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Dilan Markanday

It’s rarely about preference and always about who gets approached or scouted and when
I know a few young lads on pro books and none are at the club they support
Most have taken the frost decent club that’s come along as you don’t know if anyone else will offer you terms

For most youth players, I agree. For the best in their age groups, though? They always have options. Saka, as I mentioned, had four offers to choose from. I think Mount had three - Chelsea, Spam and Arse. Hudson Odoi had three - Chelsea, Arse and Palace, iirc.

For the majority of players, our academy works about as well, if not better, than most. I would say we have as much of an issue as other academies in terms of supporting the young lads who don't make it, but apart from that, we do well enough.

But we seem to miss out on the best talent (or the most well-rounded talent) quite a bit, which while understandable for 2010 Spurs, isn't really the best place to be for 2022 Spurs.
 
For most youth players, I agree. For the best in their age groups, though? They always have options. Saka, as I mentioned, had four offers to choose from. I think Mount had three - Chelsea, Spam and Arse. Hudson Odoi had three - Chelsea, Arse and Palace, iirc.

For the majority of players, our academy works about as well, if not better, than most. I would say we have as much of an issue as other academies in terms of supporting the young lads who don't make it, but apart from that, we do well enough.

But we seem to miss out on the best talent (or the most well-rounded talent) quite a bit, which while understandable for 2010 Spurs, isn't really the best place to be for 2022 Spurs.
No idea how you or i would know what offers they have
Most are signed up at the ages of 7 or 8
 
No idea how you or i would know what offers they have
Most are signed up at the ages of 7 or 8

You mean the offers I mentioned? Mostly because they mention it themselves in interviews, etc. Saka, Hudson-Odoi and Mount have mentioned the offers they and their families received, and if I did a bit of digging, I'm fairly confident I could find others as well.

And for the other bit about our strategy choosing players, there were a few articles down the years about our academy approach under McDermott - not really a secret that we adopted that approach.
 
Erm... that list is like, 5+ years ago of tranfers which surely reinforces the point? We've failed to bring in fees for decent youth prospects for last 5 years whereas our rivals have.

But you have to remember where we were between 2016-19. Building a stadium, no real budget and reliant on what the manager could make work. So many players were kept in the hope they’d bloom. The ones that didn’t got sold on. Let’s not forget Townshend in that mix Tricky put forward…
 
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