Noni Madueke has revealed that although Tottenham offered him a scholarship, he decided to leave the North London club as he was not convinced he would get first-team opportunities in N17.
Spurs have lost several of their promising academy graduates over the last few years including Marcus Edwards, Kyle Walker-Peters and Dilan Markanday, who all left in search of first-team football.
Madueke was perhaps among the Lilywhites’ biggest losses when he left in 2018 to join PSV Eindhoven as many of the Spurs academy coaches expected big things from the youngster.
The winger did not take long to demonstrate in the Eredivisie just why he was so highly rated at Spurs, with his impressive displays at PSV earning him a £29m switch to Chelsea during the January transfer window.
The 20-year-old has only made three appearances for Graham Potter’s men since his switch to Stamford Bridge and was an unused substitute in Tottenham’s 2-0 win over their London rivals on Sunday.
Ahead of the game, Madueke explained the reasons behind why he quit Spurs at such a young age.
The winger told Sky Sports: “Tottenham was a great academy and they’ve got a great development plan.
“I’d been offered a scholarship agreement at Tottenham but I’d seen a lot of the boys – that were good as well – just kind of get lost in the system and I just didn’t want that for me.
“Going to PSV is not going to harm my development at all and if I’m good enough, I’m going to play quick in the first team, so that was really my mindset.
“I’m thinking ‘if I jump the queue, I’ll just be better than all my peers because whilst they’re playing Under-18’s and Under-21’s, I’ll be playing against men.”
Spurs Web Opinion
An increasing number of young English players are now taking the step of moving to leagues like the Eredivisie and the Bundesliga at a young age as they realise that breaking into Premier League teams can be quite difficult.
Tottenham are not alone in facing this problem, with a number of top Premier League clubs being in the same boat.
It is up to these clubs to convince the best young talent in their academies that there is a legitimate pathway to the first team.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
