made it to the Brazilian A squad), and from Spain you got Ferran Torres and Eric Garcia (Juan Miranda and Hugo Guillamón are regular in La Liga clubs). And from France, there wereAurélien Tchouaméni, Maxence Lacroix and Illan Meslier.

Of course, there are other players who have done "decently" so far, and some I did not mention who come good as they are still only 21-22 years old.
But, as you said, it is indeed a very narrow path.

 
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When a club recruits around 12-15 16 yr olds every year to play in the youth teams, I am sure they don’t think that many of these players are going to be good enough for their first team or even to be a professional footballer. They have to recruit these numbers every year just to be able to put out teams. They can just recruit the best they can and with luck might get an odd first team player out of it, or be able to sell some of them for decent money.
With human beings it cannot be an exact science . There just isn’t the room in squads for many of these boys to make it at top level.
Must be quite a shock for boys who have been top dog in their school team to be confronted by a number of players who are far better than they are.
At present we regularly have 4 from our youth team playing in the first team. That’s a very good return and a lot better than most. Jaffa and Winks might be gone in the summer though.
Liverpool seem to have a policy of buying 16-18 yr olds from other clubs which has proved to be successful. Looks like Hitchen is tasked with a similar job.
 
At present we regularly have 4 from our youth team playing in the first team. That’s a very good return and a lot better than most. Jaffa and Winks might be gone in the summer though.
Liverpool seem to have a policy of buying 16-18 yr olds from other clubs which has proved to be successful. Looks like Hitchen is tasked with a similar job.
Good post.
Who is Jaffa? Tango? LOL.
 
When a club recruits around 12-15 16 yr olds every year to play in the youth teams, I am sure they don’t think that many of these players are going to be good enough for their first team or even to be a professional footballer. They have to recruit these numbers every year just to be able to put out teams. They can just recruit the best they can and with luck might get an odd first team player out of it, or be able to sell some of them for decent money.
With human beings it cannot be an exact science . There just isn’t the room in squads for many of these boys to make it at top level.
Must be quite a shock for boys who have been top dog in their school team to be confronted by a number of players who are far better than they are.
At present we regularly have 4 from our youth team playing in the first team. That’s a very good return and a lot better than most. Jaffa and Winks might be gone in the summer though.
Liverpool seem to have a policy of buying 16-18 yr olds from other clubs which has proved to be successful. Looks like Hitchen is tasked with a similar job.

ATM, Spurs have too few HG players to have a full squad.

Under UEFA rules, we have 4 Club trained players (Kane, Winks, Tanganga, Austin) and one player (Sessegnon) trained by another club affiliated to The FA. Net year Skipp being aged 21 will join tha list - but that still means we are short by two and our total squad will be limited to 23 players.

So answer is either we need to recruit HG players (one reason I was very keen on Jarrod Bowen at Hull) or bring them through the academy (the easy bit) and develop them, which usually requires loaning them out for a year or two, which other than Skipp we've been pretty poor at. Putting them into first team squad without a loan (as Tanganga was) usually results in the player not getting enough playing time so they never become anything other than a 'bit part' player for a few years which doesn't really help either club or player.

The number of top class HG players to buy are few and far between, there are a few (eg Keane Lewis-Potter at Hull, age 20) who are worthwhile buying to polish up, but not that plentiful either. It would be good to get one or two in during summer, but not sure we can get enough in to allow Winks and Tanganga to leave - although tbh I'd quite like to see him get a decent year long loan with lots of playing time to develop as he's not had that for 3 years.
 
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