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The Spurs Youth Thread - 2017/2018

DCSPUR

Well-Known Member
Apr 15, 2005
3,918
5,415
Hi folks, saw that Solanke was just called up by Southgate. What do you think of him? Should we have tried to get him and would that have made sense bearing in mind @Hercules has suggested that we will be strongly in for Jadon Sancho. Thanks as ever to @IGSpur, @spurs9 and others on this thread for your insights!!!
 

coys200

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2017
8,436
17,403
Hi folks, saw that Solanke was just called up by Southgate. What do you think of him? Should we have tried to get him and would that have made sense bearing in mind @Hercules has suggested that we will be strongly in for Jadon Sancho. Thanks as ever to @IGSpur, @spurs9 and others on this thread for your insights!!!

Pretty average imo.Seen nothing to get excited about.
 

Cornpattbuck

Well-Known Member
Jul 23, 2013
6,873
15,942
Hi folks, saw that Solanke was just called up by Southgate. What do you think of him? Should we have tried to get him and would that have made sense bearing in mind @Hercules has suggested that we will be strongly in for Jadon Sancho. Thanks as ever to @IGSpur, @spurs9 and others on this thread for your insights!!!

Don't think Chelsea respond to our phone calls these days...
 

ralphs bald spot

Well-Known Member
Jul 14, 2015
2,777
5,177
Hi folks, saw that Solanke was just called up by Southgate. What do you think of him? Should we have tried to get him and would that have made sense bearing in mind @Hercules has suggested that we will be strongly in for Jadon Sancho. Thanks as ever to @IGSpur, @spurs9 and others on this thread for your insights!!!

Solanke is a talent - he has a football brain about him but he is bit of legend in his own mind though. Don't really see him as an out and striker though and I think he might suffer from a lack of a natrual position short term.

The boy we should have signed was Dembele and perhaps Roberts from Fulham they were outstanding against us everytime we played them
 

IGSpur

Well-Known Member
Jan 11, 2013
7,939
13,758
Hi folks, saw that Solanke was just called up by Southgate. What do you think of him? Should we have tried to get him and would that have made sense bearing in mind @Hercules has suggested that we will be strongly in for Jadon Sancho. Thanks as ever to @IGSpur, @spurs9 and others on this thread for your insights!!!

Solanke is a good striker, but I think that Abraham is better, I think we should have signed him before he extended his contract. He would have made an excellent backup striker to Kane but Solanke is still good.

And if we did try and go for Solanke it wouldn't affect whether we went for Sancho as Sancho is a winger. I really like what Southgate is doing. If he was bold and did the same for Colkett we would have great midfield options.

Really unfortunate Onomah is injured as I reckon he would have called him up instead of Cook as Onomah has been the u21s best CM and I don't doubt, that like RLC, if Onomah was called up to the first team, I bet he would have impressed in central midfield and surprised a load of people. Big shame. Funny thing is all of RLC's criticisms were over his lazy looking nature, and some people criticised it again, and Onomah would get the same, but we know England fans love a workhorse and blood and guts player over one with talent.

Not sure about Calvert-Lewin never been a massive fan of him, but its good Gunn has also got a call up. Really liking what Southgate is doing trying to make England better. Keeping the successful teams together and giving them the chances the clubs won't.
 

IGSpur

Well-Known Member
Jan 11, 2013
7,939
13,758
Solanke is a talent - he has a football brain about him but he is bit of legend in his own mind though. Don't really see him as an out and striker though and I think he might suffer from a lack of a natrual position short term.

The boy we should have signed was Dembele and perhaps Roberts from Fulham they were outstanding against us everytime we played them

Would loved to have got Roberts, and he would be another Southgate could have called up. He seems to have gotten unfair treatment by decided to play with Celtic in CL rather than u21s and he hasn't been seen since, though he has picked up some injuries. He is still talented and I hope we don't miss out on using him before he ultimately stagnates.

