Johan Lange has revealed that Tottenham Hotspur put a lot of work into finding the right environments for their young players to develop out of loan.
While Spurs were one of the busiest clubs in the Premier League in terms of first-team incomings and outgoings in January, there was also quite a lot of activity on the loan front, with several youngsters exiting the clubs on temporary moves.
Apart from loaning out senior players such as Joe Rodon, Tanguy Ndombele, Japhet Tanganga, Sergio Regulion, and Djed Spence over the past 12 months, who were surplus to requirements for Ange Postecoglou, the club also sent out some of their budding academy talent to get competitive minutes under their belt.
Both Alfie Devine and Ashley Phillips are currently getting valuable experience under their belt in the Championship for Port Vale while midfielder Mathew Craig and goalkeeper Josh Keeley have been sent to Doncaster Rovers and Barnett respectively.
Additionally, Troy Parrott has excelled since joining Excelsior Rotterdam last summer while Alejo Veliz is hoping to impress in La Liga after completing a January switch to Sevilla.
Lange puts a lot of effort into getting Spurs loans right
Lange has now stressed the important roles that loan moves can play in getting players ready for the Tottenham first-team, stating that the club are delighted with the deals that they did.
When asked about the decision that was made on the aforementioned academy youngsters, the Spurs technical director told the club’s official channel: “I think when you are a young player and if you’re playing in the academy or at Under-21’s level, the step to the Premier League is especially at the top end of the Premier League is a massive step for them so going out on loan is a very important step for most young players.
“For us as a club, it is definitely something we have tried in this January window here to see how we can map out good clubs, good environments for our young players to keep progressing, keep developing, playing regular football at a good level.
“I’m very pleased that after this January window has shut we have three players now playing regularly in the Championship which we know is a league that every year develops players who make the transition into the Premier League. I think that is a positive step and hopefully something we will see even more of in the future.”
Lange revealed that the club have big hopes for some of the players who are out on loan and insisted that they will be keeping a close eye on how these youngsters get on.
The Dane added: “We want to see young players that grow and come into the team, come into the stadium and that’s part of it. I think that is something all of us working here, we believe in young players and we believe in giving young players the opportunity and to see them grow in a different environment which is rewarding for everyone at the club.
“We are monitoring them every week when we are building the infrastructure it is so important that they are monitored on a weekly basis with us going to live games and receiving all of the information, training data and game data each week. They are not here physically at the moment but they are very much part of the club and in our minds when we work every day.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Given the amount of top young talent currently in Tottenham’s Under-21s and Under-18s system, the club will have to continue to send a whole host of young players to EFL clubs over the next couple of years in order to give them the best chance of breaking into the Spurs first-team.