Spurs U21’s, U18’s and other youth news – 2015/16 Edition

raymundo-iow said:

Is there anywhere to watch this online?

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Nope. Hopefully we'll get some streamed this year

IGSpur said:

Nope. Hopefully we'll get some streamed this year

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Thanks for the heads up

Tottenham Hotspur ‏@SpursOfficial 2m2 minutes ago
U21s: GOAL! Lads hit back immediately as Oduwa finishes well from tight angle on the right after a fast attack. 3-1, 44mins #COYS

Tottenham Academy ‏@THFCacademy 5m5 minutes ago
3-1 wonderful solo goal from Oduwa. #thfc


Can we please get this lad in the first team?

nicdic said:

I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that Edwards only really started starting U18 games at the tail end of last season. I think people expecting him to be starting for the U21s this season are being too optimistic. It's fine for him to have a year in U18s.

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Ye he started getting involved 2nd half of season but he is still standing out.
I think we need to just provide him with incentive to sign a pro when he turns 17, by showing him we will reward him with u21 performances. No rush for him to be a starter but I think we need to show him this is where his future lies.

Anyway as I said before at u18s across the attacking 3 we have to give games to Daly,Sterling, Duncan, Roles, Shashoua, Bennett's, Oteh and now seemingly Hayford who all deserve/want game time. If Edwards plays, they don't, so to give them space we either move him up to the u21s to or we dont play him in the u18s. Last thing we want is for him to not even make u18s games. I've also excluded Kirby and TOB who they could look to ease in this year

Oduwa would bring the pace and directness that the 1st team is lacking, hopefully he can get some EL time to see if he can make an impression

Sounds like a typical Oduwa goal, powerful run straight through the heart of the defence. The kind of thing we lacked on Saturday.

Tottenham Hotspur ‏@SpursOfficial 8m8 minutes ago
U21s: We're back underway against @Everton, Amos on for @pritch_93 at half-time. #COYS

Maybe being saved for the weekend?

Amos on for Pritchard. Saved for Saturday or just easing in?

IGSpur said:

Amos on for Pritchard. Saved for Saturday or just easing in?

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Maybe a bit of both? Could perhaps make the bench on Saturday

Lilbaz said:

Think we also have 5 midfielders plus two wingbacks. With everyone playing a type of 4231 at yhe moment you only get 1 striker. This means it's difficult to produce many.

If he wants a player to be able to hoof a ball or be good with his head bring in fat sam for a couple of training sessions. I'm sure he can get them up to speed real quick.

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Think he has a point that an aggressive aerial threat might unsettle a defender more than for instance Lamela running through his repetoire of tricks. Part of Kane's success is that he has a bit of this in repertoire, but on the whole modern defenders have life much too easy.

4-1 coulthirst

we're now top of both the u18 and u21 leagues. shame about the premier league ..

IGSpur said:

Ye he started getting involved 2nd half of season but he is still standing out.
I think we need to just provide him with incentive to sign a pro when he turns 17, by showing him we will reward him with u21 performances. No rush for him to be a starter but I think we need to show him this is where his future lies.

Anyway as I said before at u18s across the attacking 3 we have to give games to Daly,Sterling, Duncan, Roles, Shashoua, Bennett's, Oteh and now seemingly Hayford who all deserve/want game time. If Edwards plays, they don't, so to give them space we either move him up to the u21s to or we dont play him in the u18s. Last thing we want is for him to not even make u18s games. I've also excluded Kirby and TOB who they could look to ease in this year

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But he's got to earn it first right? All for moving him up if he shows he's worth it, but I'd rather we didn't do it just for the sake of it.

Interesting what i read about Oxford. It seems that he was released almost the same time frame that TS was credited to "pick" up Bentaleb. I know that Oxford is about 4-5 years younger than Bentaleb.........so it remains to be seen (time will tell whether Oxford will be a player the same potential as Bentaleb) whether we have "win" 1 and "Lose" 1; both these at about the same time/year.

Imnotacticalgenius said:

Interesting what i read about Oxford. It seems that he was released almost the same time frame that TS was credited to "pick" up Bentaleb. I know that Oxford is about 4-5 years younger than Bentaleb.........so it remains to be seen (time will tell whether Oxford will be a player the same potential as Bentaleb) whether we have "win" 1 and "Lose" 1; both these at about the same time/year.

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kids develop at different rates and its impossible to get a 100% success rate in signing the players up and/or releasing the wrong players as they go on to be good players.

In the same age group as Oxford we have Cameron Carter-Vickers and Christian Maghoma - both very good cb's at youth level, and both potentially (CCV more than likely) will be in Poch's thoughts at some time in the next 12 months - and both will be likely u21 cb's this season (a year ahead of schedule) - Maghoma not to day as we still have Ball who will probably go on loan.

Meanwhile Arsenal took on Harry Kane for training for a year and released him as a 12/13 year old -think they will regret that more than us releasing Oxford

We had Nathaniel Clyne with us as a youngster but he left as he couldn't get enough game time when we also had Adam Smith.