Never been a big Dembele fan, felt he was more about his size and supply from Roberts
 

Westmorland

Active Member
May 21, 2014
290
449
What Southgate is doing might make the youth at Chelsea and City think twice about staying at those clubs. They will get a chance for England if they are playing regularly. Problem is, as Solanke found to his cost, if you refuse to extend a contract they won’t play you at all. Solanke hadn’t played all year till the under 20 World Cup. We may be the same. UEFA really need to crack down on the clubs just stockpiling young players .If they cut max number of loans to around 10 they would have to let the players move on.
 

IGSpur

Well-Known Member
Jan 11, 2013
7,939
13,758

Dharmabum

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2003
8,274
12,242
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...jose-mourinho-at-chelsea-claims-a3689451.html

However, Loftus-Cheek's father, Trevor, told the Daily Mail that he felt his son's development had been hampered while former Blues boss Mourinho was in the Stamford Bridge hotseat for a second spell between 2013 to 2015, during which time Chelsea sold Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku.

"Jose Mourinho held him back," said Loftus-Cheek's father. "He should have been playing.

"Everyone behind the scenes was asking: 'why isn’t he playing?'"

"If Ruben was playing for Mauricio Pochettino, he’d have 70, 80, 90 first team appearances by now."
 

bat-chain

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2009
2,232
9,478
Might be true, might not as much as Pochettino brings young players through KWP isnt getting much of a look in.
 

Dharmabum

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2003
8,274
12,242
Might be true, might not as much as Pochettino brings young players through KWP isnt getting much of a look in.

Although I was happy with having KWP as 2nd choice RB I think the addition of Aurier has, apart from strengthening the Spurs squad, helped Trippier to up his game. With KWP as 2nd choice Trippier knew that he was a clear 1st choice but with Aurier in the squad he is not longer guaranteed that spot.
Besides, with the exceptions of few very talented defenders, few 20 years old defenders play regularly for top teams in top leagues in Europe. Life as a defender in a top team can be ruthless and one mistake can break ones confidence. Look at all the criticism, say, Dier, Luke Shaw and Phil Jones have gotten.
Pochettino gave plenty of chances to players like Carroll and Mason to show their talents so I am pretty sure that Loftus-Cheek would have had many 1st team games had he choosen Spurs (rather than go for fast early bucks at Chelski).
 
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nightgoat

Well-Known Member
Sep 12, 2005
24,604
21,898
Hi folks, saw that Solanke was just called up by Southgate. What do you think of him? Should we have tried to get him and would that have made sense bearing in mind @Hercules has suggested that we will be strongly in for Jadon Sancho. Thanks as ever to @IGSpur, @spurs9 and others on this thread for your insights!!!

Whilst I admire the stance Southgate is taking in insisting players have to be playing for their clubs in order to earn a call up to the national team,and his willingness to give opportunities to young players he's almost made a rod for his own back in doing so. Solanke has played 85 minutes of Premier League football, spread out across seven games. The most he's had in any one league fixture was 23 minutes. He hasn't scored for Liverpool yet. He may be promising from his u20 appearances, but he hasn't even been that great for the u21s, yet here he is in the full squad. Obviously he wouldn't be if it weren't for injuries to other players, but you can hardly say his call up is deserved at this stage.
 

Streetspur77

Happy Clapper
Jul 20, 2017
2,792
9,404
Whilst I admire the stance Southgate is taking in insisting players have to be playing for their clubs in order to earn a call up to the national team,and his willingness to give opportunities to young players he's almost made a rod for his own back in doing so. Solanke has played 85 minutes of Premier League football, spread out across seven games. The most he's had in any one league fixture was 23 minutes. He hasn't scored for Liverpool yet. He may be promising from his u20 appearances, but he hasn't even been that great for the u21s, yet here he is in the full squad. Obviously he wouldn't be if it weren't for injuries to other players, but you can hardly say his call up is deserved at this stage.

