POCHETTINO HAILS KIDS IN THE FERGIE FASHION
MAURICIO POCHETTINO says the Young Player of the Year award coming to Tottenham so often is proof he is emulating Sir Alex Ferguson. But the manager is convinced Dele Alli should be in the running to land the main award and not just retain the junior crown. Young Spurs stars have been voted the best by their peers in four of the last five seasons – Kyle Walker in 2012, Gareth Bale in 2013, Harry Kane in 2014 and Alli, left, last year.
That reminds Pochettino of the times Manchester United starlets regularly used to win the award under Ferguson.
Pochettino said: “It is a big pressure to win when you are a big club. But for me, the best example in football in many years was Manchester United with Sir Alex Ferguson and what he created with young talent from the academy or from England, which created the core of a team that won everything.
“It is true it is sometimes easier to look outside your country. One of our challenges in the last four years was to show the English people that the talent exists here.
“I think Tottenham are showing if you believe and work and spend time, that they have the same talent as in Argentina, Spain and Brazil. It is all about belief.”
Kane has been nominated for both awards and is up against Chelsea duo Eden
Hazard and N’Golo Kante, Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal and Everton’s Romelu Lukaku in the main one.
Alli is the Premier League’s most prolific goalscoring midfielder this term, with 19 in all competitions so far, plus one for England, and Pochettino believes he also deserves a double nomination.
“Dele is showing great performances every week, in every game,” he said. “He has improved a lot from last season. I think he’s a better player, he’s showing better stats and in my opinion yes, he deserves a nomination.
“People always want to see in the second season if a player can confirm all that he showed last season – and not only did Dele confirm that, he’s improved in all aspects of his game.” Alli is joined on the young player shortlist by Kane, Lukaku, Burnley’s Michael Keane, Sunderland keeper Jordan Pickford and Leroy Sane of Manchester City.
Centre- back Keane, 24, left, won his first England cap last month, and he said: “It has been a magnificent team effort from us this year but to get recognised individually as well is always nice.
“The bigger picture is I couldn’t have done it without my team-mates and how the team has performed, so it’s all down to them.
“I’ve achieved a few things I wanted to do this year and it’s gone really well for me.
“But if we fail to stay in the league then it won’t be worth anything, so hopefully we manage to do that sooner rather than later.”