Tottenham Fielded Youngest Team Throughout BPL Season

Many times throughout the 2015-16 Premier League season, Tottenham Hotspur fielded the youngest starting XI based on average age compared to the remaining 19 clubs in the top flight division.

The Premier League’s official site published an article which detailed the youngest starting XI by average age, and not surprisingly, Tottenham was number one. While there are no rewards for choosing the youngest side to play in every fixture, it shows that Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t put too much stock in age or experience.

To further back this notion that Pochettino will give his players a chance to prove themselves regardless of how young they are or even if they don’t have Premier League experience, Spurs’ vice-captain, Jan Vertonghen, made a bold claim that “experience might be overrated” (via London Evening Standard).

“Sometimes I think experience might be overrated,” Vertonghen told Tottenham’s official site prior to hosting West Bromwich Albion on April 25th.

“If you see the way this team plays, we’re just enjoying so much playing together.”

When looking back at this past season, despite slipping up and going on a four game winless streak to end a successful campaign, Tottenham still managed to finish third, secure automatic qualification into the Champions and be title contenders.

All of this was possible due to Mauricio Pochettino who was able to get the absolute best from his team even though they were “young” or “inexperienced”.

STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND – APRIL 18: Dele Alli of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with his team-mates after scoring a goal to make it 0-4 during the Barclays Premier League match between Stoke City and Tottenham Hotspur at Britannia Stadium on April 18, 2016 in Stoke on Trent, England (Photo by James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images) /

But honestly speaking, looking at Pochettino’s squad, the average starting age is what has been considered young.

In actuality though, Tottenham’s 22-man squad, when sorted out into four different age categories, has a majority of the players’ sit between the ages of 21-25.

That’s still more or less “young” but, really, it isn’t.

More from Hotspur HQ

Players under the age of 20: (2)

Dele Alli (20), Josh Onomah (19)

Players under the age of 23: (8)

Nabil Bentaleb (21), Tom Carroll (23), Ben Davies (23), Eric Dier (22), Harry Kane (22), Clinton N’Jie (22), Son Heung-Min (23), Kevin Wimmer (23)

Players under the age of 25: (6)

Christian Eriksen (24), Érik Lamela (24), Ryan Mason (24), Danny Rose (25), Kieran Trippier (25), Kyle Walker (25)

Players over the age of 25: (6)

Toby Alderwiereld (27), Nacer Chadli (26), Mousa Dembélé (28), Hugo Lloris (29), Jan Vertonghen (29), Michel Vorm (32)

Fourteen out of the 22 players on Mauricio Pochettino’s squad are between the ages of 21-25, which is already over half. Now does any of this actually mean anything? No, not really. It’s just a bit informative is all. And interesting too.

It just means that Tottenham’s average age in their starting XI during the Premiership this season is 24 years and 328 days according to the Premier League’s official site (link above) and that Spurs were the only side to feature a team under the age of 25.

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All of that being said, while it might seem rather pointless to talk about Tottenham as being one of, if not, the only youngest Premier League side this season, it means that age and experience didn’t stop Spurs from taking the top flight division by storm.

Some unfortunate circumstances involving Dele Alli and Mousa Dembélé receiving suspensions helped doom Mauricio Pochettino’s side from finishing second. But other than those two incidents and losing 20 points from a winning position, the Lilywhites could have been crowned champions.

Next season, this same team will return, barring any drastic changes, and Tottenham could expect higher expectations and challenging for the Premier League title again as well as finish inside the top four so they return to the Champions League.

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