eddiebailey
Well-Known Member
- Oct 12, 2004
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- 6,717
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- #21
I don't think that it is necessarily the case that Swindon have to get promoted for this strategy to be a success; it is about giving players guaranteed regular competitive football while playing in the Spurs style. Mason is catching up on the football he has missed; Pritchard is getting the chance to show he is not a lightweight luxury; for Hall this is probably the right level for this stage in his development. For Luongo, Byrne, Barcham and Kasim, they have gone to a club where what they have learnt at Spurs is appreciated and where they can progress their own careers at the same time as supporting the development of our loanees.
In the past we have relied on Harry's managerial mates phoning up and asking for favours in order to find loans for our lads; it was hit and miss at best. At Swindon the relationship is at board level, not managerial level; the club are completely skint so they are reliant on Spurs goodwill to put out a team, and any manager has to accept that that is the deal and play in the Spurs way. Dropping the loanees and reverting to hoofball because results are going against them is not an option; besides there is a sufficient critical mass of talented, well trained players to ensure that, if they keep playing our way, results will not go against them.
If Swindon do get promoted, then next season Mason, Pritchard and Hall might stay; otherwise, their reputation enhanced, they will move on to fresh challenges, and their places will be taken by, say, Bentaleb, McEvoy and Stewart; while one or two of this year's first year professionals will go on to swell the ex-Spurs ranks at the club, possibly replacing Luongo and Kasim, who on this form are going to be on plenty of clubs' shopping lists.
When you look at Mason's loans at Lorient and Millwall, or even his second spell at Donnie, when he could not get back in the team despite being fit, or consider that last season Luongo found himself dropped when Mick McCarthy was appointed manager at Ipswich, while Kasim was loaned out by Brighton to Luton and Maccelsfield and still could not get a game, it explains why the Swindon relationship is such a necessary and progressive step: for Spurs youth policy and for the the careers of our academy graduates, but perhaps also for the football league, who hopefully are going to learn from the Swindon example that it possible to play attractive, entertaining football and still thrive; ultimately it may even benefit the English game, if a resurgence in real football at football league level provides an increased talent pool of technical, gifted players - players who at the moment would be likely to end up on the scrap heap, as almost happened to Kasim, or to have all the creativity coached out of them, as doubtless would have happened to Luongo if he had stayed at Ipswich under McCarthy.
