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Spurs under 19 Tournament - Germany.

Spursidol

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Sep 15, 2007
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Spurs are sending a team to an Under 19 Tournament in Germany http://turnier-team-tus-stemwede.de/ which starts this Friday and lasts for 3 days.

Spurs are in Group B which also contains Hannover 96, Grasshopper Club Zurich and RCD Mallorca : Spurs first match is at 18.30 (17.30 UK time) on Friday against Grasshoppers.

It is likely that Spurs will be using this as a tournament to look at players eligible to play in next season’s NextGen Series tournament which proved so interesting this season.

The squad has yet to be announced, and it will be interesting to compare it against the squad which competed in another under 19’s tournament about a month ago. That 18 man squad was :

Jonathan Miles (o)
Jack Barthram (o)
Kevin Stewart (o)
Laste Dombaxe
Milos Veljkovic
Kenneth McEvoy
Nabil Bentelab
Souleymane Coullibally
Jack Munns
Tomislav Gomelt
Darren McQueen
Shaquille Coulthirst
Luke McGee
Ronnie Hawkins
Ruben Lameires
Dominic Ball
Grant Ward
William Ekong (o)

If it being used as a trial for NextGen Series, there are 4 ‘overage’ players included (marked (o)) but only 3 are allowed in NextGern Series – I hope they have read the rules after the debacle in the season just ended !

I understand several German Spurs fans are going – any that do are very welcome to post any reports !
 

ShelfSide18

Well-Known Member
Aug 23, 2006
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Excellent stuff.

This can only be good for our youngsters playing in these tournaments against European (and worldwide) opposition, great for their development, experience of other cultures not just on the football pitch but making them more rounded individuals generally.

Cheers, Spursidol.
 

beats1

Well-Known Member
Feb 22, 2010
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How long till we get kicked out of this tournament because of some bullshit rule:cry:
 

Spursidol

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Sep 15, 2007
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OS - extraordinarily early ! Must have read the comments about tournament coverage !

Our Academy squad will look to finish their season in style at the Volksbank Cup in Stemwede, Germany, this weekend.
The lads face three group matches in the eight-team tournament for Under-19s on Friday and Saturday before the knockout stage on Sunday.
Swiss team Grasshopper Zurich are up first on Friday with Germany's Hannover 96 and RDC Mallorca of Spain to follow on Saturday.
"It's a good tournament and it will be interesting to see how the younger players will cope against teams who I think might be a little more physical," said coach Alex Inglethorpe.
"I've genuinely enjoyed watching us play this season and we've different objectives at a tournament like this.
"Obviously we're looking at the results and we'd love to win the trophy, but I'd also like us to be the most stylish team on display.
"I want the other teams, coaches and supporters to go away thinking, irrespective of the results, that we had the most imagination and the players who might well end up at the very top level."

Squad: Miles, Barthram, Stewart, Munns, Gardiner, Ball, Waller Lassen, Bentaleb, Zapata-Caicedo, Gomelt, Pritchard, Ward, Lameiras, McEvoy, Smith, A McQueen.
 

Spursidol

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Sep 15, 2007
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Well only 16 in the squad, versus 18 usually taken which is a bit of a surprise - holidays and injuries ?

No Coulibally or Coulthirst, so the much less experienced Zapata-Caicedo comes in as the main striker (although Ward and Gomelt can play there).

Also no Dombaxe, Veljovic, McQueen (Darren), McGee (u 16 goalkeeper), Hawkins or Ekong, with Waller-Lassen (injured for much of the season), Gardiner (CB has not played much this year), Pritchard (one of the best in our NextGen squad this season), Sam Smith, and Alex McQueen coming in.

Overall it has to be a weaker squad than the last tournament - but its all good experience for the players taking part !
 

AngerManagement

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May 15, 2004
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How many academy players have we had break in to the first team or there or there abouts in the last 5 years?

Players who we have produced who are at least PL standard?

