Beating Benfica in the final, finishing ahead of Real and winning something called the U-21 Champion's Cup sound very impressive. And it's more reason to think we know what we're doing.
Our U21 fixture against Norwich on October 14th has been picked up by BT Sport and will now be shown live. It's a 7.45pm kick-off and it's being played at Carrow Road.
Good to see our U-21s and U-21s in general are getting exposure. Just realised they're also playing Soton on Friday at the Lane, may head to that. Would like to see the likes of Onomah, Akindayini, Oduwa, Winks and co in action. It's been a while since I've seen our young lads, must make the effort to support the future Spurs legends
Our U21s have beaten Southampton's much vaunted academy 3-2. Mason, Sunope and Akindayini on the board for us.
"then lose to the Chav's 4-2,wanted the win to shut my chav supporting nephew up" Their academy does not seem to regularly beat ours, so let them enjoy it.
It's amazing that anyone would want to sign up to the Chelsea academy given their youth policy was as bad in the Bates era as it is in the Abramovich era, to the point the last player to cement a place in their first team graduated from their academy in 1998. What goes through the heads of these players, knowing that it doesn't matter what they do in the academy, they know that whoever's in charge that month will just chuck £20m+ at a new signing, coupled with the way they hoover up prospects to stop other clubs having them?
Good result, but our "much vaunted academy" is a production line for other teams, not an end in itself. I expect under 21s such as Shaw(19), Chambers(19), Ward-Prowse(20), Targett(19), Reed(19), Gallagher(19) and McQueen(19) were otherwise engaged at Man Utd, Arsenal and Saints first team squads.
Sunope (18) , Akindayini (18), Winks(18) Veljkovic (18 at the game now 19), Oduwa (18) These are just some of the players in our U21 team
Good point. Our academy teams only exist to win trophies, once they hit 22 we disgard them. Well apart from Townsend, Kane, Bentaleb, Rose, Mason and Veljkovic who have already been involved in the first team and will get more chances to as the season goes on.
You missed out Josh Onomah - one of our brightest prospects I believe - there Blue and White, who is only 17 and seems to be getting plenty of games at U21 level. Not to mention that we have also sold/loaned out academy products this season who have been important in our U21 team's progress over the last few years, just like Saints. Not as high profile, but key players to our team nonetheless. And the likes of Kane and Bentaleb have moved up to the first team, as Mason appears to have done too now. Thats kind of what happens to Academy products over time at any club - they get sold/loaned or moved into the senior side. Just because not everyone bloods their youngsters at a young age and then sees them snapped up by wealthier clubs, doesn't mean that the key members of successful Academies like Saints (and like Spurs, at least in the sense that our U21 side is normally a good performer. Our problem is moving players into our own first team) don't move on, and the squad has to be regenerated.
That was my point- the heart of the U-21 team at Saints have already moved on to become first team regulars at 18 or 19. The U-21 team are either 17 or 18, like Josh Sims (England Under 17)
That our average starting age against you was about 18.5 years old despite the presence of the 23 year old Mason (who was returning from injury, hence why he played in that game), and that he was the only player who started for us over the age of 19 should tell us that our U21 teams are roughly in the same place age-wise. The big difference in the quality of our respective academies appears to be that Saints appear to know how to handle players within the club once they turn 18, whereas we have a shadier track record on that front, possibly out of both poor management of the players (although Spurcat may well refute that point and I'd be glad to hear him do so, but its the impression I sometimes get) and because we buy a lot more players at a higher level (on paper anyway!) than you, so first team opportunities are more limited at Spurs than Southampton for academy players. Loans work for some players - they improved Townsend greatly - but some players like Bentaleb don't need them. It should be pointed out that in the last few years we have phased Caulker, Livermore, Bentaleb, Townsend, Kane and now Mason into the first team and that all of them are now PL regulars at their new clubs or at Spurs, not to mention that we have plenty more who have gone on to make careers at clubs lower down the pyramid, as I'm sure Southampton do too. So really our record isn't too bad in that sense, although at Southampton you seem to manage it a few years earlier than us and with higher regularity, and that high profile players like Bale, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Chambers have probably contributed too to the reputation of the academy at Saints. Back to the original point I was trying to make...all academies are production lines, having a good U21 team is a good thing but they exist solely to make the first team better or to make money. I think we agree on this really, and luckily for us both our academies are doing a good job of this right now
