Spurs Youth Thread 20/21

[taidgh]

Could be 8 or 9. Been played off the park.

 

[mancman]

Congratulations to Wolves they thoroughly deserved the win. Spurs were frankly very disappointing. I could say Wolves had 8 second year starters to our 2 (Sayers & Devine) as an excuse but really too many players were very poor. Alfie Devine as captain and big name player was for his status, ineffectual. Sayers and Dorrington (stars of the future I think not. ) lacked authority and quality. Donley has recently been upgraded to pro status and on that performance I would ask why. Bryan-Waugh was awful. I looked at the Wolves side and thought 2 or 3 look first team potential but the Spurs team had none in that category. Given that Devine, Kyerematen, Donley, Gunter, Dorrington and Bloxham are England Youth internationals (Wolves had none!) you would expect a lot more. Perhaps it was just a bad day at the office.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

skipp was given the chance to prove it elsewhere, i doubt he'd be in the position he is now without those 50 games for norwich.

Going on loan is being given a chance. He took it. Edwards didn’t.

 

[Romulus]

that was a terrible display from them.

doesn't look like any of them are coming through any time soon.

Willhoft-King looked half decent it thought, I thinks U16

 

[IGSpur]

Just realised i've mistaken McKnight for Linton. Linton's the left back, McKnight is the right back. BBW has an excuse for getting roasted today, McKnight has been poor while playing in his best position.

I'm sure Mcknight has played quite a bit at LB. Walters used to play RB if I remember correctly and sometimes Watt and so Mcknight would go LB. Think he's played both

 

[Locotoro]

I think taking it back to the idea of integrating at least one player in the first team squad every season for the last 5 seasons would have seen us integrate some of those we sold including Bentaleb, Pritchard, KWP, Edwards, Onomah, Bennet's and Markenday.
That would have filled in several gaps and saved us millions in flop signings

Edit: I also suspect it would have encouraged the likes of Madueke and the one that went to Lyon to stay and try to push for first team.

 

[Delboy75]

It kind of surprises me we haven’t produced more local young black players. Tottenham and Haringey obviously has a high proportion of young black kids. And I think it’s quite clear now that if if you look at youth talent, the percentage that are black kids compared to the proportion of society is very high. I might be wrong but I think even players like Ledley and Tanganga are more east London. I think KWP might be the most local. You’d kind of think Haringey might be a bit of a hotbed like Croydon seems to be.

 

[sammyj]

And it seems more African then West Indian

 

[Delboy75]

And it seems more African then West Indian

I’m not really sure what the percentage breakdown in the community is. But you definitely hear about a lot more young players having dual nationality option fro African teams as opposed to say Jamaica. I know they’ve just set up these five side pitches on south podium. But maybe they could have actually incorporated something into the stadium build. Like had a soccer school for local kids.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

that was a terrible display from them.

doesn't look like any of them are coming through any time soon.

Willhoft-King looked half decent it thought, I thinks U16

I must agree about Wilhoft-King. I wasn’t sure who the number 4 was but worked out it must have been him. Seemed very calm and assured on the ball. Surprised he is an under 16.
At the start of the season youth watchers on here said this was a very good group as quite a few England youth internationals. I believe there were none in the Wolves line up.
It may be that some of ours will blossom next season when they will be second years playing similar age groups.
It seems a bit much to parachute Devine into the youth cup team. You can’t expect him to suddenly work miracles.

 

[Delboy75]

I wonder if Lewis will keep the U18 gig it’s been a very disappointing season considering the supposed talent we have.

 

[IGSpur]

It kind of surprises me we haven’t produced more local young black players. Tottenham and Haringey obviously has a high proportion of young black kids. And I think it’s quite clear now that if if you look at youth talent, the percentage that are black kids compared to the proportion of society is very high. I might be wrong but I think even players like Ledley and Tanganga are more east London. I think KWP might be the most local. You’d kind of think Haringey might be a bit of a hotbed like Croydon seems to be.

Depends what you mean by produce? If you're talking about the ability we certainly have, if you're talking about who eventually comes through and gets chances, then ye it becomes more difficult. Assuming we include mixed race as they're poltically black, the white/black combo obviously then we have produced a lot of talented players. And a lot are from the local area. Three of the most talented players we've produced are black from the local area Edwards (Enfield), Onomah (Enfield), KWP (Edmonton). Tanganga I think is from Stoke Newington/Stamford Hill, so whether you consider that as East London, being LB Hackney, or North London being N16 is a point of debate possibly.

If we measure 'talent' by England youth appearances as your not making those teams squads unless they rate you as the production of talent from England at these points was incredibly high compared to the rest of the world. I get some got in on form and some squads were weaker, some featured briefly and not again but it's just easier to measure like that. I also tried to only include appearances from my memory u16 up. You guys will all roughly know who's who.

