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https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...tspur-academy-youth-team-bournemouth-west-ham
Tottenham's academy is succeeding thanks to locally sourced players
In the first of a new monthly series looking at youth football, Gavin Willacy investigates Spurs’ supply line of midfielders
By Gavin Willacy for Playing in the Shadows
Gavin Willacy
Tue 23 Oct 2018 13.30 BST Last modified on Tue 23 Oct 2018 13.34 BST
Tottenham fans may have been concerned by the sight of Harry Winks playing for England in Spain last week after starting just three Premier League games his return from a long-term ankle injury. But they should be excited as there is more to come from that particular talent pool: gifted local central midfielders.
Tottenham created history by being the first team in the Premier League era to not sign anyone during the summer transfer window, but there was a new face in their opening-day win at Newcastle. Luke Amos was promoted to the squad and given his first five minutes of action in the top flight.
The 21-year-old tore his ACL in a reserve game against Blackburn the following week and is now out for the season. That has enabled an even younger midfielder to push himself forward.
With Tottenham’s stars from the World Cup missing, Oliver Skipp – like Amos – impressed Pochettino in pre-season, especially against Milan in the International Champions Cup. Amos was thrust into the deep end at St James’s Park but he did so with half a season of men’s football behind him, albeit in League Two. Skipp was drafted on to the Spurs’ bench at Wembley against Barcelona and the subsequent trip to Cardiff even though his only official senior action came in a couple of starts in the Checkatrade Trophy.
Less than a year ago Skipp was an unused sub for the Under-21s in that competition at Barnet, with the No71 sprawled across his back.
After a few tastes of reserve-team football last year – his first season as a full-time footballer after leaving school in Hertford – the industrious Skipp has worked his way into the Under-23s starting line-up this year, often operating on the right of a midfield three, from where he feeds the front men with clever slide-rule passes, usually with his right boot. Filling out rapidly, the 18-year-old can now win challenges and get box to box.
Capped by England at Under-16, 17 and now 18 levels, Skipp has seized his chance this season. With Winks back from injury, Skipp has returned to learning his trade on Friday and Monday nights with Wayne Burnett’s Under-23s. But such is the tight-knit structure of Tottenham’s youth development, special talents are nurtured by all.
Pochettino and his coaches rarely miss a home Under-23s game (most of which are held at Stevenage), where they take time to chat to the young players and staff pitchside before kick-off.
Spurs reserves experience a wide variety of styles and situations: technical academy football in Premier League 2, elite European opposition in the Uefa Youth League, and hardened League One and Two professionals in the EFL Trophy. Amos was among a clutch of Spurs Under-23s loaned out during last season – he went to Stevenage, his local league League Two club, following the path taken by Harry Kane, who had loan spells with Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City before making his Premier League debut under Tim Sherwood (his former reserve-team manager) – but Pochettino prefers to keep the players he considers close to first-team selection in-house. Winks and Kyle Walker-Peters remained at the club’s Enfield training ground rather than getting senior games elsewhere last season. Expect Skipp to do the same. Acceleration can be rapid at Spurs. Now 22, Winks was in the Under-23s at the start of 2016 and finished the year in the first XI.
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Some of Spurs’ rivals recruit from far and wide, but almost all of their second string are English and the vast majority of their Under-23s are from the A10 corridor that stretches from White Hart Lane to north Hertfordshire: Spursland. They come from Hackney and Hertford, Enfield and Cheshunt, Borehamwood and Winchmore Hill. Goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman even grew up a short walk from White Hart Lane. These are local lads coming through the system at a Premier League club.
Pochettino and academy manager John McDermott know they only need one first-team candidate to emerge from the 23s each season to justify the club’s huge investment.
That one may well be Amos or Skipp, this year or next. At this rate Hertfordshire could produce three Tottenham midfielders in rapid succession: Winks from Hemel Hempstead, Amos from Ware and now Skipp.
