Was Pritchard’s West Brom Loan a Mistake by Tottenham?
Tottenham’s Pritchard hasn’t had much playing time with West Brom while on loan because he’s still recovering from his previous injury. Not because he isn’t talented enough.
Alex Pritchard’s Tottenham career isn’t in jeopardy, but it has started off slowly for the 22-year-old which is surely a slight concern for both parties involved.
Now whether he can get back on track while on loan with West Bromwich Albion for the rest of this season or not remains to be seen. But perhaps it was ill-advised to send the young attacking midfielder on loan to the Baggies to begin with.
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According to the Birmingham Mail, West Brom manager Tony Pulis spoke about Pritchard’s lack of playing time since arriving on loan on the last day of the winter transfer window.
“Alex has come in and has tremendous talent,” Pulis said. “He was injured at Tottenham for a long time so it’s just making sure and I think Tottenham are concerned we don’t push him too quickly too soon.”
“The last thing they want is the kid to get injured again so it’s just about being patient with Alex as much as anything else.”
“He’s trained well, he’s worked well and he’s desperate to be involved. But sometimes you have to hold them back and we have a responsibility to Tottenham for that.”
It’s good to hear that Tony Pulis is making sure that Alex Pritchard is fully healthy before returning to the pitch. But the lingering question now, is whether Tottenham made a good move in allowing Pritchard to leave in the first place.
Because as is, if he wasn’t deemed healthy in the first place by Tony Pulis wouldn’t it have been smarter to have Pritchard train with the rest of Tottenham’s first-team than with West Brom for the rest of the season? Especially since Harry Winks is in the same boat, sans a major injury.
Meaning that Winks, another highly touted youth player in Mauricio Pochettino’s eyes, hasn’t gotten much playing time this season. In fact he’s made just two senior appearances (in the Europa League) when he could have gone out on loan.
For Alex Pritchard, at the time, it seemed like a curious move to loan him to the Baggies for the rest of the season to gain valuable experience. But now that the cat is out of the bag and he’s still not 100 percent fit yet, perhaps it was a mistake instead and something that was lost in translation between both clubs.
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Either Tottenham’s medical staff thought Alex Pritchard was good to go and play while on loan. Or West Brom’s staff is just being even more cautious than need be.
In any event, it’s obvious that Pritchard’s Premier League and Tottenham career hasn’t gotten off to a good start.
And with Dele Alli proving that he’s capable of playing as an attacking midfielder despite his natural position being a central midfielder, the climb to be a good rotation-like player on Pochettino’s bench is looking very slim.
Not to mention that Joshua Onomah is also another player who can play in the number 10 position. Just like Son Heung-Min and of course Christian Eriksen.
It’s good that Tottenham — when healthy and projecting the squad for next season — has a seemingly big bench of players who can play in multiple positions. But the midfield (attacking and central) are very packed. Meaning some people might be left off. Not for a lack of talent but mainly because the ones who are starting are doing good consistently.
Which makes sense, but then you run into the trouble of having guys like Pritchard, Winks and Onomah not getting any playing time.
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There’s a fear that Alex Pritchard could go the Ryan Mason route and go on some more loans before finally cracking into Mauricio Pochettino’s squad. But by then would it already be too late? In one instance, Mason could be deemed a late bloomer. Another way to look at it is that previous managers didn’t give the 24-year-old a chance until Pochettino came in.
For Pritchard’s sake, now that the Baggies have climbed all the way to 11th in the Premier League and there are just nine games remaining in the season, that he recovers in time to play in at least four to six fixtures and get some games under his belt in the Premiership before rejoining Spurs in the summer.