Tottenham Hotspur youngsters Bryan Gil and Pape Matar Sarr are staying at the club despite speculation linking them with loan moves away this summer. Now, Spurs boss Antonio Conte has spoken about his plans for the pair this season.
Both Gil and Sarr signed for Tottenham last summer before Conte took over at the club. Sarr remained on loan with his previous club FC Metz in the French league last season, while Gil spent the second half of the season on loan at La Liga side Valencia.
The pair returned to North London this summer and were involved in Conte’s pre-season squad. However, it was suspected that both would go out on loan again this year rather than being a part of the first team plans for the new campaign.
Gil was reportedly close to re-joining Valencia for another season (Mundo Deportivo 23/08/22 – as relayed by SportWitness). That move was apparently blocked after Spurs failed to find a replacement (Domingo Ortiz).
Sarr on the other hand was courted by several Italian sides as Spurs looked for a loan move to further his development (Fabrizio Romano). Tottenham then took Sarr off the market after an injury to Rodrigo Bentancur (Gianluca Di Marzio).
With both players ultimately sticking around until at least January, Antonio Conte has now explained how he can utilise the young talents and set out his expectations for the pair during his pre-match press conference (via Football.London).
He said: “We are talking about really good prospects, young players. They have to work like Spence to develop and then to be ready to be Tottenham players for the future.
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“Young players, good prospects but at the same time we need to have players ready to play Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, and Carabao Cup.
“Ready to play with ambition, not only to play and develop during the game because for us the final result is vital. For me, for the club, for the fans, for everybody. The demand is high and for this reason we have to know we have to be ready for this demand.”
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Time will tell, but keeping hold of Sarr and Gil could end up being a bit of a blessing in disguise for Spurs this season. The club definitely did the right thing in blocking moves for the pair, and as Conte says, there’s a lot of games in a lot of competitions, and there’s no reason why they can’t make an impact when given a chance.
It’s important for young players to acclimatise to the English game, and hopefully Sarr and Gil are given the chance to really do that this season now they’re sticking around.
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