A few interesting comments from Massimo Luongo about his decision to leave - and the main reason for it... It's been over two years since you left Tottenham for good. How gutted are you that it didn't work out there? A little bit. It was the choice of managers at the time which didn't suit me. I think for a lot of players now, it didn't suit them when Harry [Redknapp] was in charge, but for me I got a lot of exposure to the first team and my debut from it. Had things been different, who knows what it could have turned out to be? AVB came in and that was probably when I made my decision to leave permanently rather than on loan because it pushed me further and further away from the first team. Did you not think you were going to get a chance under Villas-Boas, then? Exactly. I came back from loan and felt forgotten about. And from that, I made my decision about Tottenham. Did you have conversations with him about that? No, that is as far as it went. My conversations were with Tim Sherwood and Chris Ramsey while I was still part of the reserve team. Then unfortunately Tim took over and you're kicking yourself because you think you might have been given a chance, but I don't think I would have been. Is it frustrating seeing Harry Kane, Nabil Bentaleb, Ryan Mason and Alex Pritchard mixing with the first team; players who you would have played with? Yes and no. No being I have done pretty well myself so far and I am learning football a little bit differently. I have always gone the longer route which I hope works out for me.
The U18s beat the bottom side in the group yesterday. They recorded a 3-1 victory over winless Swansea at the training ground. Early goals from Charlie Owens and Samuel Shashoua put them in charge, before an Aaron Lewis shot pulled the visitors back into it. Aramide Oteh reestablished the two goal cushion just before half-time and that's how things ended, following a goalless second half. Spurs U18s: Austin, Muscatt (Paul 54), Brown, Marsh, Dinzeyi, Tanganga (Tsaroulla 45), Duncan, Owens, Oteh (Loft 60), Stylianides, Shashoua. Substitutes (not used): Bennetts, Freeman (GK). SWANS U18s: Lewis Thomas (capt), Aaron Lewis, Mael Davies, Jack Evans, Conor Quigley, Brandon Cooper, Liam Edwards (Causso Darame, 52), Tom Dyson (Liam Cullen, 68), Jack Watts, Jordan Jones, Keiran Evans (Marco Dulca, 75). SUBS NOT USED: Alex Lang, Ben Jones. Match reports: Spurs: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u18-swansea-home-report-171015/ Swans: http://www.swanseacity.net/news/art...s-tottenham-premier-league-south-2747920.aspx
Highlights of Marcus Edwards' performance in England U17s 1-1 draw with Guinea at that level's World Cup in Chile: He was withdrawn after 88 minutes. Our young keeper Alfie Whiteman played the full game in goal and Kazaiah Sterling came on for the last five minutes or so.
Not really an Academy Watch but not sure where else to put it. What happened to Zeki Fryers? Looked handy (though no more than that) when playing CB Was just wondering after all the trouble we went through getting him...
Sold to Palace for an undisclosed fee. Loaned to Rotherham for a month last season and Ipswich for the whole of this one.
Our U21s drew 1-1 with the KLOPP KLOPP LIVERPOOL KLOPP ANFIELD KLOPP LIVERPOOL KOP KLOPP LIVERPOOL KLOPP LIVERPOOL KLOPP U21s this evening, with Cameron Walkes opening the scoring Glover, Walker-Peters, Amos, Lesniak, Veljkovic (c), Carter-Vickers, Bennetts (Loft 83), Stylianides (Goddard 73), Harrison, Walkes, Georgiou Substitutes (not used): Maghoma, Duncan, Voss (GK) That's another U21 game where Veljkovic has captained the side and played the full 90 minutes. So much for the theories doing the rounds a month or so ago that he'd been stripped of the captaincy and was being frozen out, eh?
Highlights of the U21s draw with Liverpool for members only, unfortunately: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u21-liverpool-home-highlights-261015/ Edit: Warning: Dubious, nasally Scouse commentary.
The U18s went down to a solitary late goal against their Leicester counterparts at the training centre on Saturday. Their first team are known for effective counters and that's how their kids won this one, breaking away in the 89th minute to nick it at the death. Team: Voss, Paul, Brown, Marsh, Tanganga (Stylianides 76), Maghoma, Tsaroulla (Oteh 70), Owens, Loft, Duncan (Roles 66), Shashoua. Substitutes (not used): Bennetts, McDermott (GK). Report: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u18-leicester-home-report-241015/
Cameron Carter-Vickers has signed a new contract with the club. It'll run until 2018, so there's plenty of room for an extension there.
Great news about Carter-Vickers, most of us have said about him being the real stand out of our youngest crop of professionals and so seeing him tied down to a long contract is great for the club. Like to think we can expect big things from him in the future.
A home game for me tonight, watching our under 21 side stuff Chelsea 3-1 at Aldershot, with Shayon Harrison getting two and Veljkovic the other. A million scouts at the game, and with some of our players having doubts about their future, it's clear who is under scrutiny. Harrison's brace this evening means he has scored 11 goals in 7 appearances at all levels against Chelsea. Well done young man.
Oduwa appeared as a sub, helping rangers to their first league defeat of the season against title rivals Hibernian.
Dominic Ball player the full 90 minutes. Dammit, I was hoping we could've blamed the loss on him being dropped in favour of Liverpool failure Danny Wilson...
One sad piece of news from that U21s game that I haven't seen mentioned on here. Zenon Stylianides, who got an assist and played most of the game, lost his sister to cancer during the match. She was only 17, the same age as him. Unbelievably professional. I don't think that many people could've done that. I hope that his dedication takes him on in the game and wish him and his family the best at what must be a terrible time for them.