Off the top of my head so far I can think of Caulker and Livermore who seem to be capable of performing in the PL

Several others have got first team action in the Europa and have been loaned out to lower levels but I think those two are the only ones who have come from our academy and held down a place in a PL squad to date (livermore got decent game time for us last year and I'm sure could be playing at a similar level to Caulker if he were loaned)

Other than that the most noticeable seem to be Kane and Townsend who are doing well enough at CL level (Adam Smith similar?)
 

eddiebailey

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Oct 12, 2004
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Other than that the most noticeable seem to be Kane and Townsend who are doing well enough at CL level (Adam Smith similar?)
Don't forget Button who did very well in the Championship last season. But yes Harry had a big clean out of reserves when he arrived, so there has not been much coming through the Academy: Livermore and Button being about the only survivors of the cull. After those two there is a gap of couple of years to the next batch who graduated after Harry's arrival: Townsend, Smith, Mason (perennially injured) and Obika (perennially at Yeovil). Among the younger lads Caulker is incredibly precocious and ahead of his contemporaries: Ranieri, Byrne, Nicholson, Carroll, Parrett and Bosotck. As indeed Kane is ahead of his: Archer, Miles, Fredericks, Waller-Larssen, Pritchard, Lancaster and Oyenuga.
 

AngerManagement

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May 15, 2004
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Don't forget Button who did very well in the Championship last season. But yes Harry had a big clean out of reserves when he arrived, so there has not been much coming through the Academy: Livermore and Button being about the only survivors of the cull. After those two there is a gap of couple of years to the next batch who graduated after Harry's arrival: Townsend, Smith, Mason (perennially injured) and Obika (perennially at Yeovil). Among the younger lads Caulker is incredibly precocious and ahead of his contemporaries: Ranieri, Byrne, Nicholson, Carroll, Parrett and Bosotck. As indeed Kane is ahead of his: Archer, Miles, Fredericks, Waller-Larssen, Pritchard, Lancaster and Oyenuga.
Of those, assuming you've seen them and know a fair bit about them, how many do you think have a chance of making it as a first team Spurs squad member long term or at least an established PL player else where?
 

eddiebailey

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Oct 12, 2004
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Since we withdrew from the serve league I have not seen so much of our young players, but the bottom-line is that it costs significant money to develop a young player, and unless the club is at least able to unload them on a Championship side there is not much hope of a return. So they all have a chance, or they would not still be at the club. But there are too many variables to be able to make safe predictions. No one is nailed on: Bill Nicholson was convinced Danny Hill would be the next big thing; the best reserve player I have seen at Spurs by a country mile is Phil Ifil, who now struggles to get a game for Kettering. By the same token not many, apart evidently from Harry, would have predicted Jake Livermore's late blooming - it was not just fans of clubs he went to on loan who were underwhelmed by him, he also came in for a fair amount of stick on fan blogs for his reserve performances.

What is exciting about Spurs youth development at the moment is that so many youngsters are emerging as contenders at a tender age. A lot of this has to do with the use of the loan system - with Harry's connections and Tim's management of the players.

If I was a betting man, I would forecast sustained Premiership careers for Button, Caulker, Kane and perhaps two more. Compared to the decade after the emergence of Ledley King, which really only yielded Kelly and O'Hara as Premiership players, that is quite a good return
 

Spursidol

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Sep 15, 2007
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How many academy players have we had break in to the first team or there or there abouts in the last 5 years?

Players who we have produced who are at least PL standard?

Off the top of my head so far I can think of Caulker and Livermore who seem to be capable of performing in the PL

Several others have got first team action in the Europa and have been loaned out to lower levels but I think those two are the only ones who have come from our academy and held down a place in a PL squad to date (livermore got decent game time for us last year and I'm sure could be playing at a similar level to Caulker if he were loaned)

Other than that the most noticeable seem to be Kane and Townsend who are doing well enough at CL level (Adam Smith similar?)