Ill go back to the 96s as that's when we started really producing and having fairly regular England call ups. Only Kane and Pritchard featured for the 93s and Prithcard joined that age group late
96s - Ogilvie, Oduwa, KLF, Miller and Winks. (3w/2b)
97s - Onomah, KWP, Amos, Maghoma; CCV was playing first team for USMNT at 18 (3w/7b)
98s - Whiteman, Sterling, Edwards (4w/9b)
99s - Brown, Shashoua, Tanganga, Bennetts, Dinzeyi (4w/11b)
00s - Kirby, Skipp, BLF, Eyoma, TOB, Griffiths, Hinds (4w/13b)
01s - Maghoma, White, Binks (6w/14b)
02s - Madueke, Cirkin, Walcott (7w/ 16b)
03s - Lusala, Oluwayemi, Watts (7w/19b)
04s - Scarlett, BBW, Hackett, Forson (7w/23b)
05s - Gunter, Dorrington, Donley, Bloxham (10w/23b)

So we are a hotbed just like any other London club, we just haven't brought any through for whatever reason.

 

[Romulus]

It kind of surprises me we haven’t produced more local young black players. Tottenham and Haringey obviously has a high proportion of young black kids. And I think it’s quite clear now that if if you look at youth talent, the percentage that are black kids compared to the proportion of society is very high. I might be wrong but I think even players like Ledley and Tanganga are more east London. I think KWP might be the most local. You’d kind of think Haringey might be a bit of a hotbed like Croydon seems to be.

yeah, im from Croydon. Tons and tons of talent here and have been for a while.

 

[Delboy75]

IG just out of curiosity have we had a black or mixed race player actually born in Haringey play for 1st Xi this century ?

 

[IGSpur]

And it seems more African then West Indian

I've noticed that too. I wonder why. Maybe numbers related? I think there is still more immigration from African countries than West Indian could be a reason. Culturally, I imagine they like football as much, and while West Indian interest is split with cricket, that hasn't translated to 1st, 2nd, 3rd gen West Indians here who still very much prefer football.

I’m not really sure what the percentage breakdown in the community is. But you definitely hear about a lot more young players having dual nationality option fro African teams as opposed to say Jamaica. I know they’ve just set up these five side pitches on south podium. But maybe they could have actually incorporated something into the stadium build. Like had a soccer school for local kids.

Re: Dual nationality. I think you hear about it more because the CAF is bigger than the Carribean football community.

While representing your parents' country is great and you'll feel pride, the pull of playing in the Afcon is probably so much bigger than the Gold Cup which a lot of the islands struggle to qualify for anyway. So if your talented and West Indian you'll probably wait around longer in the hope of an England call up rather than tie yourself to your West Indian nation, whereas with the African players that temptation is always there

 

[IGSpur]

IG just out of curiosity have we had a black or mixed race player actually born in Haringey play for 1st Xi this century ?

By born I assume you mean lived in the area when they were born and not actual hospital. The only one I can think of is Whiteman and I can't even remember if he's actually featured for us

 

[Delboy75]

I’d guess as well that majority of Caribbean immigrants came here earlier so some of academy players may actually have grandparents born in the UK. Where as some of the African players have much more recent links.

 

[IGSpur]

I’d guess as well that majority of Caribbean immigrants came here earlier so some of academy players may actually have grandparents born in the UK. Where as some of the African players have much more recent links.

In terms of feeling a desire to play for them? Ye that could also be a reason. But I think the appeal is a bigger thing. Look at KWP and Demarai Gray compared to Aina and Iwobi for example. Similar level of players, but Aina and Iwobi went straight to Nigeria, because why wait around with so many people in front of you when you have the chance of playing at the AFCON. They will go every 2 years and have a lot of focus, and also could qualify for the World Cup.

You think Gray, and KWP even moreso, are going to risk playing for Jamaica and Antigua respectively. Other than a nie holiday (and of course making their parents proud) what are they gaining by playing for them yet. They'd probably wait it out until they're 30.

I think the new change of rules is interesting though. Lookman has switched over and I wonder if any of the West Indian countries may benefit as a result, from the talented ones who got in early and never played again so probably won't hang around waiting.

 

[alexis]

yeah, im from Croydon. Tons and tons of talent here and have been for a while.

Agreed pLayed a lot there and many good footballers

 

[Romulus]

Agreed pLayed a lot there and many good footballers

even within 5 mins of me in north croydon the likes of Zaha, Emile smith-rowe, Routledge, Reo-Coker, Victor Moses etc off the top of my head.