Tottenham Hotspur Links: Tottenham Showing Patience with Alex Pritchard
It’s time for another Tottenham Hotspur Links
On today’s edition of Tottenham Hotspur Links, there are three topics to discuss and they touch on Spurs’ youth academy, Harry Kane and Gareth Bale. The first story is about Tottenham’s assistant head of development ages 11-16, Justine Cochrane, and how Spurs have shown great patience with youth players and helping them develop, while stressing how to handle teenagers’ maturation process.
Next up, former Spurs midfielder from 2006-07, Danny Murphy, says that Harry Kane won’t leave Tottenham, ever. And that Spurs should never sell their star striker. What’s the point of bringing up a player who’s Tottenham through and through and then sell him for money? Lastly, Gareth Bale has stated that, as of this moment in his Real Madrid career, he’s not having the same kind of impact that he did with Tottenham before he left — he’s not the same player. Time to get to the links.
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The 22-year-old has only been able to make one appearance for Tottenham this season in the Premier League. A five minute substitution against Everton back on August 29th. On September 6th, according to Pritchard’s PhysioRoom page, the attacking midfielder re-injured a previous ankle injury he suffered during the Under-21 European Championships in June (or as Transfermarkt puts it, a malleolar injury) and has since been out for three months now (December 7th).
However, Justin Cochrane, Tottenham’s assistant head of development for ages 11 through 16 says Tottenham have shown great patience when it comes to developing their youth players from Ryan Mason, Harry Kane, Tom Carroll and now Alex Pritchard. The reason being, it has everything to do with understanding how a teenager deals with the maturation process of growing up.
"“Nobody has a crystal ball, but John McDermott [Spurs’ Head of player development ] has had a lot of experience dealing with late maturing players and has helped to educate all the coaches here not just to look at now,” Cochrane said.“Right now, it might be difficult for some of the late maturing players but in four or five years time, it will work to their advantage.”"
- Former Spurs midfielder, Danny Murphy, doesn’t expect Harry Kane to leave
- [via Enfield Independent]
Every Tottenham supporter has stated the same reason why Harry Kane won’t leave Spurs for any club — he’s Tottenham through and through. There’s no reason why moving to Manchester United, right now, would be a better move than staying with Tottenham. Besides, both clubs are separated by three points only.
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Here’s Danny Murphy speaking on talkSPORT about what makes Harry Kane a player that should never be sold and why he won’t leave in the first place:
“I don’t think Harry Kane will be going anywhere ever. If Spurs keep progressing, he could be the player they build the team around. They could break the wage structure for him.”
“If they sell Harry Kane in the next couple of years, could you imagine the uproar? He’s one of their own, and Tottenham have not sold a player like him. Dimitar Berbatov was there for a couple of seasons and was gone and Michael Carrick was a Geordie.
“But Kane was brought up as a Tottenham boy, brought through the academy, he supports the club, is a prolific goalscorer and has every attribute to be an England striker of the future. If they sell him, they might as well give up. What’s the point if you can’t keep Harry Kane?”
- Gareth Bale says he’s not the same since leaving Tottenham
- [via London Evening Standard]
Since transferring to Real Madrid during the summer of 2013, Gareth Bale hasn’t had the same success that he enjoyed while playing in his final seasons with Tottenham.
One reason could be a positional switch for Bale, from left wing to right wing in Real Madrid’s 4-3-3 so that Cristiano Ronaldo can stay on the left side. Another reason has to do with the differences between La Liga and the Premier League.
But something that may or may not have been talked about more enough, is playing on a team with Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo is one of the world’s best footballers on the team, he’s a team player in a sense that he wants to win games. But, if he’s open he wants the ball to score, always. Meaning he wants to do everything.
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When Gareth Bale was moved from left-back to left midfielder during Harry Redknapp’s tenure, Bale was the guy that helped take Tottenham to great heights. With Real Madrid’s offense running through Ronaldo instead, it’s different.
If someone gets the ball, Ronaldo will want the ball nine times out of 10. It’s how great goalscorers play which isn’t new or surprising. But on a club with many Galácticos it’s hard to feed so many players that want to score. It’s not an exact science but when people compare Cristiano Ronaldo to Lionel Messi one thing that separates the former from the latter is teamwork and being a team player.