Loads of other examples - but overall we get more right than wrong in the academy

Tottenham Academy ‏@THFCacademy 12s12 seconds ago
David Unsworth "Tottenham were excellent from start to finish and they were better than us in all departments." http://www.evertonfc.com/news/2015/08/10/unsworth-the-better-team-won

A fairly routine win with most of the work done in the first half. Notably LLoris played 90 minutes wasn't overly taxed and Pritchard played the first 45 scoring twice

Spurs played a 4-3-3 with Pritchard given licence to roam

Lloris - had little to do couldn't do much about the goal as the forward had a direct run on goal and took it nicely with the outside of his right foot
Walker- Peters rb - typically progressive you could see that they are concentrating on his defending more as he wasn't as gung ho as he sometimes is but still offered an offensive threat
Ogilvie - lb strong performance very commanding and got forward well
Ball cb - the centre backs had a fairly routine game but both did what they had to do well - perhaps for the goal they got caught a little square but the first hald generally was very open
Carter -Vickers cb pretty much the same as ball
Lesniak dm - he kept possession well passed the ball sensibly and made a few crunching tackle no frills in his game but very tidy

Pritchard cm I have to say I am not to sure where he was playing but given that Amos who replaced him played central I am guessing this was kind of his role - I got the impression early he was easing his way back in but then he had a couple free kicks the first from about thirty yards that was well saved the second minutes later 5 yards further forward he scored with he really gets some work into his free kicks- he got the second as well, that was well finished after a brilliant back heel by Coulthirst gave him space in the box - he never came out for the second half which I imagine was pre-arranged

Harrison cm for me has struggled in the U21's when asked to play up front today he played in midfield and perversely found time and used the ball intelligently linking well with the forwards

Oduwa =LF He struggled a little to get involved early on but improved as the game went on. Scored a nice goal when cutting in from the right flank and finishing nicely between the keepers legs. I didn't think he was at his best today but chose the right time to score as Poch had just turned up subbed later on

Azzoui - rf was well marshalled by Galloway (ex MK Dons first team experience) when he did get away he made some poor decisions in not releasing the ball early enough was subbed

Coulthirst -cf - he battled really well and for me was probably our best player today - did very well with his back to goal and eventually took one of the chances that he battled for - I don't see him as a first team player but today his work was excellent and he battles really well for the team only critcsm is that perhaps he should had more than one

Amos replace Pritchard sat deep with Lesniak and they bossed and bullied Everton he was booked after a corner was cleared and he decided to not let the break develop with a whacking tackle

Sonupe came on for Oduwa and did very well he moves so easily with the ball had one very good shot after a good interchange with Ogilvie

Mcevoy replaced Azzoui and he made life more difficult for Galloway getting to the line a coulpe of time

Loads of scouts today Kevin Watson Stevenage JF Hasselbaink Burton I recognised

nicdic said:

But he's got to earn it first right? All for moving him up if he shows he's worth it, but I'd rather we didn't do it just for the sake of it.

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Edwards technical skills are right up there with the best, its just his physical frame which is not.

Spurs youth is about development - its not really about winning so its less competitive in many ways. The coaches will try players out in different positions both to see whether they can cope as well as helping in their overall development and indeed its common for players to be given a 'try out' at a higher age group just to see whether they cope - as an example 13 of the 14 new academy one players have played at u18 level last season even if they hadn't 'earned it'

So whilst the 'earning it' applies to some extent,, the playing is all about development, and the one thing the youth coaches seem to be good at is giving all the players the sort of experience they need for their development.

So my guess is that Edwards may well get several try outs in the u21's this season to see if his technical skills overcome his physical limitations.

It's no difference in principle to many Spurs youth sides who often give away age and/or physical size in playing opponents - a good example being if you saw the FAYC semi final v Chelsea on tv last season you will have seen that many of the Chelsea team were twice the size of Spurs players, but that happens regularly in youth tournaments.

Spursidol said:

kids develop at different rates and its impossible to get a 100% success rate in signing the players up and/or releasing the wrong players as they go on to be good players.

In the same age group as Oxford we have Cameron Carter-Vickers and Christian Maghoma - both very good cb's at youth level, and both potentially (CCV more than likely) will be in Poch's thoughts at some time in the next 12 months - and both will be likely u21 cb's this season (a year ahead of schedule) - Maghoma not to day as we still have Ball who will probably go on loan.

Meanwhile Arsenal took on Harry Kane for training for a year and released him as a 12/13 year old -think they will regret that more than us releasing Oxford

We had Nathaniel Clyne with us as a youngster but he left as he couldn't get enough game time when we also had Adam Smith.

Loads of other examples - but overall we get more right than wrong in the academy

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Arsenal released Kane at 9/10. He's been at Spurs since 11!

Cornpattbuck said:

Arsenal released Kane at 9/10. He's been at Spurs since 11!

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Thanks for the correction on age - basic points still stands, all youth coaches will release players they later regret. The trick to being a successful youth coach is to .sign and keep more good players than you make mistakes abou.

Sounds easy - but its not !

Hey - only ever watched one youth game, up at Wycombe many years back.
Couldn't see any links to buying tickets on the OS (in the ticketing section), except for historic game links where U21 match tickets were randomly advertised.
How does one purchase such tickets? Thought it might be a good place to take my 4 year old