- May 24, 2015
- 263
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No I'm a Willy, seriously though if we populated a team with just young players from the academy we'd probably get relegated first season, get real, nice fantasy though.Are you a wonka
No I'm a Willy, seriously though if we populated a team with just young players from the academy we'd probably get relegated first season, get real, nice fantasy though.Are you a wonka
No I'm a Willy, seriously though if we populated a team with just young players from the academy we'd probably get relegated first season, get real, nice fantasy though.
Yes balance is the key, a blend of experience and youth with a sprinkling of top quality players.Agreed you need the experience in a team to guide the young players. Signings like Naybet and Davids have really helped us in the past when bringing through young players. I do feel we need someone like that in our squad to guide a young talented core. EVen if they don't play as much you need the mentality...
I think our problem areas would be GK and the CB's but we would look something like this:
Prichard Kane Townsend
Bentaleb Carroll Mason
Rose Veljkovic ????? Fredericks
?????
If we played Vertonghen and Dier at CB and Lloris in goal I think we'd probably finish mid table.
I would love this to be the case and whilst we can integrate a number of our youth into the squad those using Barca as a reference point are forgetting one key thing.
Aside from the fact they can plug the gaps with the world's best and they have access to the world's best youth and more flexible immigration laws, Barca have a B team that plays in a competitive division. That means that they have a whole squad of players getting good football experience whilst under the tutelage of excellant coaches and learning the Barca way of play. Whereas currently have 1 or 2 players who can really be considered to have had successful loans. How long would we have to wait before we could fill a squad full of Academy players
Agreed you need the experience in a team to guide the young players. Signings like Naybet and Davids have really helped us in the past when bringing through young players. I do feel we need someone like that in our squad to guide a young talented core. EVen if they don't play as much you need the mentality...
A lot of activity on the wires about an own grown team.
It's for long been a dream, fantasy delusion of mine. Call it what you will.
Own grown players give you greater commitment and passion and the willingness to go the extra mile or three.
See the many testimonies to Harry Kane's dedication, first on: last off the training ground stuff.
However good the foreign stars are they lack that extra element which can make a difference.
And It gives the fans something to be proud of and identify with.
What they obviously lack is experience and of course an element of quality which pure home grownism cannot necessarily supply. But who would not pick Bentaleb over all of our Magnificent Seven midfielders.
Paulinho is clearly a talented player but generally speaking it's just a job, he could have gone anywhere in Europe and earned the same money and plays as if he can't really be bothered.He's not Tottenham and never will be. Well not unless he stays ten years which seems unlikely with Carroll and Winks breathing down his neck
We have nearly a dozen Academy boys waiting to join the five who played this year. Several played in the post season tour and did themselves no harm. There is plenty of quality there.Now's the time for the Geat Experiment which might change the face of English football.
Do we have a keeper anywhere in the ranks. McGee maybe but he didn't get the chance to show us on the bigger stage.
I wrote a little tongue in cheek about our Academy being the modern equivalent of the Medieval Philosopher's Stone turning base metal into gold. That would make Mauricio the Alchemist and he has some of the faith in youth to go some way towards it.
How far could such a team go? I know, I know you win nothing with kids. But I would be more than ready to watch the experiment get under way.
We would miss the Berbatovs, the Modric's, the Lloris's of course and foreign stars have added much to the quality of the Premiership and to the history of Spurs But Arsenal, City and Chelsea amongst others have let it get out of hand, fielding virtually all foreign signings and either not producing their own or not playing them with any conviction.
I would love it, love it to see an Academy team walk out at White hart Lane in the Premiership. But I'm not so Spursified to think that it could happen.But I bet we could get damn close to fielding one and for them to finish top half and maybe more.. I'd settle for that.
There is no-one in our current squad apart from Eriksen and Lloris that demand to be made Honorary Spurs.
Perhaps Vertonghen on a good day.
Come on Mauricio give it a go. You know you want to and Daniel Levy too but for different reasons. Am I serious? You bet. Am I deluded. Almost certainly.
Has Ledley got his badges yet? Is Bale ready to return? I love my dreams. I'm off to bed.
Problem could be to get a goalkeeper in that timeframe (although McGee and/or Glover could make it in that timespan - but if we could buy back David Button (possibly the best GK in the championship last season with Brentford) an academy GK sold against the advice of Spurs then GK coach, even that hole would be filled.
Including players we have sold, granted they have been relegated now but they both have significant PL experience, you could add Caulker and Livermore to the team.
Additionally Adam Smith has been promoted with Bournemouth and there are talks that Nathan Byrne could be signed by WBA. Lastly, Luongo has an Asia Cup MVP and will be in the PL next year with QPR.
So from our u21 team that got to the final. We could make a best XI and subs bench of players who are currently playing PL/Championship football. Bar Veljkovic though, he had an injury plagued loan but has played CB for Serbia u21s.
I don't think many can say that.
You make a good point about the Barca B team, but as it is we could have potentially 11 players in the squad next year from the academy and I don't we'd do any worse. We have the current 5 at the moment. Add Pritchard, Fredericks, Veljkovic, Winks, Onomah then one of KWP or CCV.
Though I'm not against it I do believe the needing experience players is somewhat overrated. Unless they are over 30.
Capoue, Adebayor, Soldado, Kaboul, Paulinho even Lennon are all meant to be our expereinced players to help bring the young players through but it is the young payers that have carried them.
I like him but it was Fazio (ex Sevilla captain and EL winner) that gave away that goal at Chelsea trying to dribble out, not Dier. Again it was Fazio doing something against Fiorentina. Soldado screwed up that 2 on 1 chance against Fiorentina. People misplace passes etc but these are genuine screw up mistakes that have cost us, in important games and made thigns difficult.
I just think mentality is more important than experience, you either want it or you don't. Focus is something you control. Bentaleb has been our most experienced head playing well beyond his years.
I think our problem areas would be GK and the CB's but we would look something like this:
Prichard Kane Townsend
Bentaleb Carroll Mason
Rose Veljkovic ????? Fredericks
?????
If we played Vertonghen and Dier at CB and Lloris in goal I think we'd probably finish mid table.
The person said if you have the worlds best academyBarcelona have the world's best youth and most of the best players on the planet queuing to play for them.
Am I the only one who has detected a whiff of Xenophobia?
Do we not have overseas players in the Academy?Am I the only one who has detected a whiff of Xenophobia?
The person said if you have the worlds best academy
Also we have some of the best youth players in one of the most densely populated places in Europe which has people coming all over the world to live in
Dont underestimate the youth players we have coming through
I agree but people think of barcelona who have this fountain of youth with players coming out of it reborn, like the new Cryuff, the new Guardiola, the new xavi, the new iniesta and etc. who are essentially the same player that comes out of the system to replace the guy before themPoint well made. And I am not underestimating our youth. Just the pulling power of Barcelona is huge.
Well argued. I stand corrected and do retract my first impression!In what sense? In the quite literal sense of not wanting a foreigner as being someone outside of the academy I guess so, but isn't that the point in having an academy, to develop your own players to save/make money. Isn't it xenophobic to have a friendship group and not to let anyone new into it?
I assume when you say xenophobic you mean preferring English players other foreign nations. If so that's not the case. As preferring an academy trained XI over non-academy trained players isn't nation dependent.
We have Bentaleb, Veljkovic, Azzaoui, Glover and maybe Yahaya. I'd rather those 5 game threw with us, than us buy Rodwell, Keane, Redmond, Butland and Lindgard.