Johan Lange has explained that all the youth sides at Tottenham Hotspur now play a similar brand of football to the first-team, with the club making a concerted effort to ensure there is one identity throughout Hotspur Way.
There was perhaps a slight feeling until a little while ago that Spurs’ academy was a little neglected, with the club’s former managing director Fabio Paratici very much being focussed on recruitment for the first-team.
That has seemingly changed since Scott Munn‘s arrival as the club’s chief football officer, with reports indicating that one of the Australian’s primary objectives when he arrived was to build s strong academy set-up (The Athletic).
There is now a lot of excitement at Spurs about the kind of youngsters coming through the system, with the Under-21 side as well as the Under-18 side boasting some extremely talented players.
Their transition from the academy set-up to the first-team will perhaps be easier than it was previously since the style of football is now the same across the sides with Ange Postecoglou having a clear plan of his he expects his team to play.
Can Tottenham’s academy produce more first-team players in future?
Lange praised academy director Simon Davies for overseeing that change and revealed that Tottenham plan on continuing to invest heavily into their academy over the coming years.
Spurs’ technical director said in an interview with the club’s official channel: “The academy director Simon Davies has done a great job but I also think Simon will be the first to admit as well that we still have a long way to go.
“It has been good to see that the overall identity, the mindset of how we play at first team level is definitely now implemented as well throughout the different age groups.
“The development of our academy is again part of a club-wide strategy and something that we will invest in further in the years to come and we’re all looking together to grow the academy to the next level over the coming years.”
Spurs Web Opinion
For Tottenham to be able to compete with the best sides in the Premier League and Europe for a sustained period, we need to be able to produce and polish top young players.
In Postecoglou, we now have a head coach who is more than willing to trust young talent, which is why it makes a lot of sense for the club to pump resources into their academy set-up.