You can't win anything with kids

[philip]

Lots of our youngsters are impressing on loan or here at Spurs.
Alex Pritchard is the latest one, having already scored 3 goals and 2 assists for Brentford and proving a key player in the Championship. Bentaleb who impressed last year and at the World Cup is back fit. Walker is coming back in the next few weeks which should allow Dier to play as a CB. Davies had another good game on Sunday. Mason has cemented his first team place. Kane is going from strength to strength, scoring consistently.
We also saw two youngsters on the bench on Sunday, Christian Ceballos and Dominic Ball.

Do u guys think we could soon start with a bunch of young players and build the team together? How about this team?

____________________Lloris(27)_____________________

Walker(24)_____Dier(20)____Vertonghen(27)____Davies(21)

___________Bentaleb(20)_____Mason(23)_____________

Lamela(22)__________Pritchard(21)__________Eriksen(22)

_____________________Kane(21)____________________


6 Brits
4 youth players
5 bought when under 21 years old

Average age: 22.5

That team would fight for every ball, it would be fast strong and attacking. it would be skillful and exciting. and it would be be able to grow together and blend as a proper team.

We could also put out a bench including

Carroll(22), Yedlin (21), Rose (24), Townsend (23), Stambouli (24), Ceballos (21), Ball (19)

I see the future and it's bright. Its lilywhite!

 

[Spurger King]

Unlikely to happen, but I'd love that.

The fans would certainly be behind them, and with four academy players in there we'd actually have some form of identity to the club again. It would be the perfect antidote to our constant conveyor belt of first team players, and would allow them to develop individually and as a team at the same time, which is an ideal scenario in terms of understanding each other.

I'm not underestimating the importance of experience, but a team like that would have the potential to be far better than the sum of its parts if given time.

 

[Spursidol]

Lots of our youngsters are impressing on loan or here at Spurs.
Alex Pritchard is the latest one, having already scored 3 goals and 2 assists for Brentford and proving a key player in the Championship. Bentaleb who impressed last year and at the World Cup is back fit. Walker is coming back in the next few weeks which should allow Dier to play as a CB. Davies had another good game on Sunday. Mason has cemented his first team place. Kane is going from strength to strength, scoring consistently.
We also saw two youngsters on the bench on Sunday, Christian Ceballos and Dominic Ball.

Do u guys think we could soon start with a bunch of young players and build the team together? How about this team?

____________________Lloris(27)_____________________

Walker(24)_____Dier(20)____Vertonghen(27)____Davies(21)

___________Bentaleb(20)_____Mason(23)_____________

Lamela(22)__________Pritchard(21)__________Eriksen(22)

_____________________Kane(21)____________________


6 Brits
4 youth players
5 bought when under 21 years old

Average age: 22.5

That team would fight for every ball, it would be fast strong and attacking. it would be skillful and exciting. and it would be be able to grow together and blend as a proper team.

We could also put out a bench including

Carroll(22), Yedlin (21), Rose (24), Townsend (23), Stambouli (24), Ceballos (21), Ball (19)

I see the future and it's bright. Its lilywhite!

IMO the team you put up needs more experience in it to be successful.

However within say 5 years IMO there are enough good kids coming through the academy for 50%+ of the Spurs first team squad to be composed of Spurs trained youths. But even then I doubt if there will be more than half the team who joined Spurs as youths - simply because there will nit be enough experience in the Spurs trained youngsters.

Real trick for building a side is to mix youth and experience, skill and a bit of steel, some leadership skills etc - so we'll never have a really young side, but we may in 5 - 10 years time have all those attributes in Spurs trained youngsters (maybe captained by a 26 year old Harry Kane),

 

[arunspurs]

Like Real Madrid & Barca - we need to have a high quality 15 to 18 players and make up the rest with academy players.
If you RM, they don't have a bigger squad and yet they compete in all competitions with high quality.

It is impossible to have a similar 18 as RM or Barca. But the model has to be that.

 

[Monkey Bastard Hands]

I was having a chat with a mate of mine this morning about our youth and we both agreed that we need more integration. At the moment there is no-one in the usual starting XI that, for me, has any loyalty or passion for the club. The only one I would previously have thought of was Lennon but recent ITK suggests otherwise. We need some players in the starting lineup who play their hearts out every game, show some passion on the pitch and prove to the fans that they really care about the performances and results, and I think the best way for us to do that is to get some of our academy players involved. Not only will they be playing to impress to keep their place in the team, but the fact that they've been through the ranks at the club will mean they (hopefully) live and breath THFC, which is more than can be said for the majority of the current starting XI.

I agree with @Spursidol though that there needs to be some experience in there, especially in the middle of the park, but otherwise I reckon we should look to get some of our academy players in there ASAP.

 

[philip]

Unlikely to happen, but I'd love that.

The fans would certainly be behind them, and with four academy players in there we'd actually have some form of identity to the club again. It would be the perfect antidote to our constant conveyor belt of first team players, and would allow them to develop individually and as a team at the same time, which is an ideal scenario in terms of understanding each other.

