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Tottenham Hotspur Links: Tim Sherwood Likes Managers Who Develops Young Talent

By Alexander Balano

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The latest Tottenham Hotspur Links is here.

Three stories to read today. First, Tim Sherwood has a lot on his mind regarding scouts today and how he wants scouting to return to the old ways — scouting for talent in the lower leagues. And while it’s a very interesting article from start to finish, the main takeaway was Sherwood talking about Tottenham and how they’re currently set up with a transfer blueprint. Which involves developing youth talent first and foremost.

Up next, Spurs Ladies are involved in four cup competitions after advancing into the quarter-finals of the FA Women’s Premier League Cup and are looking to earn some silverware at the end of the season. Lastly, 80 percent of MK Dons’ players’ agent fees that were paid from October 2014 to September 2015 went to Dele Alli’s transfer to Tottenham. Karl Robinson, the Dons’ manager goes in-depth as to why players’ agent fees must be paid. So with that said, it’s time to get to the links.

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“Those are two good managers, Mauricio Pochettino and Roberto Martínez, who are willing to give young and developing players an opportunity. They also recognize that if you have a lot of academy kids coming through or from lower league it opens up the purse strings and you can spend the budget on the one or two outstanding make-the-difference players. You are always better off going for quality rather than quantity.”

Seeing Tottenham give plenty of young and developing players an opportunity has helped Spurs find some very good talented players — a good majority from their own youth academy. This has helped the club not spend much this past summer transfer window with only five signings.

Therefore Tottenham’s transfer blueprint with manager Mauricio Pochettino, chairman Daniel Levy, head of recruitment Paul Mitchell, scout Ian Broomfield and former boss and director of football David Pleat currently aligns with Tim Sherwood’s idea of signing quality players over quantity: Toby Alderweireld, Dele Alli, Son Heung-min are recent examples of quality signings at different positions.

Katie O’Leary’s hat-trick in the 5-2 win at C&K Basildon has propelled Spurs into the quarter-finals of the FA Women’s Premier League Cup. This keeps the team alive in all four cup competitions: Semi-finals of the Ryman Cup, quarter-finals of the London FA Capital Women’s Cup and the FA Women’s Cup which will start in January.

Despite a number of players being out for various reasons: Maya Vio (injured), Kelley Blanchflower (cup-tied), Sophie McLean and Lucia Leon (unavailable), Avilla Bergin (rest), manager Karen Hills was pleased with the squad for stepping up and getting the win against C&K.

“It was great to see Ronnell Humes, a young player from the development squad, come in and do so well and Ri Soobadoo was outstanding in midfield,” said Karen. “The players stepped up and that’s what you want to see. It will certainly make my job more difficult! It was also a superb hat-trick from Katie [O’Leary] and she’s hit it off immediately with Lucy [Loomes], they link-up really well in the forward areas. Lucy makes lots of clever runs and they are on the same wavelength.”

More from Hotspur HQ

Yesterday’s Tottenham Hotspur Links had a story about all 20 Premier League clubs and how much they had to pay for players’ agent fees as well as new players signing. Well this story about MK Dons and Dele Alli is a follow-up.

Since signing Dele Alli during the January transfer window last season for £5 million, this meant that Alli’s transfer accounts for 80 percent of MK Dons’ players’ agent fees. Here’s Milton Keynes Dons manager, Karl Robinson regarding the Dele Alli transfer and agent fees in modern-day football and why they’re considered important.

“Ours are a little bit not-right and I think the Dele deal is about 80 percent of it,” said Robinson. That was part of the deal was that the agent fee came from our side so I believe. When you look at everything around that, we would have had the lowest agent fee by a long way.”

“It’s amazing what agents earn in modern-day football but we need them because they control the players and their job is to get the biggest fee possible. If we want a player we have to pay them and we understand the nature of the industry.”

“People will look at that and that’s where it’s a little bit disjointed because it’s not always about bringing players in it’s about getting rid of players as well. There are so many different permutations on how an agent can work for you.”

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“We’re very up front and straight with how we pay agents and it’s not a matter of whether they’re worth their while – they’re a necessity within the industry. I don’t want anyone to get carried away with our figure because a large proportion of that was purely and simply down to the Dele deal.”