Who's Next?

In the last 18 months or so we've seen Bentaleb, Kane, Mason, Dier and Alli emerge from being peripheral figures and/or talented youngsters to become reliable members of the first team and regular starters so who's next?

Onomah and Winks seem to be regulars on the bench and have made a few appearances here and there for us, as did Pritchard before his injury. Oduwa's pulling up trees in Scotland and Yedlin's getting some good experience with Sunderland. Or will it be a centreback next, given that Dier had moved into midfield and Fazio has been all over the place for us? Wimmer, Carter-Vickers aand Veljkovic certainly seem like options that are worth discussing as the next go to player if the Toby-Jan partnership gets broken.

Place your bets.

 

My money's on Pritchard next . To my mind our left side is not our strongest. Son's great but he needs a back-up and I'm not a great admirer of Chadli's effort levels. Danny Rose gets a lot of stick but he has often been left to stop 2 opposition players on his own. I'm hopeful Pritchard will get some game time after Christmas and there's no doubt the talent''s there. Next is Carter-Vickers. He looks such a talent and has real personal leadership qualities from what I see. I think he could be a fixture in our side for years to come. It's a pleasure to have so many options to consider.

 

Show of hands, who else saw the thread title and thought it would be about the next PL manager to get the boot?

Back on subject, in the summer I would've said Pritchard and Veljkovic would've been next to step up, in that order - but then Pritch got put on the shelf until January while Vejlkovic...let's just say there's so many versions of events regarding his status doing the rounds online that it's starting to resemble the last episode of Life Is Strange. I would've said Azzaoui had a shout too...but he joined Wolfsburg in the summer.

Of the reserves, Wimmer will certainly get more chances during the Europa League and the busy Christmas period, and he's been quietly impressive so far (as opposed to Fazio, who's been loudly shambolic) while Pritchard will surely get his chance when he's back in contention - while of the youngsters, Oduwa and CCV are at the head of the queue, while we may have our hand forced to give Marcus Edwards his chance as Barca are supposedly sniffing around him.

 

Onomah's featured in recent squads, but I think that he might struggle to get time if we get most of our options fit.
As Brian points out, Pritchard's probably the most likely, as there's a place in there that's up for grabs.
I think he'd suit the Pochettino blueprint too, as he's versatile, works hard and isn't afraid to get stuck in.
Might fight for the right to take set-pieces against Eriksen, though. Hope he's better on corners, as I can't remember if he's any good at them.

Assuming that Fazio's on the way out the door, I can see Levy trying to save a few quid by pushing for Veljkovic or Carter-Vickers to replace him.
They both look to be good prospects, so it might not be a bad idea, especially as we've also got Dier available.

Edwards really does look like he'll be pushing for a place sooner rather than later, which is quite something for someone of his age.
He'll be on his way back from South America now too, as the U17 team failed to progress.
Sterling's another one in the squad who looks like he's got a bright future.

 

Who wants to be the brave soul that tackles The Tom Carroll Question?

 

He reminds me of Nigel Clough an intelligent footballer with good ideas and some skill and almost, ALMOST at the top level. Sadly I think he will just fall short and never quite be as good as we all think he should be.

 

I'm not sure who will come through next...but I absolutely love seeing what is happening at Spurs with the youngsters coming through. Spurs means something to these kids.

 

Pritchard. Unfortunate that injury has denied him his time (for now) .

But WTF is happening with Veljkovic ?? Loan him out, or start using him.

 

Veljkovic is a fine example of people putting two and two together because the club lacks transparency at the Academy level.

Back in June, while he was at the U20 World Cup, the retain/release list stated that his contract had been extended
In early August, he was set to be loaned to Leeds - but the club pulled the plug as there was no guarantee of him being a first team player
In late August he was linked with a loan to Sporting Gijon and the loan was even announced - but for unknown reasons he didn't move

The issue is that, beyond that, there's a ton of speculation. For example, there have been people speculating that he didn't sign a new contract, even though according to the Premier League he had. Then there was talk a month ago that he's fallen out with Poch and/or he was being punished for not moving to Gijon by being stripped of the U21 captaincy and being frozen out in view to a January move - an assertion based on how he wasn't captain and was subbed against Reading while he only got a 20 minute cameo against Leicester, yet he captained our U21s and played the full 90 minutes in the games against Norwich and Liverpool in the past couple of weeks.

Similar can be said for Filip Lesniak, who failed to agree a new contract in the summer yet he's been a regular in our U21s so far this season. Has he agreed a deal, or is he still on a month-to-month contract? Some clarification from the club would be appreciated!

 

Pritchard would surely be making waves right now were he not injured, he'd have had prime chances with Son, Chadli and Eriksen all injured at various points so far this season. I feel he might get yet another loan in the business end of the season once he's fixed himself up to get him the game time to get up to speed (depending of course on our other injuries and any incomings in January, and where we are in various competitions) and that we'll see him properly next season. Really bad time for an injury for him as he'd had a couple of cracking loan spells and was impressing for England U21s when he got crocked. Hope it doesn't too badly affect a player who should be one of our brightest prospects.