Good question, but a bit of background will indicate it might not be a good guide to the future.

Spurs academy had not been good at churning out players for maybe 10 years or so. Levy recognised that we need to up the 'ante' on youth development and I think the first visible signs of that is when Pleat signed Simon Davies, Matthew Etherington, Garry Doherty, Tony Gardner etc with a view to developing them into the first team - at the time our team was not that great so even these were not too bad an addition (although only Davies is probably one I would count as a success). I guess Levy could say the experiment of youth development was a partial success, although requiring refinement.

In 2004 Frank Aarnesen was appointed as DoF to overhaul everything footballwise, including the Academy/youth development and before he left in 2005 seemed to have set out a good structure. Alex Inglethorpe (former Exeter coach) joined in 2006 to look after the under 18's as a coach and appears to be excellent. John McDermott joined to head up the academy around this time too. Between the three of them Spurs academy seemed to have taken a step change upwards in terms of the quality of players recruited (including taking on small players with good technical skills, previously rejected) and their development.

I would suggest that Jake Livermore/David Button entered into the academy at about the time that things changed with the first full intake probably being that which includes the likes of Stephen Caulker, Andros Townsend, Adam Smith, Jake Nicholson etc.

So in summary, we are just starting to see the first fruits of the 'new academy' policy, which IMO is showing the step change in a 'conveyor belt' of talent starting to come through - Youth development is a long term strategy, many of the kids now coming through from the 'updated' academy will have been with Spurs for 5 - 10 years.

So the answer to how many kids have come through from the academy in the last 5 years is not (we hope) a good indicator to how many will come through in the next 5 years !
 

Spursidol

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Sep 15, 2007
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Anyway to wathc/get highlights?

Going to Stemwede and watching is a good option ! :D:D:D


There is nothing I can see on the site which says there will be any form of TV coverage, but amongst their team are 4 people from Stemwede TV http://turnier-team-tus-stemwede.de/content/view/257/155/lang,en/

Nothing explicit on the Stemwede TV site either – but they have done videos of similar football competitions,
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.stemwede-tv.de/index2.php&ei=Kz6_T_PdB4bV4QT8iLWHCg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEYQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DStemwede%2Btv%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1009%26bih%3D421%26prmd%3Dimvns

….so maybe !

A member of the Spurs marketing department is going and often uses twitter, so hope he uses it ! ( timlove1984 ) and hope the OS also uses Twitter !
 

Spursidol

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Sep 15, 2007
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Full schedule of Games on the Saturday :

Saturday 26. May 2012 - Stadium: Stemwede-Wehdem

10.00 h Match 5 Mühlenkreis-Team - Club América :
11.00 h Match 6 U19 RD Congo - SV Werder Bremen :
12.30 h Match 7 Grasshopper Club Zurich - RCD Mallorca :
13.30 h Match 8 Tottenham Hotspur - Hannover 96 :
14.30 h Match 9 SV Werder Bremen - Mühlenkreis-Team :
15.30 h Match 10 Club América - U19 RD Congo :
16.30 h Match 11 Hannover 96 - Grasshopper Club Zurich :
17.30 h Match 12 RCD Mallorca - Tottenham Hotspur :

These matches determine the Group Stages, then on Sunday are remaining matches up to the final

The matches last for 50 minutes, 25 minutes x 2 halves.

BTW, rumours are that Ryan Fredericks appears to have joined the squad as Captain !
 

Spursidol

Well-Known Member
Sep 15, 2007
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Spurs 3 - 0 Hannover 96

Translation from tournament site :

In the fourth game of the tournament on Saturday there is to see an intense but low-chance game first. Tottenham may develop a slight advantage going into the 18th and Minute lead. The No. 4 scorer Jack Frederick Munns. In the second half, there is Hanover's keeper Tobias Düring more to do. Tottenham pressed and makes two more gates to the bag. The English win in an intense game deserved 3-0.
 
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