The Spurs Youth Thread – 2016/2017

[aussiespursguy]

Hmmmm tbh I'm not sure you lot deserve it, I spent my time there debunking the myth that Lucas neill was one of the pl's best players and the only Aussie I met who knew what he was talking about was a young Rolf Harris looking Liverpool fan

I was there for santini's first game, the studio pundit was Robbie slater, who played here so should know better, and he declared that spurs signing naybet was a dig at arsenal cos he'd lobbed seaman from the halfway line for Zaragoza

For what it's worth I didn't have a problem with it!
And Michael Bridges is the best pundit on Aussie TV. Has a big soft spot for Spurs!

 

[spurs9]

For what it's worth I didn't have a problem with it!
And Michael Bridges is the best pundit on Aussie TV. Has a big soft spot for Spurs!

He almost signed for us before he moved to Leeds but Sugar f@#ked it up.

@MickyBridges8
Alan Sugar ruined my dream move mate
Sat with Graham & Pleat ready to sign then Sugar turned up
#RudeMan

 

[kmk]

He almost signed for us before he moved to Leeds but Sugar f@#ked it up.

@MickyBridges8
Alan Sugar ruined my dream move mate
Sat with Graham & Pleat ready to sign then Sugar turned up
#RudeMan

That's interesting. At the time, the rumours were that he chose Leeds as his girlfriend was studying there.

 

[nightgoat]

Dixon had just as much hype as Edwards. I remember it well. He was training regularly with the first team when he was still at school. He made his senior Republic of Ireland debut at 16. Everyone at Spurs said he was going to be one of the best players the country had ever produced. I'm not kidding. He had his fair share of problems off the pitch, not including injuries but he was considered a phenom from 12 upwards.

Did he ever actually play for the ROI senior team? I thought he just got called up to the squad but never actually played. The suggestion at the time was that Steve Staunton was effectively trying to secure him for Ireland by calling him up.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

He almost signed for us before he moved to Leeds but Sugar f@#ked it up.

@MickyBridges8
Alan Sugar ruined my dream move mate
Sat with Graham & Pleat ready to sign then Sugar turned up
#RudeMan

In other words, Sugar rudely wouldn't pay him what Ridsdale politely would.

 

[WindyCOYS]

U18s was a game of two halves we should have been out of site in the first half with the chances we had.

The second half belonged to Stoke they had a Huge lad up front who to be fair Skipp and Marsh done well to cope with even though he did score.

Best player today was Skipp for someone so young their is a lot of maturity and talent to his game.

Both Stoke goal was down to sloppy back passes by Duncan in the first half and Bennetts in the second.

Reynolds is a player a lot of us do not get to see much of but he impressed in the first half but faded out in the second.

Thanks for the write-up, mate - how did Hinds get on in midfield?

 

[danielneeds]

He almost signed for us before he moved to Leeds but Sugar f@#ked it up.

@MickyBridges8
Alan Sugar ruined my dream move mate
Sat with Graham & Pleat ready to sign then Sugar turned up
#RudeMan

Quite liked him as a player, but let's face it, with his injury record he would have just been another one on the physio's table pile up at the time.

 

[Spurzinho]

Did he ever actually play for the ROI senior team? I thought he just got called up to the squad but never actually played. The suggestion at the time was that Steve Staunton was effectively trying to secure him for Ireland by calling him up.

He certainly did. I watched the game in question. I endured a whole 88 minutes of the turgid snoozefest before Dixon was sent on for his debut. He didn't see much of the ball although I seem remember he won a late corner.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Lilywhite Rose‏@lilywhite_rose 10h10 hours ago
Development squad midfielder, Zenon Stylanides has also been told he will be released at the end of his contract on 30 June 2017.

Lilywhite Rose‏@lilywhite_rose 3m3 minutes ago
Development squad fullback, Joe Muscatt has been told that he will be released upon the expiration of his contract on 30 June 2017.

