The All New Spurs U21, U18 & Other Youth News Thread

[SamR]

This is by far my favourite thread. Thanks for all of the insight chaps!

 

[taidgh]

How are the two Grants, Ward and Hall, shaping up out on loan?

I'm sure a few posters with far more knowledge than I will come along shortly, but it was my impression that Grant Ward was loaned out to MLS with little to no expectation that he would come back. Grant Hall is at Birmingham (?) and doing ok. Seems to be talked about as someone who has a decent chance to come in to the senior squad at some stage.

 

[mpickard2087]

What I have seen of Hall, he doesn't strike me as someone who will make the step up, and Championship is probably his level. He's a big lad and pretty comfortable on the ball, but just doesn't stand out really (well, certainly not in the games I have seen). I think he was brought in to bolster the U21 team at the time and now is loaned out to further his career. He is also 23 already, so you wonder how much longer we persist...

 

[loaderspurs]

I'm sure a few posters with far more knowledge than I will come along shortly, but it was my impression that Grant Ward was loaned out to MLS with little to no expectation that he would come back. Grant Hall is at Birmingham (?) and doing ok. Seems to be talked about as someone who has a decent chance to come in to the senior squad at some stage.

Afraid not. Grant hall is a long way off the first team imo. Seems more and more he was brought in when he was, simply because we had a huge shortage of defenders in our youth teams at the time. It's looking increasingly likely that the championship might be his level, I think he would struggle in the pl, certainly not ready for involvement with our first XI.

 

[IGSpur]

Well that was probably it for the trialists actually. They've both been called into the US u18s camp in Spain for 2 matches vs Germany. CCV wasnt called in, however. But then again, that's probably because he looks to have essentially graduated to the u20/u23 level already after being called into and playing with both teams recently.

This is our group in the IMG tournament btw
Tottenham Hotspur U18
USA Men's National Team U17
Toluca F.C. U18
Stevenage F.C. U18
Brentford F.C. U18
Baltimore Celtic U18
IMG Academy U18 USSDA
Blackrock FC U18

In the "Super Group" instead of the age groups

Will this be the same USMNT u17 squad that played in the Nile tournament. Our team beat US u17s last year but I wonder how a weaker u18s team will do against a stronger u17s side. they beat England u17s. Maybe Edwards can get some revenge

 

[taidgh]

Afraid not. Grant hall is a long way off the first team imo. Seems more and more he was brought in when he was, simply because we had a huge shortage of defenders in our youth teams at the time. It's looking increasingly likely that the championship might be his level, I think he would struggle in the pl, certainly not ready for involvement with our first XI.

Yes..you're right. I was mixing him up/creating some monstrous hybrid with Dominic Ball

 

[bceej]

I'm sure a few posters with far more knowledge than I will come along shortly, but it was my impression that Grant Ward was loaned out to MLS with little to no expectation that he would come back. Grant Hall is at Birmingham (?) and doing ok. Seems to be talked about as someone who has a decent chance to come in to the senior squad at some stage.

Grant Ward is back in London. Not sure exactly what's going on but he has watched a few U-21 games and is just 20 years old so don't think he's been given up on. Nice little interview with Windy here http://windycoys.com/2014/11/getting-to-know-grant-ward/

 

[HighVoltage]

Glover
KWP CCV Velkjovic Ogilve
Mason Bentaleb
Azzoui Onomah Oduwa
Kane​

Jesus guys, an ENTIRE team of academy graduates (minus lloris)? That's pretty damn unrealistic. Not even Barca could pull that off. If two or three of those players came to fruition, on top of the 3 we already have in the squad (kane, nabs, mason), we would be incredibly lucky.

Reminded me of Celtic's "Lisbon Lions" in 1967. They won the Scottish Premier League, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, the Glasgow Cup and the European Cup (former CL) under Jock Stein. Most of the players where born 30 miles of the club's ground, 11 of them started against Inter in the EC final.

..Well that's a miracle that isn't going to repeat

 

[TottenhamLegend]

Love the idea of having a guy called Glover in goal. Can we re-sign Roderigo Defendi too?!

Heard there's a bloke in our U14 team called Steven Inverted-Winger too..

 

[Spursidol]

Reminded me of Celtic's "Lisbon Lions" in 1967. They won the Scottish Premier League, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, the Glasgow Cup and the European Cup (former CL) under Jock Stein. Most of the players where born 30 miles of the club's ground, 11 of them started against Inter in the EC final.

..Well that's a miracle that isn't going to repeat

Can't promise playing a complete team of youth prodcts in the next few years - but realistically we could get to a situation within the next few years where half the squad are, with the other half being genuine stars.

Its just a question of bringing through the kids as and when they are ready.

