Spurs Youth 2018/19

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65 - Work to do for our U23s as we trail 2-0 at @OfficialBHAFC. Clarke now on for Bennett on the left wing. #PL2 #COYS #BHAFC 2-0 #THFC pic.twitter.com/v7v7tXkGYp

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Ended with a 2-0 loss
 
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Marcus Edwards played roughly 85 minutes when Excelsior recorded a 2-1 win over Feyenoord today. Sadly he came off just before Excelsior scored the winner but overall I think he had a good game. Lacked a bit of decision making which cost him in the first half where he was very good offensively. And I was impressed with his defensive work in the second half. So if he has learnt how to defend and work hard I'd call his loan a success even if he hasn't scored a ton of goals.

Would probably loan him out again next season but to a team with a bit more potential than Excelsior who are in the bottom of the league in Holland.

 
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Troy Parrott‏ @troyparrott9
Birthday boy
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the best gift I could of asked for, delighted to sign my first professional contract with @SpursOfficial , proud moment for me and my family
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17th Birthday present.

Only question - why isn't Poch there with an arm round him ? But delighted Parrott has signed until 2021 (I think the maximum length he can sign at that age ?). Looking forward to his 18th birthday celebration contract !
 
Chris Ramsey is a busy man.

"I do three sessions a day probably," he tells football.london. "I work with the under-23s in the morning or the 18s, then in the afternoon I’ll work with one of them if they do a double session. Then I work with the different age groups in the evenings - last night I worked with the 9s, day before it was the 12s.
"Got to do it, haven’t you? Got to help people fulfil their dreams."

Even so, you get the feeling that if time wasn’t an issue, QPR’s head of coaching and technical director could talk about football - and more specifically youth coaching - until his voice ran out. And he’s got plenty to talk about too.

When Ramsey arrived at the club in 2014, his remit was to help fix one of the club’s biggest problems. It was a source of no little embarrassment that the club hadn't produced a homegrown first-team regular since Richard Langley came through nearly 20 years earlier.


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Chris Ramsey issues instructions during a pre-season friendly match between Queens Park Rangers and Dundee United. (Image: David Rogers/Getty Images)

After a short interlude when Harry Redknapp resigned and Ramsey’s project was interrupted by a call to manage the first-team, he got to work on trying to replicate some of the results he achieved in a similar role at Tottenham.

There, Ramsey helped to implement (and he’s careful not to take all the credit for it) a programme that would eventually produce Harry Kane, Harry Winks, Andros Townsend, Ryan Mason and a host of others.

"I've taken the same philosophy but the different dilemma we have at QPR is that we need more rapid success. To get a Harry Winks, it takes 12 years, approximately. We had time then: now we have no time."

That time pressure is broadly governed by the grim practicalities of running a club outside the Premier League elite; partly because of past excesses, QPR must try to use the players they produce out of necessity, rather than some sort of warm-hearted, sentimental indulgence.

"We’re in a financial situation where we can’t go and spend millions on players," Ramsey says. "I'm not saying play all the kids and lose every game, but clubs need to look at the effect of playing a young kid or the guy on £20,000-a-week. If there’s a minimal difference, you've got to save yourself £20,000."

So what’s the best way to bring through quality players? Ramsey thinks one of the key aspects is to minimise the importance of winning games and trophies in youth football. "It depends what you consider winning is. Winning to me is firstly about the individual and performance, and then winning games. Not the other way around.

"Winning the Youth Cup is one thing. But the only thing people are looking at is the end product. The board will say 'You've been here X years, how many players have made the first-team?'

"And you can say: 'X players have made their debuts, and four or five are in and around the squad, which is saving fortunes.' They're more happy with that then winning the youth leagues.

"We've got to get away from this idea of 'We've got to give them a winning mentality.' Because you've either got that or you haven’t. And it depends what that winning mentality is. Is it running around smashing people, or is it knowing your job?"

Not placing an emphasis on winning games presents its own problems, not least dealing with pushy parents who want Little Johnny to win every week, and indeed the potentially demoralising impact on Johnny himself.

"I want to win," he says. "Course I want to win. I don’t watch my team get murdered, but winning at youth football is for the coach. Performance is for the kids.

"The team Harry Winks was in at Tottenham never used to win. They'd get beat 16-0. But if you get a good [senior] player out of that team, who cares what the under-9s did in 2007? If you want to win every week, go to Sunday league football, or the first-team. We’re there to produce individual players."

And should anyone question Ramsey's methods, he has some receipts to offer.

"I'm not saying it’s all down to me," he says, name checking John McDermott, Alex Inglethorpe (now Academy director at Liverpool), Richard Allen, Perry Suckling, Bradley Allen, Les Ferdinand and Tim Sherwood as fellow architects and implementers of the plan at Tottenham.

"If it works with one player, you can say 'He’s good, he was going to make it anyway.' But the players that have come from Tottenham were ridiculous: Harry Winks, Andros Townsend, Ryan Mason, Jake Livermore, Danny Rose, Kyle Walker, Kyle Naughton.


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Harry Winks and Harry Kane have risen from academy products to Champions League stars for Spurs. (Image: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

"Then you look at Kyle Walker-Peters, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Marcus Edwards. And that’s not even mentioning Nabil Bentaleb, Massimo Luongo, Adam Smith, Jon Obika, Yuri Berchiche, who's at PSG.

"If you go down the leagues, there's Shaq Coulthirst at Barnet, Callum Butcher at Millwall last year. There are loads and loads and loads of players who came through at Spurs."

Either because Ramsey thinks the name is so obvious it doesn't need to be mentioned, or because he's wary of a sneaky journalist looking for a headline, he doesn't even mention Harry Kane in that list. But his name does come up later.

