LITTLE INIESTA
Harry Winks is out to be Tottenham’s pass master at Wembley and show why his boss calls him...
HARRY Winks was swatting away a pesky fly in the Tennessee heat when, at the point of impact, he cocked his head in surprise. “Not that I know of,” he said, trying to keep a straight face. “I haven’t been told that.”
That was the moment Winks, the 21-year-old midfielder viewed by Tottenham as the next success from their conveyor belt, learned what Mauricio Pochettino calls him in private.
“Little Iniesta” is what he is known as inside Pochettino’s circle. For someone who boasts a low centre of gravity, an eye for a pass and a lust for graft, there can be no higher accolade than being compared to the Barcelona legend.
Winks could scarcely believe his boss calls him that.
“I’d love him to – it’s not a bad title to have,” he said. “I’m not at that level just yet but I like to take different things from different players. Andres Iniesta is certainly the type of player I could look up to and I would like to draw parts of his game into mine.”
Last season was his breakthrough. He played in 33 games and it would have been more if his campaign had not been ended by an ankle injury sustained when careering into a dug-out at Burnley in April.
Winks’s stature at Spurs is such that he has not been categorised by age during this tour of America, one dominated by so much focus on Pochettino’s youngsters.
Still only 21, it feels like Winks has bypassed that group already – even if he has made only three Premier League starts. A Tottenham supporter, he has been at the club since the age of five and some expect an England call to arrive in the next 12 months.
There is a quiet optimism about his progress. Perhaps his carefulness in possession comes from Spanish roots, his grandparents hailing from the rural town of Ronda near Malaga in southern Spain. So the Iniesta tag might well be particularly relevant.
“I’ve got a connection with Spain but I consider myself English and I want to play for England,” he said. “I’m learning Spanish. I’m not very good, no.”
His Spanish skills may be poor, but Winks has certainly shown he is adept at listening to Pochettino.
Winks is seen by the manager as an integral piece of Spurs’ future as they head to Wembley for next season.
Whether it is in Pochettino’s office watching clips or stood outside a t training with the rest, Winks is clearly a disciple of the Argentine.
“Usually he seems to tell the group as a whole what he expects and it’s down to us what we do with that information,” Winks said. “It’s what you dream of as a young academy player in England because opportunities are difficult. That’s well documented because in England it’s tough for young players to get opportunities.
“The manager has proved since coming here that if you work hard, show the right commitment and right mentality, he will give you an opportunity.”
Chances have come, including against Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow in the Champions League, but eyes are now fixed on winning silverware.
“We’ve got world-class players within the squad, people like Harry Kane, Mousa Dembele, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen.
“We feel we’re good enough to win a trophy this year. It’s a great club with ambition and I think we can get to that stage at some point.”
Whether Winks ever scales those heights individually remains to be seen, but Pochettino’s nickname is not a bad indicator of where his career might be headed.