I think the u21 players were chosen because they would already be at st.georges park and with England rather than taking a player out of their club for one friendly

I doubt they'll even play tbh, maybe a few mins at the end but mostly their just to pad out the squad
 

Disconosebleed

Well-Known Member
Dec 22, 2005
2,553
2,569
Whilst I admire the stance Southgate is taking in insisting players have to be playing for their clubs in order to earn a call up to the national team,and his willingness to give opportunities to young players he's almost made a rod for his own back in doing so. Solanke has played 85 minutes of Premier League football, spread out across seven games. The most he's had in any one league fixture was 23 minutes. He hasn't scored for Liverpool yet. He may be promising from his u20 appearances, but he hasn't even been that great for the u21s, yet here he is in the full squad. Obviously he wouldn't be if it weren't for injuries to other players, but you can hardly say his call up is deserved at this stage.

Given the last fifty years of abject failure, it might be time to rethink how we build an England squad, and allow the manager to choose a group of players who provide the right blend of attributes rather than questioning whether they have 'earned' the right to be in there in the first place. Winks hadn't earned his spot when he was called up if you asked anyone outside Tottenham, but everyone that had watched him knew he was worth a go and he quickly proved it. I wouldn't have said Ruben Loftus-Cheek deserved a call-up either, but he was superb on Friday night and has now created another option for a position (ball-playing midfielder) that we're not stacked with. There was criticism of Rashford's call-up when he first got the nod, he scored within about 0.6 of a second on his debut and is now a regular starter and one of our biggest attacking threats.

We have a real lack of striker options at the moment due to injuries and general shiteness, so why not give the likes of Abraham and Solanke a go? It's a friendly, they're designed for this sort of experimentation - I'd rather young kids like those two, who might potentially have a big future for England, get the call-up than the alternatives like Rodriguez or Deeney, who are unlikely to have any real impact in the short-term and almost definitely have no future in the squad long-term.

It's also worth bearing in mind that, unlike most England managers before him, Southgate has a detailed knowledge of all the u21 players, which will be influencing his decision-making. You might have seen 85 minutes of Solanke across 7 games and been unimpressed, but Southgate will have seen him regularly in training and spotted something that he thinks is worth a go. It might work, it might not, but at least he's trying something new.
 

IGSpur

Well-Known Member
Jan 11, 2013
7,939
13,758
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...jose-mourinho-at-chelsea-claims-a3689451.html

However, Loftus-Cheek's father, Trevor, told the Daily Mail that he felt his son's development had been hampered while former Blues boss Mourinho was in the Stamford Bridge hotseat for a second spell between 2013 to 2015, during which time Chelsea sold Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku.

"Jose Mourinho held him back," said Loftus-Cheek's father. "He should have been playing.

"Everyone behind the scenes was asking: 'why isn’t he playing?'"

"If Ruben was playing for Mauricio Pochettino, he’d have 70, 80, 90 first team appearances by now."

Hopefully this over representation of Poch's ability to bring academy players through starts to help with us being able to poach those who haven't signed pros yet. RLC's Dad should start advising their 16/17 year olds
 

Blake Griffin

Well-Known Member
Oct 3, 2011
14,133
38,225
Although I was happy with having KWP as 2nd choice RB I think the addition of Aurier has, apart from strengthening the Spurs squad, helped Trippier to up his game. With KWP as 2nd choice Trippier knew that he was a clear 1st choice but with Aurier in the squad he is not longer guaranteed that spot.
Besides, with the exceptions of few very talented defenders, few 20 years old defenders play regularly for top teams in top leagues in Europe. Life as a defender in a top team can be ruthless and one mistake can break ones confidence. Look at all the criticism, say, Dier, Luke Shaw and Phil Jones have gotten.
Pochettino gave plenty of chances to players like Carroll and Mason to show their talents so I am pretty sure that Loftus-Cheek would have had many 1st team games had he choose Spurs (rather than go for fast early bucks at Chelski).

if trippier(or any first teamer) gets complacent and allows their level to drop or doesn't push as hard as they can to improve then maybe they don't have the right mentality to succeed here. harry kane hasn't had any real competition for his place in the last three years yet he's gotten better and better so there's no excuse for others not to do the same. as if we don't put enough hurdles in the way of young players now we're going to blame them if/when the seniors aren't playing to their maximum capacity as well?
 
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