Aside from him I agree with others, it is probably going to be one of the CBs as I hope Fazio never wears the shirt again and Dier seems to be a midfielder. CCV and Veljkovic seem well regarded and I know less about Maghoma but he seems a reasonable prospect too.

If we can somehow wrap up qualification from the EL group (or indeed bomb out of it) then I wouldn't be surprised to see CCV or Veljkovic get game time there, or in an early FA Cup game if the right draw happens.

 

Yep. I did.

 

I really hope we can make that assumption.

Agree about Pritchard though - apart from a striker it's AM where I think we really need some better options and Pritchard looks like he should fit the bill perfectly.

 

With Pritchard (first team member according to Poch at start of season), Onomah & Winks (on the fringes), Oduwa (tearing up Scotland) and Yedlin getting Prem experience, the one we have to really watch out for is Carter-Vickers in my eyes. Fazio looks dead and buried, especially after his poor showing in the Capital One Cup and with Dier's move and success at DM/CM, it leaves us with currently 3 CB's who I think Poch can trust - Jan, Toby and Kevin. With Qarabag away coming up in a month that we play Arsenal, West Ham and Chelsea, I'd be very surprised if Poch goes out there with a first team and so Cameron could get his chance there alongside Wimmer. Whenever I've seen the kid play he looks phenomenal and gives me hope we may have another top class CB in the making after Judas and Ledley.

Walker-Peters has also looked very good but with two established Premier League full backs ahead of him, it'll be hard to find him minutes this season I feel so a loan could be a good option.

For what it's worth I also feel sorry for Veljkovic, he looks like a real player in the making but with so many young players and established stars around at the moment, it's looking likely that we just can't seem to fit him in anywhere right now, I wouldn't be against playing him and Carter-Vickers against Qarabag but I think Poch will play Wimmer in one of the spots.

 

Agree with all that. We will need more than Wimmer and Carter Vickers out there, as I wouldn't even take Toby/Jan on the trip and you need people for the bench. Veljkovic can be involved that way. It is the travelling, not the playing, that'll tire our players against Carrier Bag.

 

The current crop of young players which Sherwood, Ferdinand & Ramsey have to take most credit for the their development, isn't a sign that we will continue to develop players of the same standard, as for most part, especially at big clubs, you will see a group of young players come through, with the following years resulting in fans discussing "the next great young player", who usually ends up playing in the lower leagues unfortunately.

Dier and Alli where mostly developed elsewhere, and if we decide to buy talented youngsters and give them a chance, that would bring more success. I know Pritchard is highly regarded, he may be the last of the group to make an impact.

Still, predicting which young players will make it, is probably the most difficult prediction to make in football as unless they are a stand out talent, such as a Rooney or an Owen, or King, most don't develop as expected and we will be lucky to produce many more young players capable of helping us move forward.

 

It's a shame Sherwood,Ferdinand and Ramsey are absolute dog shait at their latest projects.

 

"The current crop of young players which Sherwood, Ferdinand & Ramsey have to take most credit for the their
development, isn't a sign that we will continue to develop players of the same standard, as for most part"

People elsewhere are claiming the major current problems in the Academy are admin and
not on-pitch. Issues such as not getting kids out on loan, prospects whose contracts are close
to expiry etc (Spurcat may be able to corroborate this) .

And these matters are allegedly exactly what Timmy excelled at doing.

Ramsey : whether he is meant to be a coach and not a manager, time will tell.
Ferdinand : God knows what his purpose in football is now (apart from being Timmys'
player megaphone during matches) .

 

We've got to give Poch massive amounts of credit for bringing these youngers on. It's all well and good playing them, but to integrate so many of them into the side, in such a short period of time, and have so many of them looking so good at this level, is a fantastic achievement!

Credit where credit's due.

 

In terms of admin snafus, I went into what detail I could glean about the uncertain status of both Vejlkovic and Lesniak a few posts up the page.

In terms of loans, it appears the club wants the players to be guaranteed minutes, rather than have them spend several weeks sitting on a bench on the Championship or League One. The issue there is finding a club, or more precisely a manager, who is willing to do so. For example, the Swindon link from a couple of seasons back gave Pritchard, Mason and even Grant Hall regular football, while Mark Warburton has given Pritchard, Oduwa and Ball chances for the last couple of seasons - but how many other clubs and/or managers would be willing to do likewise?

 

I met Ferdinand briefly when he arrived at one of my previous work places, just looked at the guy and thought "arrogant ****er" which goes against my view of him as a player, as he always struck me as being a gentleman and a decent chap, but after seeing how he acted at QPR, I think my view after meeting him was correct!

But as for the trio, Sherwood, Ramsey and Ferdinand, they did create real belief, while ensuring our young players felt they could develop and progress to the first team, with Sherwood immediately promoting Bentaleb to the first team when appointed supply teacher.

If the issues are admin based, maybe someone in the know can comment, but Pochettino walked into the club at the perfect time in terms of youth players coming through and while I personally had a real dislike for AVB, if AVB walked into the job instead of Pochettino, you could argue he would have done a better job then Pochettino, as Pochettino is benefiting from no pressure to deliver unrealistic expectations due to big signings, he simply has to give youth players a chance, try and play attacking football and keep us 5th/6th minimum, which is a fairly simple task when you look at our recent league finishes.