Pochettino Is Continuing to Nurture Youth as Tottenham Hotspur Thrash Gillingham

WHITE HART LANE, London — The moment had been coming for some time, now he had to take it. The young Tottenham Hotspur player received the ball in midfield, looked up and fired home past the despairing opposition goalkeeper.

Ryan Mason’s goal in the 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest in September 2014 was shown on the big screens prior to Tottenham’s latest EFL Cup victory, a 5-0 thrashing of League One outfit Gillingham. That same night had also seen Harry Kane score, another of the north London club’s youngsters signalling their intent to force their way into boss Mauricio Pochettino’s thinking.

Just shy of two years on, Kane was out injured and Mason scoring at Stoke City for his new club Hull City (a technically impressive volley rather than a long-range blast this time). But once again Pochettino was at work with another batch of young prospects—primarily academy-raised—hoping to follow in the footsteps of the aforementioned two.

Cameron Carter-Vickers made his senior debut at centre-back paired with the returning Kevin Wimmer. Enjoying his first start in central midfield ahead of him and alongside youth-team predecessor Tom Carroll was Harry Winks, while a little further forward was Josh Onomah, who scored his first goal for the club to make it 4-0 on the night.

They were joined in the second half by a trio of debutants: much-hyped attacker Marcus Edwards, the versatile Anton Walkes and £9 million winger Georges-Kevin Nkoudou.

Our three debutants after a night they will never forget… #COYS pic.twitter.com/Hl8rNB00s1

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 21, 2016

“I am very happy, because if you see the performance of Cameron Carter-Vickers or Harry Winks or Josh Onomah they were fantastic,” Pochettino told his post-match press conference, also highlighting their confidence. “And then Marcus Edwards, Anton Walkes, Tom Carroll, I think that they showed (coming through the academy) they have the quality to impress us and can play for the first team.”

Gillingham boss and former Spurs star Justin Edinburgh was similarly impressed.

“They’ve got some really exciting young players there, they looked very comfortable,” he said, disappointed his team had not been able to deal with them more. “I thought the young lad Carter-Vickers looked assured at the back, and Winks there and Carroll, it looks like they’re full of talent and obviously the future’s bright here at Spurs.”

It is testament to the job Pochettino has done with the likes of Kane and Mason that he has licence to continue blooding these youngsters.

The Argentinian has not just paid lip service to giving homegrown talent opportunities, he has made practical use of them—realising their value supplementing and covering for more experienced options. It also has the benefit of being able to shape their football thinking before less compatible ideas become too ingrained.

That Pochettino wants to nurture these players is also crucially a result of an academy pipeline continuing to produce worthwhile prospects.

Former under-18s coach Kieran McKenna recently left Tottenham to take up the same job at Manchester United. In an interview following his appointment, he detailed what is so special about the current setup at his former club, per Adam Marshall of the Red Devils’ official website:

I think there is a way of doing things in youth development and Tottenham and United have very similar views on that. There is an importance placed on developing the individual and generating outstanding individuals who can play in the first team as a main priority. Also it’s a case of developing good people to go on and be successful at lower levels of football or in other walks of life. I think both clubs have got really similar underlying principles so there are also similar ways of playing and doing things.

Some players, like Mason, have …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com