From Jim's chair
My lesson this week from the fall out around our approach to selling academy players was that following initial frustration, a realisation this may well be the only cure to take us forward.
My lesson this week after looking at the fall out around our approach to selling academy players was that, after initial frustration, I realized this may well be the only cure to take us forward.
The track record of De Zerbi and helping young players hit their potential is incredible. He turned Mudryk into the player that had Chelsea buy him, turned Locatelli from a cast-off to a superstar, and built more young players at Brighton than any other manager. It looks like he has selected Williams-Barnett as his next project at Spurs!
Perhaps it was necessary to clear out some of our older youth players to pave the way for our group of 16- to 18-year-olds in the academy.
COYS #OhSo33,
– Jim
Pre-Season Matches, Official Signings, & Sold Players
Spurs have played their first bit of football all together as a group for the first time since May 24th. Wow. It’s been that long already? But honestly, it’s kind of shocking that we’ve already begun pre-season. I mean, the World Cup has come and gone, we’ve signed multiple players and have settled the team for our pre-season tour. Has it really been two(ish) months?
Well, in any case, I’m grateful Spurs had football again. It’s nice to see our team, even if it’s a little rough 1-0 win over MK Dons. Honestly, how terrible was SPURSPLAY when live streaming that game? Goodness gracious, talk about “have a free SPURSPLAY membership on us” and then not even show us the game. Fantastic.
Actually though, on a real one, it was really nice to see the new players within the team. Specifically Tonali and Fernandes. Fernandes’ third minute volley from the corner was something beautiful. Yes yes I know, it was just a pre-season goal and in a practice match nonetheless but c’mon, let’s appreciate it for what it is. It was also nice to see the academy players + Richarlison in the second half. I know that we wanted to see the rest of the team but it’s good to see the future in action. I’m super encouraged by Mikey Moore – he might need another loan but at Championship club this season, and Luca Williams-Barnett. My word, we have something terrifying on our hands. If we cannot integrate these two players into our first team Spurs genuinely might have blood on their hands.
We also sold off Will Lankshear to Middlesborough. Personally, I really liked him on the team. He was fun, and was touted to become the next Harry Kane at the club. I also loved how much he ate up shit-housery. The guy basked in it against Galatasaray (even though we lost). Still, it mattered in the end, right? We won a trophy. All the best, Will.
Spurs officially signed Andy Robertson and Jan Paul van Hecke with announcement posts. Robertson got the number 3 while Van Hecke got number 6. Robbo also had a touching video paying homage to Ledley King as the number 26 hasn’t been used since Ledley King wore it. Cute of him to care enough to pick a different number! New era, new Robbo, am I right? Haha.
Pedro Porro (who was the highest rated defender in the entire World Cup) made it in the Dream Team XI for the World Cup. Congrats Pedro! So well deserved.
Finally, the squad list for the New Zealand and Australia pre-season tour has dropped. The first team players going are:
Forwards
Richarlison
Dane Scarlett
Dominic Solanke
Manor Solomon
Mathys Tel
Yang Min-Hyeok
Mikey Moore
Midfielders
Lucas Bergvall
Mateus Fernandes
Conor Gallagher
Archie Gray
James Maddison
Sandro Tonali
Defenders
Kevin Danso
Ben Davies
Andy Roberston
Kota Takai
Destiny Udogie
Micky van de Ven
Jan Paul van Hecke
Goalkeepers
Brandon Austin
Martin Dubravka
Antonin Kinsky
The academy players called up are:
Jaime Donley
Damola Ajayi
Harry Byrne
Tye Hall
Tyrese Hall
Malachi Hardy
Rio Kyerematen
Mason Melia
Reiss Russell-Denny
Tyler Tingy
Dylan Thompson
Luca Williams-Barnett
First team players like Cristian Romero, Marcos Senesi, Pedro Porro, and Djed Spence are still on vacation after the World Cup. Notable first team players Gugliemo Vicario, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Pape Sarr have not been called up.
Finally, there is a small documentary on Xavi Simons available on SPURSPLAY.
Phew. See you next week!
The Analyst – Enya
There is no written Analyst section this week but Jim has dropped a video with Enya you can watch.
Where Does the Spurs Squad Rank in the Premier League?
Watch here.