 

[allpaths]

Lilywhite Rose‏@lilywhite_rose 10h10 hours ago
Development squad midfielder, Zenon Stylanides has also been told he will be released at the end of his contract on 30 June 2017.

Lilywhite Rose‏@lilywhite_rose 3m3 minutes ago
Development squad fullback, Joe Muscatt has been told that he will be released upon the expiration of his contract on 30 June 2017.

Good luck to both of them, I feel for Stylanides as he had a very hard time dealing with his sister's passing. Hopefully the first of many to be cleared out.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I like Stylanides, unfortunately the role of busy **** has the toughest job in football trying to make it now that Cm's have to be either Modric or Pogba to catch the eye.

 

[C0YS]

I think this is part of the problem with youth football in this country. If you have a rare but beautiful rose seedling that you know can only grow in cow shit, and you plant it in horse shit it doesn't mean the rose was over hyped, it means the onus is on you to give that rose the best possible chance to bloom and if you feed it horse shit it's your fault, not the rose's fault for not being able to grow in horse shit.

Youth football is not irrelevant, it is the pre-curser, the incubation phase and is a vital part of the process.

But why, having spent years of time and effort nurturing that kid, do we then try and make things as difficult as possible for them to reach their potential. We place obstacle after obstacle in their path. We send them to strange places, often playing a vastly inferior brand of football, or we play them once every 3 months, we play them out of position, or we play them in mesh mash teams made up up of players who rarely play together as a team in far flung places of Europe (sometimes we do all of things at the same time) and then go "oh look, he's not matched the hype". It's fucking ridiculous.

Look at what happens when you give these players the best possible chance, you play them with balanced first teamers around them, you play them in their best position, you introduce them into the right game environment, you allow them to make the odd mistake without it being a catastrophe - they are far more likely to show their best aren't they ?

Look at what they do in other countries and how much we are paying for the players given this environment in those countries.

I'm not saying we don't ever do this, or that is always the case, but it is very prevalent in the the PL and at our club too, and Onomah is a prime example of this, and there have been others.

Its not irrelevant, that is taking the quote out of context. Its irrelevant to having 'made it'. You don't make it, or match the hype by doing well in youth football. Youth team football is obviously incredibly important for developing players.

I agree with the general gist of your post. But I think its a two way thing. The player has responsibility as well towards being the best they can be. I think generally the biggest problem is why hype players too much, there are often 20 players in youth teams that get hyped as the next superstar, while only 1 or 2 of them will reach that level. Thats not just coaching its just very hard to ever reach that level, and all kind of things can go wrong. From mentality, injuries and yes bad coaching.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Tottenham Academy‏@thfcacademy
Following on form this, development squad players Luke Amos, Anthony Georgiou, Tom Glover, Shayon Harrison..

Tottenham Academy‏@thfcacademy 28m28 minutes ago
Will Miller, Shilow Tracey and Anton Walkes have all signed or agreed to sign new deals.

 

[Blake Griffin]

I think generally the biggest problem is why hype players too much, there are often 20 players in youth teams that get hyped as the next superstar, while only 1 or 2 of them will reach that level.

hyped by who?

the general consensus in this thread has always been that winks, onomah, kwp, ccv and edwards all have a good chance of making it. that's five players over four age groups, roughly five players out of 50-60. one of them is now a regular first teamer, two have made appearances for the first team and the other two are now training with the first team so that's a pretty good success rate for this thread. on the flipside look at when it seemed like walkes was in poch's plans, no one in here could understand that so it's not like we think all of our youth players are amazing.

 

[beats1]

Tottenham Academy‏@thfcacademy
Following on form this, development squad players Luke Amos, Anthony Georgiou, Tom Glover, Shayon Harrison..

Tottenham Academy‏@thfcacademy 28m28 minutes ago
Will Miller, Shilow Tracey and Anton Walkes have all signed or agreed to sign new deals.

Interesting that Georgiou has got a deal, I think the only thing for him is to be loaned out and played at LB

Its not irrelevant, that is taking the quote out of context. Its irrelevant to having 'made it'. You don't make it, or match the hype by doing well in youth football. Youth team football is obviously incredibly important for developing players.

