• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

The Youth Players/On-Loan Thread 2018/19

I'm pretty sure Reo Griffiths signed a new contract with us about 4 weeks ago

Not a contract, just an extension to his scholarship - which doesn't mean a great deal in the grand scheme of things.

How much younger is he than Skipp? I know they're different positions but I was a bit surprised that Griffiths didnt go on the US trip, particularly as Kane was missing

He's older than Skipp by a couple of months, though because Skipp's a September born he's in the club year below Griffiths.
 
I'm really happy with the way the young lads away with the senior team have acquitted themselves so far.

I know that after the Barca game a lot of the plaudits were singing the praises of Skipp and rightly so; he had a good game and didn't look out of place. That however seems to have taken away some of the focus from Luke Amos. I thought he again had a very good game, especially in the second half. He took a while to get going and I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt by saying it was likely nerves.

His first touch was sometimes poor and he didn't have the confidence to try the early switches out to Son and Moura. The second half though, he was a better player. I'm not going to talk about the way he was nipping in to intercept the ball high up the field, but more the way his first touch was setting him up to do more with the ball. The way his runs from deep paid dividends on many occasions should be applauded, they got us moving and he linked up with Eriksen really well. Skipp sat more to facilitate this, although he had more than his fair share of runs forward. The pair of them did really well.

CCV was switched on for most of the game. He was strong at reading the game and getting into the right position, the only blot on his copy book being when he switched off for the first Barca goal.

Georgiou didn't see a great deal of the ball, but he was intelligent with his passing. It's kind of damning of us in a way, that we have GKN on the books when this lad can play with his head up and offer so much more. I'm not going to overdo it here, he wasn't looking like a world beater, but definitely a better option than a player bought in 2 seasons ago.

KWP has had a mixed bag, but I feel for the guy. He needs to play on his preferred side and I wouldn't begrudge him a loan or permanent move away. He's not getting the chances he needs to perform to the best of his ability.
 
That worked out brilliantly for KWP last season didnt it....
Worked out brilliantly for Spurs, which is the main thing isn’t it? Skipp is probably 6th choice CM(?) so if he plays 1 game all season, getting MOTM and we win then I reckon Spurs and he will be happy?

Strange to try and put a negative spin on KWP’s debut last season?
 
That worked out brilliantly for KWP last season didnt it....

Really not sure why KWP signed a new contract, I would not have done unless they sold that fudging donkey Aurier, to be fair if he said that in negotiations he would probably not got a new contract.
 
Hopefully his parents enjoy whatever has been given/paid to them

Ooh cynical! (That’s usually me). Who knows. But if he’s being given a chance at first team football, albeit in a ‘lesser league’, then I can’t really blame him. You have to sieze opportunity in life when it comes along.
Good luck to him.
 
Ooh cynical! (That’s usually me). Who knows. But if he’s being given a chance at first team football, albeit in a ‘lesser league’, then I can’t really blame him. You have to sieze opportunity in life when it comes along.
Good luck to him.

I know. Look, I think its great for young English players to move abroad to develop their football, but mainly if they're not developing at home. If someone is 20-21 and not playing first team football, I think there's a real benefit for them moving abroad, but Griffiths is 18, scored a pile of goals for us at youth levels last season so doesnt sound like he's not been developing. His career hardly seemed to have stalled and I would have though him staying at Spurs this season wasnt an unreasonable expectation - his exclusion from the US tour was a pretty clear indication that we knew he was leaving...without Kane being available, it might have been a good opportunity for him
 
I know. Look, I think its great for young English players to move abroad to develop their football, but mainly if they're not developing at home. If someone is 20-21 and not playing first team football, I think there's a real benefit for them moving abroad, but Griffiths is 18, scored a pile of goals for us at youth levels last season so doesnt sound like he's not been developing. His career hardly seemed to have stalled and I would have though him staying at Spurs this season wasnt an unreasonable expectation - his exclusion from the US tour was a pretty clear indication that we knew he was leaving...without Kane being available, it might have been a good opportunity for him

Yes, I don't disagree. To some extent our youth players are the victims of our success. It's hard to break into a top 4 squad from the youth ranks whereas if we were hovering 7th/8th/9th then there would probably be many more opportunities. That, combined perhaps with an element of impatience to succeed, means we will likely see more youth players choosing to pursue their early careers elsewhere.
 
Would we have been able to insert a buy back clause/sell on fee to the deal or would the fact he was not on pro terms prevent that?
 
I'm in the middle on this. I think he's probably jumped ship too early, as there are no guarantees that he will adapt to living in a foreign country with ease. Maybe the challenge will be good for him, maybe it will be too much. We can see that the level of talent needed to get into the first team at a lot of the French clubs is lower than in the Premier League, so if he carries on developing then he will get senior football sooner than at our club.

I mean no disrespect when saying that. It's just that most of the best senior players in France tend to get cherry picked by the European elite early on. From the French national team starting XI, only M'bappe is at a French club and if PSG didn't have the money to fight off Madrid, we know he'd be in Spain instead.
 
Back