It’s academic as Spurs reap rewards of youth policy
FOR years, West Ham have been famously known as the Academy of Football, renowned for producing great talents — but in future Tottenham could be hailed as the new production line.
Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick and Joe Cole are just a few of the household names who have come through the ranks at Upton Park. But the Hammers were forced to sell them all and have struggled to keep the same standard of players progressing into the first-team. In stark contrast and just a few miles down the road, their London rivals and today’s opponents Tottenham are now reaping the rewards of a successful youth set-up.
Former manager Tim Sherwood should be given a lot of credit for the way he managed the Development phase, but the internal structure has allowed the likes of Harry Kane, Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb to become a key part of the first-team this season. Kane in particular has been one of the star performers in the Premier League this season scoring 23 goals and is expected to make his breakthrough into the England squad next month.
Mauricio Pochettino is no stranger to bringing through the best home-grown talent following the superb job he did at Southampton and sees no reason why Tottenham cannot go one stage further and produce a team full of English players in years to come. Pochettino said: “This is possible in the future. If they have the quality and deserve to play then why not?
‘Our philosophy is to give young talent the opportunity. To have a lot of players from the academy is good.
‘We have more players who may have the opportunity to play in the first team.’
Another player to have come through the ranks at Tottenham is Andros Townsend. The England winger says they are inspired by the Class of ’92 at Manchester United which saw the likes of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and the Neville brothers all in the same team.
Townsend said: ‘Of course it’s a great inspiration but those players went on to become the greatest players in the country. They’re a great inspiration for us but there are no comparisons.
‘It’s great to be playing with players you grew up with and you played with in the youth teams.’