ATM its not unreasonable to look at these coming through over the next couple of years at the rate of about 2 a year:

19 year olds - Milos Veljkovic (CB/CM), Dominic Ball (CB)
18 year olds - Harry Winks (CM), Connor Ogilvie (LB), Nathan Oduwa (AM), and a few more might make it
17 year olds - Joshua Onomah (CM/AM), Kyle Walker-Peters (RB)
16 year olds - Arguably too soon to be sure but several very interesting players such as Cameron Carter-Vickers, Ismael Azzaoui and others. There are also players in younger age groups that look as if they are equally talented.

There's a few others who might also step up, so with careful management its just a matter of time - the conveyor belt of talent coming through is certainly there.

Aside from saving costs on purchases, we've already seen the affinity to the club means they try harder (eg Kane, Mason, Bentaleb). and the cost saving means we can be more selective in bringing players in - and focus transfer funds on them.

 

[npearl4spurs]

Aside from saving costs on purchases, we've already seen the affinity to the club means they try harder (eg Kane, Mason, Bentaleb). and the cost saving means we can be more selective in bringing players in - and focus transfer funds on them.

And the most important part of this is buying the best players where we are weak in the squad and don't see much coming through the academy - chiefly at forward. The main concern is upgrading the match day 18 and the 25-man squad while protecting the ability for youth to flourish.

 

[Spursidol]

And the most important part of this is buying the best players where we are weak in the squad and don't see much coming through the academy - chiefly at forward. The main concern is upgrading the match day 18 and the 25-man squad while protecting the ability for youth to flourish.

Agreed, but in many cases bringing youth into the squad will be as squad platers initialy - and I'd suggest that our youth have as much skill as many of the squad players who have been brought in, and unquestionably more intention to fight for the shirt.

So I'm not convinced thar bringing through youth selectively is at odds with upgrading the squad and team - Kane, Mason and Bentaleb seem to be mainstays in the team, and upgraded the team and squad.

With an unlimited number of u21's being allowed (under PL rules), a squad of say 22 players over 21's (including some club trained players) plus half a dozen u21's is likely to be easier to manage (players 23,24, 25 rarely play much so are always unhappy) whereas the youngsters will be happy to share out a few appearances each whilst getting to PL - and having that size of squad allows better rotation and more resiliencve in the event of half a dozen injuries.

Planned properly a youth strategy can work at all levels at a club.

 

[npearl4spurs]

Agreed, but in many cases bringing youth into the squad will be as squad platers initialy - and I'd suggest that our youth have as much skill as many of the squad players who have been brought in, and unquestionably more intention to fight for the shirt.

So I'm not convinced thar bringing through youth selectively is at odds with upgrading the squad and team - Kane, Mason and Bentaleb seem to be mainstays in the team, and upgraded the team and squad.

With an unlimited number of u21's being allowed (under PL rules), a squad of say 22 players over 21's (including some club trained players) plus half a dozen u21's is likely to be easier to manage (players 23,24, 25 rarely play much so are always unhappy) whereas the youngsters will be happy to share out a few appearances each whilst getting to PL - and having that size of squad allows better rotation and more resiliencve in the event of half a dozen injuries.

Planned properly a youth strategy can work at all levels at a club.

You're absolutely right, SI. The frustrating thing is our competing desires as fans - we want academy graduates who love the shirt and have been with the club for years, but we also want world class players. It's a shame it is so rare to get both!

 

[Spursidol]

You're absolutely right, SI. The frustrating thing is our competing desires as fans - we want academy graduates who love the shirt and have been with the club for years, but we also want world class players. It's a shame it is so rare to get both!

We cannot have a squad full of world class players, so lets get a few of them if we can , but marry them up with squad players rom the youth set up - but in time I think we will have one or two near world stars from the youth as well

 

[DezFitz]

Onomah on the bench and Winks misses out. Hopefully Onomah gets on. Winks should be on the bench instead of Capoue.

 

[Romulus]

disappointed that both Onomah and Winks are not on the bench

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

disappointed that both Onomah and Winks are not on the bench

Onomah is...

Or do you mean youre disappointed that the two of them, together, are not on the bench...

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

At the very least I hope Onomah gets a few minutes like Winks did previously. Seen a couple of Spurs/Eng youth games to see he has quality. But the more knowledgeable guys on here have got me quite optimistic about his talent.

 

[Monkey boy]

not that I want to bring the mood down but don't all fans look at their youth teams and say that in x amount of years they are gonna be great only for said players to disappear to the lower echelons of the footballing pyramid? For the guys that watch these youth players regularly, just how good do you think they could become? how do they compare to previous youth teams?

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Arsenal had 3 youth players on the bench in a competition with higher significance than what we're in so it's a bit of a shame we couldn't do the same