In modern football, so much emphasis is put on a side’s academy, especially with financial fair play being introduced. Take a look at Manchester City; currently searching the market to find a young English star to help fill their quota of home grown players. This is despite spending £200 million on a state of the art new academy stadium, their academy players are simply not good enough to rely on if they want to reach their objective of winning the league.
However, over in North London, this is far from the case. With Mauricio Pochettino appointed Head Coach on 27th May 2014, everyone knew what they were going to get: a young manager who instils faith and equal opportunities to all players, no matter their age or reputation.
This was shown on 7th February 2015, versus Arsenal at White Hart Lane with Pochettino fielding the youngest Premier League side so far that season, with an average age of 24 years and 37 days. They went on to triumph against their arch rivals with two Harry Kane goals. This statistic was later beaten twice by Tottenham before the end of the season, versus Swansea and then QPR; with an average age of 23 years and 290 days, against Queens Park Rangers.
Seeing young stars such as Eric Dier, Nabil Bentaleb, Ryan Mason and Harry Kane all given regular playing time this season must give great promise to some of Spurs’ best up and coming youngsters in Tottenham’s U21s and U18s squad. These include Joshua Onomah, Kyle Walker-Peters, Harry Winks, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Ismail Azzaoui.
Joshua Onomah
The Enfield-born Onomah made 16 Barclays U21 Premier League appearances over the course of the campaign, also turning out in the Barclays U18 Premier League and captaining the side in the FA Youth Cup. His first experience with the first team squad was on 5th January 2015 against Burnley in the FA Cup, where he was an unused substitute. However, nine days later, Onomah came on with 15 minutes remaining to replace Andros Townsend in the replay which ended in a 4-2 victory. Joshua was part of the England U17s team that won the UEFA Championship back in 2014. The Spurs boss clearly sees potential in the attacking midfielder after inviting him to join the first team on their post-season tour of Malaysia. The 18-year-old midfielder will be looking to push on this season and cement his place in the U21s side, as well as taking any cameo roles Pochettino may wish to give the young man in the Europa League or cup games.
Potential – 4 Stars
Kyle Walker-Peters
Edmonton-born left-back, Kyle Walker-Peters has really cemented his place in the U21s team this season, making 13 appearances and getting two assists. The full-back who can operate at either left-back or right-back was praised for his standout performance versus Chelsea in the FA Youth Cup semi-final first leg 2-0 victory, which Pochettino himself watched over. His style of play is very similar to his name sake, Kyle Walker, in the fact that he likes to attack; an element of this is his crossing which was praised extensively against Chelsea. He is another one of the young stars who have been invited along to the club’s post-season tour of Malaysia, so, evidently, Pochettino liked what he saw in the FA Youth Cup semi-final first leg. Although chances may be limited with tough competition from first team regulars and lots of depth in both full-back positions, Walker-Peters will need to take his chances when they come.
Potential – 3.5 Stars
Harry Winks
The young, English midfielder, Winks regularly trains with the first team squad and was named on the senior bench for the first time for a Premier League tie against Liverpool on 30th March 2014. On 27th July 2014, Winks signed a professional contract with Tottenham, making his first team debut eight months later in the UEFA Europa League, against FK Partizan in a 1 – 0 home win, replacing Paulinho late on. It is clear to see Pochettino has taken notice of the performances for the U21 from the Hemel Hempstead-born playmaker, as he has been regularly training with the first team and has invited him to the post-season tour of Malaysia. Next season, he will no doubt be looking to impress Mauricio and aiming break into his side, much like Ryan Mason, who has a similar style of play to Harry in Pochettino’s first season.
Potential – 4 stars
Cameron Carter-Vickers
Born and raised in Southend, Cameron attended Eastwood Academy and joined the club aged 11. A commanding centre half, scoring twice for the U18s in 2013/14 season as Spurs won the Premier League Southern Division, while he has also been capped at U18 level for the USA and was called into the USA U23 squad in October 2014. The Spurs youngster signed a professional contract on his 17th birthday; Tottenham fended off interest from Chelsea and Arsenal, which clearly shows the calibre of the 6 ft 1 inch tall centre-back. Carter-Vickers will be focusing on working his way up the academy system before thinking about first team football, but he is certainly one for the future.
Potential – 4 stars
Ismail Azzaoui
A Belgian youth international, Ismail was born and raised in the Saint-Josse region of Brussels. The left winger previously played for Anderlecht’s youth set-up, joining the Spurs academy in August 2014. This was after a fantastic UEFA U17 Championship with three goals in five games. His play style is similar to fellow countryman, Nacer Chadli, often looking to come inside to shoot on his stronger right foot. The Belgian starlet has made the jump from the U18 side to the U21s this season and, if he continues to impress, potential cameos in the Europa League and cup competitions could be forthcoming.
Potential – 3.5 Stars
Add to this list many more established young players who have been out on loan, including Alex Pritchard. He was an instrumental part of Brentford’s play-off push scoring 12 goals in 45 games from the left for the newly promoted side. Alex received extremely high praise from the Brentford boss, Mark Warburton; “He’s the best player I’ve seen in this division” as well as “For me, Pritch is nailed on Premier League”. Another player to watch out for next season is Dele Alli; a winter signing loaned back to MK Dons for the rest of the season managed an impressive 16 goals from 39 appearances in League One from central midfield. The £5 million man was voted Young Player of the Year at the Football League awards and was a driving force in MK Dons being automatically promoted to the Championship after finishing League One runners up. Additionally, there could be mentions of Miloš Veljković, who has just won the U20 World Cup and Tom Carroll, who spent the season on loan at Swansea. However, his spell was hampered with injuries.
With what seems like an abundance of young stars at Tottenham – of whom are either gaining key experience out on loan or with our youth teams and a manager who has a positive ethos towards young players and their development – the future looks bright, the future looks Lilywhite.
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