Tottenham send another young prodigy to the England national team

Tottenham’s habit of producing fresh new talent for the England national team continued on Monday with the announcement that Harry Winks will join Gareth Southgate’s side for the coming international break.

Winks will join Tottenham teammates Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier and Kieran Trippier in Southgate’s squad as they take on Slovenia and Lithuania in the final two matches in Group F.

A win in either match will ensure England’s qualification for next summer’s World Cup in Russia, as would a draw so long as fellow Group F competitors Slovakia failed to win themselves.

In fairness, Winks wasn’t Southgate’s first choice here. The 21-year-old midfielder was only added to the squad after Manchester United’s Phil Jones and Manchester City’s Fabian Delph dropped out due to injury.

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Still, that he was selected over more experienced options like Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse suggests that Southgate sees the same potential that Mauricio Pochettino clearly sees himself.

Though he has a reputation for favoring youth, Pochettino has really only granted regular time to a relative few youngsters. Alli is obviously the standout of that group, but Winks began to make a reputation for himself last season after Pochettino began to include him in matchday squads and regularly deploy him as a substitute or in rotation.

The Academy graduate earned his first Premier League and Champions League starts in 2016/17, and even scored his first goal in a wild 3-2 win over West Ham at White Hart Lane.

An ankle injury in April ruled Winks out for the season, and even after he recovered over the summer it was clear that Pochettino was reluctant to rush him back into action. He went unused as a substitute in the opening weeks of the season.

That is until last week’s Champions League match against APOEL. Winks earned his first start of the season as Mousa Dembélé continued to struggle with injury.

His performance in that 3-0 win was fine enough for Pochettino to once again entrust him with a portion of the responsibility in central midfield. He played the full 90 minutes in Saturday’s 4-0 win away to Huddersfield in the Premier League.

Southgate clearly had those two performances in mind when he turned to Winks following news of Jones and Delph’s departures.

Winks is the fourth Tottenham player to earn an England call-up since Pochettino took over in 2014. Kyle Walker and Danny Rose previously made their debuts for the Three Lions, but became crucial components of the squad thanks in part to Pochettino’s influence.

Indeed, under Pochettino Tottenham have become the primary feeder club for England. Current and former Pochettino scions will play in startings roles in defense, midfield and attack in this international break.

In all honesty though, Winks isn’t guaranteed to get his first cap. There are several more experienced England players ahead of him in the depth chart, though his chances are slightly improved by Alli’s one match suspension for a supposedly offensive gesture he used in the match against Slovenia in September.

Next: Tottenham Twitter Tuesday

Cap or no cap, a call up to England is a great honor for a player that is slated to become Tottenham’s next big thing — provided his can get the playing time.