I think he plays right wing yeah, strangly enough on skys profile of him they have him down as a striker.

I'm pretty sure he's a left winger but may be right footed, he's very handy, seen a few vids of him and he's scored a lot of goals for a winger!

If he's out of contract at the end of the season what can we lose by buying him? He won't cost much, even with a signing fee, and might turn out to be good.

isn't there some sort of tribunal settlement because of his young age..... a la routledge style? or that when you sign him on a free?

If we can pick him up cheaply then it might turn out to be a good option.

Am always chuffed when any young player is recruited. But where is the value from the Club's own academy / youth system? Why can't we develop youngsters ourselves? No-one since Ledley King and no real evidence that there is anyone about to break through. I hope none of these young players see us as a stepping stone.

I posted something similar to this the other day: I'm really not surprised, given the current ambitions of the club, that we are finding far better young players on the transfer market than we are finding in our academy.

The players who join any club's academy are likely to be a random collection of mainly local schoolboys who have managed to persuade a club that they might have some talent.

When a club with the financial clout of Spurs goes shopping on the international transfer market, it can look at players like Adel Taarabt, Tomas Pekhart, Aaron Lennon, Dorian Dervite and Tom Huddlestone. These are players - of the same age as the players in our academy - who have already risen to the top of their academies and, in most cases, have already played for their countries' U18 and U21 sides by the time we get our hands on them.

Why would anyone be surprised that only 1 or 2 of our own academy players make the grade, when we can effectively raid the academies of 100 other clubs and skim off the cream?

Football academies, it is worth remembering, have basically been forced upon the major clubs, to ensure that grassroots development of the game continues in this country, despite the financial clout of the Premiership transfer market. Academies lose money for Premiership clubs, pretty much everywhere. Only a few canny, ambitious, financially strapped clubs in the lower divisions can make use of academies to finance themselves by developing and selling on young players: the obvious examples are Derby County, Crewe Alexandra and Nottingham Forest.

If we can get 1 or 2 players per generation out of our academy and into the first team, we're doing well.

Our reserves are doing incredibly well, and therefore we might see a few of them given chances at some future stage. O'Hara, Terry Dixon and Charlie Lee all sound like they're very highly rated prospects, while Ifill has been snifing around the first team squad this season and shouldn't be written off yet.

But the facts are, if you want to consistently iron out results in the Premiership, then you can't afford to gamble on blooding young players unless they are close to international level already. Where are the homegrown players coming in to the top 4 sides this year? There aren't any. The top 4, and now us, buy the best youngsters from smaller and foreign clubs.

In the last 10 years, we may only have brought through King, but Arsenal have only brought through Ashley Cole, Chelsea have only brought through Terry, and United's return of Brown, O'Shea, Richardson, Fletcher etc are squad players at best. None are first choice. Liverpool have done better in the last decade, bringing through Owen, Gerrard and Carragher, but that still doesn't compare to the smaller clubs like West Ham who have to take the risks.

I appreciate the points in the previous postings but it begs the question why bother with our own Academy when it is more effective to cherry pick someone elses. I don't expect of flood coming through our own system but a trickle would be nice.

i think that the club is looking to upgrade our academy - the training ground development will surely help.They have hired better staff.

One top quality player every few years makes it all worth while.

King is a 20-30 million pound player. One like him every 5 years makes it worth while. Dixon could be the next one - if he is the Irish Rooney!

Originally posted by davidmatzdorf
I'm really not surprised, given the current ambitions of the club, that we are finding far better young players on the transfer market than we are finding in our academy.

What you say makes perfect sense, David, but I still understand vigospurs’ sadness. It’s hard sometimes not to see the club as a bit like a family and there’s certainly nothing like seeing a player emerge through the ranks who is Tottenham through and through – Steve Perryman, Glenn Hoddle, Ledley King. Nothing is ever likely to compare with my epiphany on first seeing Glenn Hoddle playing for the youth team and being absolutely certain that I was witnessing not only Tottenham’s future but also <st1:country-region><st1lace>England</st1lace></st1:country-region>’s. That said, even in our Glory Days we were always a buying rather than a selling club. Pity the poor supporter of a smaller club who has a revelatory experience like mine but knows full well that the big sharks will be circling before their own team has seen the benefit – what must Derby supporters feel like at the moment seeing Tom Huddlestone’s awesome development, or Southampton fans knowing that Gareth Bale is likely to follow Walcott out the door?

One of the big stumbling points for player development is the lack of genuine competitive football outside the first team squad. Our reserves are barely more than a glorified academy side and there are precious few occasions when genuine first team contenders trun out (either for us or the opposition). In this atmosphere, it's incredibly difficult for our youngsters to get a proper work out, unless we put them out on loan. By the time they're put out on loan, they seem to have missed the boat.

Most of the bought-in youngsters have experienced genuine competitive first team football, albeit with lower teams.

As I said, we have no choice but to have an academy - it's a requirement. Once the club got to grips with that, I think they realised that the best way to manage an academy is to take it seriously and invest in it - otherwise, it's nothing but a drain on resources. But I still wouldn't expect it to produce more and 1 or 2 really top players every 8-10 years. A trickle, as you say. Watch for Dixon and Pekhart, they seem to be the ones who have everyone excited about their potential.

Academy

Maybe I have got this wrong but havn't both David Beckham and Peter Crouch been through the Spurs academy?

Neither were in the academy, Beckham played at schoolboy level for only a few weeks/months, while Gerry Francis bought Crouch in from QPR when he joined the club....Crouch was then released without playing a single game when Francis left....thank God!

Maybe the ongoing improvement in coaching and possible improvement in facilities may pay off coupled with the potential feeder club idea. Players would be able to go on loan on our terms and gain that higher level of competition that the reserves lacks.

Crouch

Thought Crouch was doing alright for Liverpool and England. Great overhead kick to score a goal at the weekend.

I for one hope we do sign jarvis, I bet he wouldnt cost more than 700k and he is worth a gamble, I would still want us to sign a top left winger as well but having jarvis as well could do no harm in my opinion. If we do not sign anyone who can play left side in this window then I think the club will have let us fans down slightly, if it is not possible that the club can get a top notch leftie in this window which is probable and understandable they should surely get one or two young players in who LIKE to play left to give us fans more confidence for the future. Jarvis is one option, another would be adam johnson.

Yes, would like to see, the likes of Davids, be taken on for the youth developement, he would be very useful with is experience and ability, also if he wanted he could go on a take is coaching badge. What a member of staff that would be, see him already coaching some of the younger members after home matches.