Academy watch (2014-15)

A place for all things U18, U21, Spurs XI etc.

 

Highlights of U21s : Spurs vs West Ham

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/spu...er-league/barclays-u21-pl--spurs-2-1-west-ham

 

Which players are the slow burners, ones we should keep an eye out for but aren't necessarily viewed as being stars of our academy as often the players that stand out too early don't develop to the level expected.

 

Son of a Pulis : one person here is best placed to answer all of your questions.

That aside, I would suggest Veljkovic should be getting his opportunity to step up.
And Ceballos probably has his final season to show he can become a squad member.

 

I'll just copy what I put in the Spammers thread...

A slightly more detailed version of our U21s knocking off the Spammers: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u21-west-ham-preview-180814/

Voss; Fredericks, Ball, Veljkovic (C), McQueen; Carroll, Winks; Sonupe (Oduwa, 46), Onomah (Lesniak, 69), Ceballos (Miller, 75); Akindayini
Unused subs: Glover (GK), Coulibaly
Goals: Akindayini (Onomah assist), Ceballos (Veljkovic assist)

I'm starting to get the feeling that Coulibaly will soon be spoken of in the same breath as Jonathan Blondel, Dorian Dervitte, Thomas Pekhart, Rodrigo Defendi, Emil Hallfredsson or Yuri Berchiche - players that arrived at Spurs, but nobody seemed to notice.

 

Carroll IMHO is in real danger of being out the door, mainly because of the surplus of MF.
The club could do with trying to get him a loan to a PL club.

 

Two lovely passes and excellent finishes for our goals, whereas theirs was a misdirected cross!
Very composed lifts when the keeper committed himself, which is nice to see, as youngsters are rarely clear headed enough to do things like that in a proper game.

Akindayini looks physically prepared for the Premier League, but I always worry when I see youth players with that kind of physique, as it's advantages often propel their careers forward, rather than skill.
The English game suffers from picking up too many kids that dominate their age levels by being better developed and when that advantage wanes, then the teams suffer as a result.

 

Good first touch by Cellabos for the goal,could easily come off his foot straight to the keeper

 

"Akindayini looks physically prepared for the Premier League, but I always worry when I see youth players with that kind of physique,
as it's advantages often propel their careers forward, rather than skill.

The English game suffers from picking up too many kids that dominate their age levels by being better developed and when that
advantage wanes, then the teams suffer as a result."

One of the things I have enjoyed in recent times (after adjusting for the culture shock) is seeing literal
Academy "tiny tots" (Carroll, Pritchard, Munns etc) playing the game, and being to judge solely on
their ball-playing rather than they can also go thru a player in the tackle or withstand barging etc.

On the physique side, Obika and Kane probably epitomise this.
Obika is far more stocky than Kane, and faster. But Kane has more nous and IMHO is
more clinical on goal. Yet Kane has broken thru to the seniors while Obika has not.

 

I agree, RDBD. Kane's got more to his game.
Obika seems to have suffered from Bobby Zamora Syndrome, where he was very good at one level and played primarily as a goalscorer.
Stepping up to the seniors on loan he found that he couldn't find the net anywhere near as easily, so he's had to develop his game in a different direction.
Hasn't worked out for him yet, though I think he'll find some success when he leaves and joins someone who'll commit to pushing him on.

 

Harry Winks and Will Miller are two decent prospects, probably not considered our best but certainly ones to watch I'd say.

Onomah, in my opinion, is head and shoulders above anyone and possibly the brightest prospect to come through our academy in recent years and believe he can become a key player for us in years to come.

Akindayini is our top striker at the moment though Nathan Oduwa isn't a bad prospect either, Oduwa was also the one that scored the cheeky flick over Robinson in the Ledley XI match.

Ceballos seems to be in the mould of a David Silva type, not that I'm suggesting he'll be anywhere near that calibre but I think he's worth keeping an eye on.

 

Highlights of the 1-1 draw between Spurs and Southampton's U18 sides, courtesy of the Saint's Youtube channel:

[video=youtube;HllGFHa6Se8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HllGFHa6Se8[/video]

Looks like both sides like to play a bit. They did both feature a kid called Armani, though.
As unfinished as it may be, their training ground looks pretty decent. Should do, I guess, as they spent nearly as much as we did on ours.
Nice to see clubs investing in that sort of thing. A bit of sustainability, rather than chucking all of the TV money at agents.

 

Saints have been the yardstick of youth development in this country. Getting a draw against them is a positive result based purely on that.

 

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u18-west-ham-away-report-300814/

There goes the sextuple / (potential) septuple.

 

The U18s are currently playing in something called the "Champions Cup" .
Games of 2x30 mins. And Spurs have demolished Everton 5-1.

Next up is ... Get Real Madrid.
Expect a similar trouncing followed by a 50m bid from Perez for one of our kids.

 

And because of our special link with them,they will get him

 

@SpursOfficial
U18s: GOAL! Harrison heads home following a free-kick! We lead @realmadrid 1-0. 46mins gone

@SpursOfficial
U18s: Both sides down to 10 men as @realmadrid full-back Bas and our forward Harrison collect second yellow cards. 1-0, 58mins

It seems they have found their replacement for Ramos.

 

@SpursOfficial
U18s: @realmadrid make it 1-1 in stoppage time through Dorado.

Perez must have read the comment asking whether if the boys win we
get Bale and Modric back.

 

The result was enough to win the group. The U18s now go on to face Benfica in the final.

 

U18's lead 10 man Benfica 1-0 with only a few minutes left!....