Chelsea are closing in on our former academy player, Noni Madueke for about £35m. Lad's an absolute baller, left us because he couldn't see a path to the first team under Pochettino and I think we're gonna severely regret not doing more to keep him, both from a financial perspective and from a talent one. Marcus Edwards at Sporting will probably leave this window or in the summer too for probably a higher fee, we've made some disastrous decisions with academy players. About £70m-£80m of talent let go for less than a milly.
He left Spurs nearly five years ago, the lad has gone on to do well in Holland and did the right thing by going abroad. I don’t see this as a major failure by Spurs, they offered a deal (so did Man Utd) but he saw the chance of first team football more likely in a lesser league. Same goes for Marcus Edwards, at the time where would they have fit in the side?
By being given chances, same as any young player at any club. That or having a good development plan for loans to then come back and challenge for a spot or attract interest so that we sell them for £30m+, not other clubs.
The club offered him a new deal but he chose to go abroad like others have done, it’s paid off and he’s got a big money move to one of the big clubs. Fair play to the boy, took a risk and it worked. Now he’s gotta step up and show he’s good enough to do it in a top league. Short of throwing him in at the age of 17 and promising him regular first team football (nobody in the PL) would have done that, I don’t see how the club could have done more.
He rejected us our offer because he saw no route to the first team, that shows poor club management by us that elite talents don’t want to be here because they see no future. There are players at bigger and better clubs than us both in England and abroad who provide chances or good loans to their players so there’s little reason why we shouldn’t or can’t. Madueke and Edwards is about £80m of potential revenue or first team players.
please log in to view this image Gillingham FC @TheGillsFC · 5m Q: What can we expect to see from the two lads that have signed today? A (AH): Clarke I have seen over the last few months and he is somebody that excited me. He was at Tottenham from seven to 14, ended up being a scaffolder. He has quite a story! https://www.gillinghamfootballclub.com/news/2023/january/gills-sign-jayden-clarke/
Poch was manager then so I disagree about the chance of breaking through. He also rejected Man Utd so it wasn’t just Spurs. Doing it in Holland is not the same as doing it in the PL. Edwards and Madueke have both gone abroad and done well for themselves but I don’t see how the club are at fault when the players wanted first team football and realistically didn’t deserve it at the time.
He's a player I massively rate. When we were bought out in '21 we had a thread about "which 10 players do you think we'll try and buy" and he was on my list (as were Botman and Trippier by the way!). I catch some Dutch games (not that many but enough to have seen him a few times) and he does genuinely look like he could be a very good player and suited to the Premiership. Add in that he's homegrown in England for the purposes of European football and it seems likely to be a good buy. Not sure how Chelsea can pay all these players though! Attacking midfielders/ wingers/strikers (so 3 or 4 positions): Joao Felix Mount Pulisic Havertz Loftus-Cheek Sterling Ziyech Broja Aubameyang Mudryk Madueke and that's not including the youngsters or a couple of others they're apparently trying to buy.
Poch didn’t bring anyone through after Winks. KWP and Skipp were rotting in the stands most weeks. There was a big myth Poch was always bringing through youth but he stopped after 2 years. They could’ve gone abroad of elsewhere on loans, done well, came back here to play or be sold for a profit, that’s what we used to do and we profited from it nicely. Pointless having an academy these days if our best talents see no future for themselves and leave for peanuts.
Yeah he’s a baller, though has had a few injuries so hopefully that remains the case at Chelsea, lol. Felix is back to Atleti in the summer, Auba, Loftus-Cheek, Broja, Pulisic and Ziyech don’t get much game time or don’t start much as it is so I reckon a few of those will go this window and in the summer if there’s any takers. If Chelsea were ever willing to do business with us I’d take Ziyech, think he’s a great technical player, not quite sure why he’s never been a regular there.