"Alex Inglethorpe always used to say: 'Did you look at the silver medallists?' If you're a gold medallist at 10, where have you got to go? Where is your development coming from?

"You have to look at the people always striving to improve: someone like Harry Kane, always striving to be better than everybody, technically. That type of drive to be brilliant as an individual will lead to good teams."

The main task for clubs like QPR is not quite to school these young players to be technically perfect, but to do whatever they can to make them as ready as possible for the first-team.

"It’s important that the players are versatile. We’ve had five managers in [just over] three years. If you can’t adapt to different managers, and different styles of manager you’re not going to play.

"What we do is work on the ‘growth skills’ that every club needs, whether it be Shrewsbury or Barcelona, and work on the strengths of the player that might attract him to any manager."

The early signs are that it’s working at QPR. Seven academy products made their first-team debuts in the last two seasons, a few before that too. Forward Aramide Oteh scored on his first start recently.

Even with their accelerated time line it’s probably too early to entirely see the fruits of Ramsey’s labour in the Championship, but at the very least it looks promising.

"Last season the youth team came bottom of the league, but we sold Josh Bowler to Everton for £1.3million," Ramsey says. "I think the owners are happier with that than if we won Southern South Eastern Alliance league, or whatever it is.

"I understand that when you get to the first-team, it flips: win at all costs. In youth football, it should always be about the performance."

How QPR are tapping into the secrets of the Spurs academy
 
"I understand that when you get to the first-team, it flips: win at all costs. In youth football, it should always be about the performance."

Really interesting read - thanks ArtyB ArtyB

I think that last sentence it what can sum up why a player who was hugely rated in youth football, then doesn't quite max out that potential when they get their chance in the first team. So much of it is down to the mental side of things. Can they handle the pressure etc. and this is something where I think Pochettino does a great job of giving the young players the platform and the confidence to prove that.

Perhaps that's also why he / Spurs are so reluctant to loan certain players out, because we don't want to see them being thrown under the bus by some halfwit manager who may have come in to replace the guy who initially set up the loan. Imagine a club in the lower leagues has a manager who has a great relationship with Spurs and we believe we can trust him to take care of our youth players. This manager then gets the sack, because the results aren't what's expected and some lower league José Mourinho knock-off comes in and starts lambasting the performance of some 18/19 year old loanee. This could have a real negative impact on that players development.

That's all speculation of course on my part and may be complete bollocks, but it makes sense to me.
 
Anyone know if this kids got a chance, any chance at all of making it? Would be lovely to see him or Parrott come through and clear up the whole nobody wants to play second fiddle to Kane scenario.

PS, would be interesting to know what the score was with Reo Griffiths as well. Left the club very young so guessing all was not great behind the scenes

I don't think he has a chance at making it at Tottenham - but I think he has a good chance at making a good professional footballing career perhaps around the Championship.

Hopefully the loan goes well for him and Sunderland can get promoted and sign him permanently. It's a great move for him.
 
I don't think he has a chance at making it at Tottenham - but I think he has a good chance at making a good professional footballing career perhaps around the Championship.

Hopefully the loan goes well for him and Sunderland can get promoted and sign him permanently. It's a great move for him.

I'd be slightly more pessimistic and suggest Sunderland at League 1 is his right level as he's not really kicked on at u21's - but if he does well on loan, maybe he will have kicked on (improving is rarely a linear thing) to Championship status.

Parrott is a lot younger and has only just moved into the u21's (a year early) so impossible to be sure - but looks to have the physicality and technique to be anything he really wants to be providing he puts the effort in and has the mentality
 
Good news that it’s on TV.

19th Feb
PAOK U19 v Tottenham Hotspur U19
UEFA Youth League Second Round
17:00
BT Sport ESPN
 
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Why aren't the club offering Roles a professional contract? Why has he never got the chance under Poch?

Anyone with any insight?

The 2nd of your questions has been much asked on this thread and elsewhere by youth followers.

We can only assume that for whatever reason Poch doesn't fancy him - or Poch seems to be only/mainly playing those he's taken on pre-season (where the smallish group of circa half a dozen youngsters will have had several weeks training with first team players and been closely observed by the coaching staff) - and Roles wasn't included on the last season's pre-season tour. And in truth last season Roles hadn't done enough to be last season to be on the last pre-season tour. However he seemed to have 'bulked up' in pre-season, which Poch would have liked, and this season is, for a midfield player, hitting an unusually high goal or assist every game on average and is both highest scorer and highest assist maker for u23's this season.

He's played in all 4 Checkatrade trophy matches (u23's v mens League 1 or League 2teams) and performed well - so he's passed the test of playing 'mens' football on all the tests he has been presented with.

So I'm surprised Poch didn't break his conjectured 'rule' of needing to see players in pre-season over the last month and got Roles training with the first team and getting the odd 15 minute cameo to save tired legs as with Dele/Harry injured and Son in Asia we've been within an injury of having a crisis in AM's/forwards.

Its normal for youngsters to be given short one or two year professional contracts as their first contract - and common for these not to be renewed before now. So we hope for news in coming months on Roles and several other decent u21's (including Marsh, one of Poch's seeming favourites and Oakley-Boothe) - and indeed who gets a first contact for the Academy Year 2 players who's scholarships also end in June.

Goalscoring AM's and CM's are rarities so I hope Roles gets a decent contract and is on the next pre-season tour.
 
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Dennis Cirkin seems to be an ever present in this age group's squad (many others change in each call up), which suggests that as well as being judged to be good at this age group, there are no other LB's of even similar quality. Will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of years.

Cirkin was LB in the E u17 team today beating France 3-2

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