- May 5, 2004
- 24,182
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I honestly think Poch and McDermott, whilst not perfect, have got the ethos of the club absolutely spot on, and I wouldn’t make exceptions for kids no matter how talented.I never said he should have a guaranteed spot. But every youngster is different, some will jump through as many hoops as you set them whilst some need the carrot dangled in front of them to get a response. In some cases, and I think with a player like Edwards whose style/skillset/talent and personality this applies, you might need to dangle a bigger carrot than you'd like to.
As far as I'm aware he never really trained with the first team squad for any prolonged period of time, bar making up the numbers on depleted pre-season tours etc. In my opinion that was the best place for him, in amongst the senior players would be a challenge/eye opener because of the step up in quality, compared to being used to being the most talented in his age group teams, and also he'd be forced to get fitter and work harder and adhere to rules/standards - and Poch would be best to oversee that and iron out the flaws than any of our revolving door of academy coaches. If he didn't show any desire to improve then fair enough, bin him.
I also think with a player like that, any first team involvement should then have been drip fed. 5 - 10 minutes off the bench and taken very slowly. He's a kid who physically was not ready, and mentally struggles outside his bubble and is hard to read and break through. Carting him off on loans and expecting him to play match after match wasn't sensible. Some will think that's just making excuses for him, and like any academy player I have no idea whether he'd ultimately make it or not with another approach or doing things any differently, but I just don't think the decisions made were the best path for his Spurs development and career.
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