Now that would be something.
Tottenham's academy is succeeding thanks to locally sourced players
In the first of a new monthly series looking at youth football, Gavin Willacy investigates Spurs’ supply line of midfielders
By Gavin Willacy for Playing in the Shadows
Gavin Willacy
Tue 23 Oct 2018 13.30 BST Last modified on Tue 23 Oct 2018 13.34 BST
Tottenham fans may have been concerned by the sight of Harry Winks playing for England in Spain last week after starting just three Premier League games his return from a long-term ankle injury. But they should be excited as there is more to come from that particular talent pool: gifted local central midfielders.
Tottenham created history by being the first team in the Premier League era to not sign anyone during the summer transfer window, but there was a new face in their opening-day win at Newcastle. Luke Amos was promoted to the squad and given his first five minutes of action in the top flight.
The 21-year-old tore his ACL in a reserve game against Blackburn the following week and is now out for the season. That has enabled an even younger midfielder to push himself forward.
With Tottenham’s stars from the World Cup missing, Oliver Skipp – like Amos – impressed Pochettino in pre-season, especially against Milan in the International Champions Cup. Amos was thrust into the deep end at St James’s Park but he did so with half a season of men’s football behind him, albeit in League Two. Skipp was drafted on to the Spurs’ bench at Wembley against Barcelona and the subsequent trip to Cardiff even though his only official senior action came in a couple of starts in the Checkatrade Trophy.
Less than a year ago Skipp was an unused sub for the Under-21s in that competition at Barnet, with the No71 sprawled across his back.
After a few tastes of reserve-team football last year – his first season as a full-time footballer after leaving school in Hertford – the industrious Skipp has worked his way into the Under-23s starting line-up this year, often operating on the right of a midfield three, from where he feeds the front men with clever slide-rule passes, usually with his right boot. Filling out rapidly, the 18-year-old can now win challenges and get box to box.
Capped by England at Under-16, 17 and now 18 levels, Skipp has seized his chance this season. With Winks back from injury, Skipp has returned to learning his trade on Friday and Monday nights with Wayne Burnett’s Under-23s. But such is the tight-knit structure of Tottenham’s youth development, special talents are nurtured by all.
Pochettino and his coaches rarely miss a home Under-23s game (most of which are held at Stevenage), where they take time to chat to the young players and staff pitchside before kick-off.
Spurs reserves experience a wide variety of styles and situations: technical academy football in Premier League 2, elite European opposition in the Uefa Youth League, and hardened League One and Two professionals in the EFL Trophy. Amos was among a clutch of Spurs Under-23s loaned out during last season – he went to Stevenage, his local league League Two club, following the path taken by Harry Kane, who had loan spells with Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City before making his Premier League debut under Tim Sherwood (his former reserve-team manager) – but Pochettino prefers to keep the players he considers close to first-team selection in-house. Winks and Kyle Walker-Peters remained at the club’s Enfield training ground rather than getting senior games elsewhere last season. Expect Skipp to do the same. Acceleration can be rapid at Spurs. Now 22, Winks was in the Under-23s at the start of 2016 and finished the year in the first XI.
The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email.
Some of Spurs’ rivals recruit from far and wide, but almost all of their second string are English and the vast majority of their Under-23s are from the A10 corridor that stretches from White Hart Lane to north Hertfordshire: Spursland. They come from Hackney and Hertford, Enfield and Cheshunt, Borehamwood and Winchmore Hill. Goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman even grew up a short walk from White Hart Lane. These are local lads coming through the system at a Premier League club.
Pochettino and academy manager John McDermott know they only need one first-team candidate to emerge from the 23s each season to justify the club’s huge investment.
That one may well be Amos or Skipp, this year or next. At this rate Hertfordshire could produce three Tottenham midfielders in rapid succession: Winks from Hemel Hempstead, Amos from Ware and now Skipp.
Now that would be something.
