English Clubs must emulate Tottenham and have faith on Youth Academy

When Roy Hodgson announced England squad, there were few names that were new and quite notable.

Harry Kane is not a new name in International Football World at the moment, but an year ago the name was never heard of, except for few sets of English fans following Premier League football. Tottenham’s academy graduate is having a top season along with few others who are walking down the same road. Andros Townsend, Danny Rose, Harry Kane, Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb all came through Spurs’ youth academy. Kyle Walker joined from Sheffield United aged 18 and has been in Spurs’ first team for a long time now.

All these players bar Bentaleb are now included in Hodgson’s squad for upcoming International break. Initially, Harry Kane, Kyle Walker and Andros Townsend were the only ones to be named in the squad but due to injuries to Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana, Spurs duo Danny Rose and Ryan Mason have been called up as well.

Since the appointment of Tim Sherwood as head coach last season, Spurs have had lots of youth talents stepping up. Player like Harry Kane and Nabil Bentaleb were given first team action by him and Milos Velijkovic also played for first team last term. But, the appointment of Mauricio Pochettino has proven to be a great one from an academy perspective as the Argentine has carried on the deeds Sherwood did, and done it even better. Young Players have flourished under his leadership and there are lots of other talents, which are destined for big in Spurs’ academy.

Players bought by Andre Villas Boas after departure of Gareth Bale have hardly made an impact. Christian Eriksen is the only one starring from that group at the moment. Erik Lamela, Paulinho, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches and Roberto Soldado are all struggling for playing time while Nacer Chadli has not been as consitent as he needs to be. With appointment of Paul Mitchell, the former recruitment head of Southampton, we can expect much to come from Spurs and Pochettino.