Caulker will be included next season (Bassong and probably Nelsen are being shipped out, freeing up a berth in the squad) and I can see Naughton and Townsend claiming squad places next year, while Carroll will probably be loaned to a Premier League team to gain experience and develop without us carrying the risk. Whilst the Europa league campaign was ruined by so many players expected to play being ruled out through injury (Kranjcar, Sandro, Corluka, Gallas and Pienaar were all expected to play key roles in the group stages) it did aid Livermore's development, whilst Carroll came from nowhere to become a potential squad member down the line. If Carroll isn;t loaned out early to (for the sake of argument) Fulham, he'll feature in low-risk carling Cup games, as could Massimo Luongo. Spurs have always been one end of the pendulum of the other when it comes to giving youngsters a chance. We're either reluctant to give any of them a chance and watch them drop through the divisions (such as Lee Barnard or Mark Yeates) or they're clearly good enough but leave due to the lack of opportunities (such as Nick Barmby, Luke Young and Stephen Kelly), on the other we throw them in at the deep end and see how thing work out (Dean Marney, Johnnie Jackson, the Europa squad) - and occasionally we pay attention long enough to realise we have a Ledley King or a Steve Carr.
The Europa League squad would probably have benefited massively if we'd have just shipped out most of our squad players and played more youth, bizarrely. If we'd have let the disinterested and the broken leave in the summer and kept the likes of Caulker, Naughton, Townsend, Smith, et al, then at least we'd have had some defenders. Ending up with young wingers playing at full-back and forwards that looked like they'd pay to not be there really didn't help.