I'm not underestimating the importance of experience, but a team like that would have the potential to be far better than the sum of its parts if given time.

Lloris, Vertonghen and Walker are very very experienced and it's at the back that experience is most needed. Lamela and Eriksson each have a few years first team experience at top European teams.
Maybe until Pritchard returns we can play Capoue instead but by the end of the season the likes of Mason and Kane will have had an entire season as a first team regular

 

[cliff jones]

I think we'd all be understanding of such a line up, give it more leeway to develop, relate to it. But it has to be interspersed with one or two seasoned motivators, a la Scotty. If we could keep Lloris that would certainly help. Morgan would have been great. I like Bentaleb, but like Mason he is actually better going forward, and unlike Mason he doesn't put a foot in. At least not yet.

 

[SandroClegane]

Like Real Madrid & Barca - we need to have a high quality 15 to 18 players and make up the rest with academy players.
If you RM, they don't have a bigger squad and yet they compete in all competitions with high quality.

It is impossible to have a similar 18 as RM or Barca. But the model has to be that.

Most of Barca's players come from their academy. What are you talking about?

 

[arunspurs]

Most of Barca's players come from their academy. What are you talking about?

What am I talking about ?...

To clarify again....Both RM & Barca have just 22 man squad. It is a good mix of local players (mostly academy) with 16 to 18 quality players bought all over the world. Barca has academy products - that's because they are Barca. Its years of hard work of their academy. It wasn't the case 15 years ago.

Spurs also have to follow similar method. Have a top quality 18 and complement them with youth players. The salary given to these 18 can be offset by the other academy prospects. Right now, we are getting that mix right. Only problem is except Lloris & couple of others, rest of this 18 are bang average.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Chadli's only 25.

I'm sorry, but I don't get the Pritchard love-in on this site. Sure, he might be with our squad next season and I'll be happy with that, but people saying he should start are bonkers.

 

[Ironskullll]

Unlikely to happen, but I'd love that.

The fans would certainly be behind them, and with four academy players in there we'd actually have some form of identity to the club again. It would be the perfect antidote to our constant conveyor belt of first team players, and would allow them to develop individually and as a team at the same time, which is an ideal scenario in terms of understanding each other.

I'm not underestimating the importance of experience, but a team like that would have the potential to be far better than the sum of its parts if given time.

Might be the one way to get the crowd back on board even if the penny doesn't drop straight away regarding "the system"...

 

[DEFchenkOE]

A midfield of Mason and Bentaleb is too soft for me, but put a dm in there alongside them and we could be onto something. Current options would be Capoue, Stambouli and Veljkovic but there are doubts over all 3 currently.

 

[Sevens]

Most of Barca's players come from their academy. What are you talking about?

Actually just less than half of their first team squad is from homegrown players. And the % drops even further when their first team is analysed.

 

[Borks]

Davies had another good game on Sunday?

Am I missing something with this Davies love-in? He's had possibly 2 ok/good performances this season and been pretty poor in the rest yet it comes across as if people are genuinely confused as to why he's not starting every match.

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

Chadli's only 25.

I'm sorry, but I don't get the Pritchard love-in on this site. Sure, he might be with our squad next season and I'll be happy with that, but people saying he should start are bonkers.

I think he talent on the ball and he's quite tenacious, performing very well in patches for Brentford. But I really can't see that he'd come in and make a difference at the moment for a team aiming at the top 6 in the Prem. Not sure where the Love in has come from either, saying that though- I'd still like him to be an option in our squad rather than spunking some money on a back up player.

 

[JimmyG2]

Davies had another good game on Sunday?

Am I missing something with this Davies love-in? He's had possibly 2 ok/good performances this season and been pretty poor in the rest yet it comes across as if people are genuinely confused as to why he's not starting every match.

I think that so many people are desperate to see the back of Rose
that they hopefully talk up the average performances of Davies
who hasn't really lived up to expectations except for Sunday when he was better
Rose played well for the first few games before he was injured
MOM at least once.
Davies is far too negative for me.

 

[nedley]

Chadli's only 25.

I'm sorry, but I don't get the Pritchard love-in on this site. Sure, he might be with our squad next season and I'll be happy with that, but people saying he should start are bonkers.

People said the same about Mason....including myself.

To an extent, he's proved me wrong.

Mason has stood up when others like Dembele and Capoue have shat themselves.

I agree it would be sink or swim, but the kid has huge ability and young players tend to play without fear.

This is going to be a transitional season (again), and I don't even want to hear the words 'top 4'. Lets keep giving some young players some game time and try and win a trophy and instil some winning mentality.

 

[Monkey boy]

Would someone please think of the transfer committee!!!

 

[arunspurs]

A midfield of Mason and Bentaleb is too soft for me, but put a dm in there alongside them and we could be onto something. Current options would be Capoue, Stambouli and Veljkovic but there are doubts over all 3 currently.

And that is why it is not a bad reason to play Mason-Bentaleb.
Our current options are bad.

 

[Mullers]

You can't win anything with kids but you can't win anything with a bunch of overpaid, good for nothing numptys either.
At least the kids will put a proper shift in even if they aren't top quality.