I agree with the general gist of your post. But I think its a two way thing. The player has responsibility as well towards being the best they can be. I think generally the biggest problem is why hype players too much, there are often 20 players in youth teams that get hyped as the next superstar, while only 1 or 2 of them will reach that level. Thats not just coaching its just very hard to ever reach that level, and all kind of things can go wrong. From mentality, injuries and yes bad coaching.

I think Blake summed it up perfectly,

Also when I mentioned that Onomah has proved that hype, the fact is players are hyped when they do join the academy full time and then most of them drop away like the examples that were in the original post.

Onomah has been one of our highest performing youth players we have had for the youth teams. Yes he hasnt translated that to the first team yet but that is partly down to mismanagement and the fact he is still breaking in to the team

 

[C0YS]

hyped by who?

the general consensus in this thread has always been that winks, onomah, kwp, ccv and edwards all have a good chance of making it. that's five players over four age groups, roughly five players out of 50-60. one of them is now a regular first teamer, two have made appearances for the first team and the other two are now training with the first team so that's a pretty good success rate for this thread. on the flipside look at when it seemed like walkes was in poch's plans, no one in here could understand that so it's not like we think all of our youth players are amazing.

I mean in world football.

I'm not stupid enough to think we have 20 possible Messi's in our academy guys!

I think we have one, and man I'm excited by that! But lets not put too much pressure on the guy.

 

[WindyCOYS]

Tottenham Academy‏@thfcacademy
Following on form this, development squad players Luke Amos, Anthony Georgiou, Tom Glover, Shayon Harrison..

Tottenham Academy‏@thfcacademy 28m28 minutes ago
Will Miller, Shilow Tracey and Anton Walkes have all signed or agreed to sign new deals.

Really surprised that Georgiou is being kept on. Walkes and Miller will surely be sold on, possibly Harrison too.

Tracey and Glover are total wildcards that I suspect will end up gone within 18 months, but you just never know.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Its not irrelevant, that is taking the quote out of context. Its irrelevant to having 'made it'. You don't make it, or match the hype by doing well in youth football. Youth team football is obviously incredibly important for developing players.

I agree with the general gist of your post. But I think its a two way thing. The player has responsibility as well towards being the best they can be. I think generally the biggest problem is why hype players too much, there are often 20 players in youth teams that get hyped as the next superstar, while only 1 or 2 of them will reach that level. Thats not just coaching its just very hard to ever reach that level, and all kind of things can go wrong. From mentality, injuries and yes bad coaching.

Lets not forget fans and their unrealistic expectations, intolerance, impatience and sometimes ignorance. I must of seen it written 100 times on this board that Onomah has failed to take "his chance" - yet he hasn't made a single start in his real position, in a proper first team line up. And even then he's generally done OK most times. What chance did Pritchard get ?

 

[Sweech]

hyped by who?

the general consensus in this thread has always been that winks, onomah, kwp, ccv and edwards all have a good chance of making it. that's five players over four age groups, roughly five players out of 50-60. one of them is now a regular first teamer, two have made appearances for the first team and the other two are now training with the first team so that's a pretty good success rate for this thread. on the flipside look at when it seemed like walkes was in poch's plans, no one in here could understand that so it's not like we think all of our youth players are amazing.

In fairness probably hyped by BC.

He hypes everyone to the nth degree and floods threads with it to the point that other posters think it's all the youth watchers who are doing the hyping. It's easy to get confused.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

In fairness probably hyped by BC.

He hypes everyone to the nth degree and floods threads with it to the point that other posters think it's all the youth watchers who are doing the hyping. It's easy to get confused.

Stop with the silly bollocks. Talking about players isn't hyping them. Suggesting they can do some kind of job or are a viable alternative to players like Kyle Naughton, Clinton Njie or Moussa Sissoko isn't hyping them, it's just common fucking sense.